Japan Press Weekly

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2010 August 18 - 24 TOP3 [WELFARE]

Why do so many Japanese feel uneasy?

A survey result issued by the Cabinet Office on August 7 shows that 70 percent of people want the government to improve social welfare services. In a Yomiuri Shimbun survey published on June 23, 83 percent of respondents worry about job security and the future for themselves and their family members, and 51 percent call for a decrease in financial burdens imposed by medical and nursing-care services.

According to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) survey, the Japanese government expenditure on social welfare and social security as a percentage of Japan’s gross domestic product (GDP) is ranked 20th out of OECD’s 30 member states.

Despite its economic size, the Japanese government’s spending on social security services is abysmal. What is the reason for that?

Since 1980s, successive Japanese governments, mainly led by the Liberal Democratic Party, were reluctant to improve social welfare services because they took the position of the “beneficiary-pays” principle which forces people to pay a certain amount of the costs for services they used.

Pushing this policy, the former Koizumi government, under its “structural reform” policies, opened the way for the business sector to enter into social welfare services. The business circles, in order to cut companies’ expenditures on social security, urged the government to do so.

Until 1983, those who were covered by health insurance could receive free medical services. The elderly aged 70 and over could also receive the same service until 1981. However, at present, patients’ payment for medical treatment amounts to 30 percent of their hospital bills.

The beneficiary-pays principle in social welfare services threatens people’s lives.

74 percent of people say that their concern is that they and their family members cannot receive adequate medical services when needed, according to a survey conducted by the Healthy Policy Institute, Japan, an independent, non-profit, and non-partisan private think-tank.

The government must guarantee all citizens wholesome and cultured living. To secure enough budgets for this purpose is the government’s responsibility under the Japanese Constitution.
- Akahata, August 24, 2010