The development of social welfare services in Japan

Within these pages I will discuss how social welfare has been introduced into Japanese society and how these concepts have been transformed, or "Japanized." In addition, I will summarize the issues related to social welfare which Japan must deal with in the near future. In order to examine how social welfare was introduced into Japan, how it is beingjapanized and how current reforms will alter Japan's social welfare system, I have adopted a historical-sociological approach, an investigative study of the conditions under which social welfare has taken root in Japan. ¹