Japan Social Security Research

With the steady deepening of economic system reform in China, especially with the goal of establishing a comprehensive harmonious society, security has become a focus of the society; the related system construction and research has gradually drawn the attention of the academic fields both at home and abroad. Japan, the neighbor just across a strip of water of China has undergone economic recovery (1945 - 1955), high economic growth, (1955 - 1972), low economic growth (1973 - 1989), long term economic stagnation (1990 - 2001) and slow economic growth (after 2002). At the same time, Japanese social security system, an important social system to promote the national economic growth, has also undergone the different historical periods of establishment, development, change, and reform. Japan is not only a country with its unique characteristics in social security system, but also an Asian country which has a lot of historical and cultural traditions in common with China. To study the Japanese social security arrangement, basic principles, system modes, security concept, problems and the measures to reform, and to draw the lessons from that will contribute and inspire directly to the establishment and perfection of Chinese social security system.Based on the above mentioned practical and academic goals, the paper is guided by Marxist historical and dialectical materialism, using economic analysis and case study analysis, together with the knowledge in social science, economics, law and statistics. In addition, the related scholars and the results of relevant academic institutions also provide abundant materials and inspirations for this paper.In Japan the concept Social Security is widely practiced. It has experienced a historical period of over 100 years from initiation, establishment, development, frustration, and reform. The paper takes the Japanese social security system after World War II as the subject of study. Through revealing the establishment of modern Japanese social security system and its whole process of change and reform, investigating the characteristics of different stages, the running conditions, effects and influence and problems, with the economic effects and case study, based on the summarization of its lessons and the future development, paper concludes that Japanese social security is successful on the whole. The paper also summarizes the regular patterns of social security development.The structures of the paper are as follows:Chapter One discusses the formation and development of the world social security system, relating the basic contents and the main system formats, expounding the social security level and fund raising methods and exploring the challenges and reforms facing countries all over the world.Chapter Two discusses the basic theories of social security system, briefly introducing the present situation of studies on Japanese social security studies all over the world.Chapter Three discusses in general the situation of Japanese social security system, systematically introduces the present system, the format, the level of social security and comparison with other countries around the world.Chapter Four deals with Japanese social insurance, discussing in details the establishment and development of Japanese medical insurance, pension insurance, unemployment insurance, working calamity compensation insurance and nursing insurance and their present day contents, running status and characteristics.Chapter Five first discusses the historical development content and the running status of social relief. Then it deals with the establishment and development of Japanese social welfare, as well as the present status of welfare for children and the old.Chapter Six establishes the model of overlapping life circle, through the simulation calculation of values, gives a quantitative analysis of Japanese social security system effects, exploring the economic effects of the reform of Japanese social security.Chapter Seven focuses on medical insurance, pension insurance and nursing insurance, discussing the problems and the reforming process of Japanese social security system. Based on this it further analyzes the new topic of Japanese social security system and the trend for later development.Chapter Eight is the summary and theoretical conclusion of the whole paper. It first generalizes the basic characteristics of Japanese social security system, concluding that Japanese social security system is successful on the whole, at the same time, analyzing the main reasons for its success. At last, based on the lessons from Japanese social security development, it draws a regular pattern of social security development.At present, the academic world at home are enthusiastically studying and exploring social security systems in Japan and other countries. And they have achieved some valuable results. These results greatly enlarge our vision, deepen our understanding, and provide us with valuable inspiration for establishing and perfecting our national social security system. But on the whole, there are some shortcomings in the field of study of social security system. These are: (1) over-emphasis on static state of the present system structure, running situation and level of social security, lacking the development study of social, political, historical, and cultural factors; (2) the over-simplex research angle and methods, neglecting the influence and comprehensive effects of multifactor on social security system;(3) over-emphasis on qualitative analysis, lacking quantitative case study analysis.Facing the above mentioned problems, the paper first tries to be creative in the methods of research: First, try to make a clear historical development study. The study of formation and development of any social security cannot be done by ignoring its history. The purpose of the study of history is to see through the surface phenomenon and establish the inner rules and logic of this subject, so as to establish the foundation for further research on related systems. Second, using the comprehensive knowledge of interrelated subjects, this paper analyzes the economic, political, social, cultural, and traditional and moral factors influencing the formation and running of social security system. Third, the paper makes use of both qualitative and quantitative analysis. The paper not only uses qualitative analysis to describe the nature and regular pattern of Japanese social security, but also makes a quantitative analysis of Japanese social security reform through the establishment of the model of overlapping life circle, showing the running situation of Japanese social security system, revealing comprehensively its present problems and the future trendBased on the creativeness of research, through the evaluation theoretical reflection of Japanese social security system, the paper proposes the following three creative points of view:First, the paper gives a positive evaluation that on the whole, Japanese social security system is successful and gives the main reasons. For many years, many scholars around the world, including those from Japan, have insisted that "the Japanese social security system is relatively left behind", criticizing different kinds of abuses of Japanese society. This paper argues that this kind of evaluation is partial and it is good to learn the lessons from Japanese social security system. Compared with European and American societies, Japanese social security system started later, but developed faster. It not only functions as the social security, but also solved many social problems, achieving the harmony of society. What is more, as the later capitalist country in the world, before the economic development reached a certain level, Japan got the whole social security. So this paper argues that Japanese social security has reached its goal, ensured the basic life needs of Japanese people, functioned as the "social safety net", "stabilizer" and economic "regulator". It has solved social problems, realized social harmony, promoted economic and social development. It has been successful on the whole. As for the reasons of its success, the paper categorizes into seven factors: economic growth; the democratic reform and workers movement after World War II; the development of democratic movement; the pressure from political struggles between parties and the needs for diet elections; the influence from Western European welfare countries; the influence of socialist countries; the dominant role of Japanese government; and the influence of unique historical tradition.Second, based on the discussion on the importance of social policies, the paper clearly points out that comprehensive social security system is the socialist factor in the development of capitalist societies; it is the most important progress after World War II in Japan. It is an important symbol of differences between contemporary capitalism and early capitalism and modern capitalism. This not only helps us understand the reasons of the existence and the development of capitalism, but also confirms our belief in social development laws, strengthening our belief that capitalism can and will be replaced by socialism and warning us that in the course of economic development, we must develop social security system. Only in this way can we show the advantages of socialism over capitalism, in the long run, socialism will defeat and replace capitalism.Third, according to the unique characteristics and generalities of Japanese social security system, this paper summarizes the basic regular patterns of social security system: social security and economic development work in coordination and promote each other; sound and mature legislation is the foundation and premise of social security development; government plays a dominant role in social security; social policies are the basic guiding principles of social security; social security develops rigidly, it can only go forward, cannot go backward; social security reform follows the route of priority of equality in social reform; social security in every country follows the route of it home country. These basic regularities contribute a lot both in theoretical studies and consultation for our country to have a clear idea of social security development rules and trends.The drawbacks of the paper are first, because of the material collection limitation, the analysis of the present situation and the future trend of Japanese social security is not sufficient. Second, the theoretical profundity is influenced because of the personal understanding of social security system still needs to be deepened. And because of the lack of further study of the economic foundation, social foundation and international comparative study of comprehensive social security, the theoretical conclusion of social security development patterns is influenced to some degree. These problems will be solved in the future further studies.