Welfare Reform on the Web (May 2001): Care of the Elderly - Overseas

PUBLIC INVOLVEMENT IN SOCIAL POLICY REFORM: SEEN FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF JAPAN'S ELDERLY CARE INSURANCE SCHEME

M. Eto

Social Policy Journal, vol. 30, 2001, p. 17-36

In Japan, policymaking for a universal long-term care programme that included the middle class elderly was part of an entirely new agenda. It was an issue outside the established political system. Thus the established policy community for social welfare was destabilised, and new players emerged. These included two citizen action groups and reformist mayors of small municipalities. Their appearance changed the Japanese political scene and contributed both to the promotion of social policy reform and to the revitalisation of democracy.