U.S. and Japanese Social Welfare Systems

The welfare state is broadly defined as "a form of political economy in which the state assumes responsibility for the general welfare of its population, especially its most vulnerable elements (Sodaro, 2004, p. 308)." Welfare programs are those programs in which spending targets education, housing, health care, pensions or social security, unemployment compensation, food subsidies, family allowances, and so forth. The term welfare state was first used in Great Britain n the 1930s and 1940s, but it has since been used to describe, at least in part, the kinds of programs and policies that are found in many nations in the world today.

In a few countries, the twentieth century welfare state began to take form in the decades between World War I and World War II. Great Britain, Sweden, Germany, and the United States are often identified as important examples of the modern welfare state (Rubenstein, 1989).

Another country that is said to have developed many of the policies and programs that represent a welfare state is Japan. Most industrially advanced countries expanded their welfare programs after World War II. Japan, partially because of the damage that was done to the country, its economy, and all of its public service systems during World War II, also experienced the expansion of its welfare programs after 1945 (Sodaro, 2004).

In fact, it was in the years following World War II that the

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ficit will consume some 56 percent of national income by fiscal year 2025 (Japan welfare tax burdenà, 2004). This amount is seen as intolerable given Japan's economic vulnerability to global economic shifts and has led the country to give serious thought to finding new ways to pay for its welfare programs (Japan explores welfare reform, 2004). Currently, Japan is contemplating a consumption tax increase over the current rate of 5 percent to pay for social welfare programs (Japan tax hikeà, 2005). In addition, the Ministry of Health, Labor, and Welfare announced that from fiscal year 1999 to 2003, there were 34,813 cases of ineligible families receiving welfare funds. The cost to the government was more than US $220 million, of which only about 20 percent has been recovered (Japan lost $220m to welfare cheats, 2005). Schrade (2003, p. 6) offered some suggestions for meaningful social welfare reform in Japan in light of the country's changing economic status: There are several political and societal reasons for this resistance to change, but the biggest systemic reason, this paper has argued, is the lack of welfare system sufficiently funded to absorb a high rate of structural (i.e., long-term) unemployment that corporate
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Approximate Word count = 4557
Approximate Pages = 18 (250 words per page)

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