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Beyond crisis and dissonance : the restructuring of the Japanese welfare state under globalisation
- Author:
- TAKAHASHI Mutsuko
- Journal article citation:
- Social Policy and Society, 3(3), July 2004, pp.283-290.
- Publisher:
- Cambridge University Press
The crisis and dissonance in a society under globalisation tend to be associated with suspicion against the welfare state. This article however attempts to argue for the crucial role of the welfare state in the formation of the politics of welfare that shapes a basic framework for a policy response to changes in the welfare society. The discussion sets out by illustrating the impacts of globalisation in contemporary Japan with special reference to the change in family and working practices. It goes on to analyse the current policy debates regarding socialisation of care in which ideological conflicts are manifested. Despite growing vulnerability of the family in Japan's ageing society, informal care-giving work tends to be undervalued and the stigma attached to the welfare state regarding elderly care and public assistance is persistent. It will be discussed how the long-run welfare reforms, as efforts of policy change, can be made sense of in Japan for escaping from a vicious circle of crisis and dissonance.
Public involvement in social policy reform: seen from the perspective of Japan's Elderly-Care Insurance Scheme
- Author:
- ETO Mikiko
- Journal article citation:
- Journal of Social Policy, 30(1), January 2001, pp.17-36.
- Publisher:
- Cambridge University Press
- Place of publication:
- Cambridge
Japan has undergone drastic demographic changes in the past few decades. To cope with the needs of an ageing society, the government has enacted a Long-term Care Insurance Law for the elderly that was implemented from 1 April 2000. The new legislation was conceived as a political compromise to appease two strongly opposed forces: reformists and the old guard. In the process of drafting reform, new political players, including ordinary citizens and mayors of small-scale municipal governments have emerged. Two citizen action groups participated in the reform process, and succeeded in reflecting their preferences in its policymaking. The mayors who supported the new system started reforming social welfare administration systems, challenging traditional local politics. This articles focuses on a few of these groups and how they have changed the Japanese political scene. It concludes that their activities have contributed not only to promoting social policy reform, but also to revitalising politics in the country.
Health and Canadian society: sociological perspectives
- Editors:
- COBURN David, D'ARCY Carl, TORRANCE George M.
- Publisher:
- University of Toronto Press
- Publication year:
- 1998
- Pagination:
- 648p.,tables,bibliogs.
- Place of publication:
- Toronto
Presents a comprehensive overview of the relationship between health, health care, and Canadian society. Includes chapters on: health care costs; health status of Canadians; social distribution of health; low income and child health; the impact of aboriginal health interpreters on decision making; women's perspective on chronic illness; cultural constructions of menopausal women in Japan and Canada; role strains and tranquilliser use; gender and depression; the impact of working conditions, social roles and personal characteristics on gender differences in distress; predictors of successful ageing; women in medicine; maternity traditions and contemporary issues in Canada; womens perspectives on informal care of older people; Ontario's public general hospitals; partnership as a new strategy in mental health policy; community participation in Quebec's health system; the limits of health insurance; family policy and health care in Canada, Sweden and the United States; fiscal crisis and the restructuring of Medicare; and the sociology of health in Canada.
The young, the old and the state: social care systems in five industrial nations
- Editor:
- ANTTONEN Anneli
- Publisher:
- Edward Elgar
- Publication year:
- 2003
- Pagination:
- 206p.,bibliog.
- Place of publication:
- Cheltenham
This work is a comparative account of social care services for children and older people in five key industrial nations (Finland, Germany, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States). The authors move beyond institutional description and seeking to understand the normative and moral qualities of welfare systems. The book builds on existing theories of welfare state regimes by extending the analysis to the arena of social care. A full account is provided of the historical, economic and political origins of childcare and care for older people in each of the five countries. These analyses are then used as the basis for a theoretical account of the developmental trajectories of social care systems. The book proposes that there are common pressures at work in all industrial nations driving their welfare systems to similar forms of organisation and structure. However, these trends are mediated by important differences in culture and history.