ABSTRACT

The welfare state comprises policies to protect people’s livelihoods from the effects of accidents, sickness, disability, old age, unemployment, poverty, and the expense of raising a family. Judging from results, one might guess that Japanese would have few complaints about their welfare state (see Table 17.1). Japanese have the longest life expectancies in the world. The unemployment rate has been one of the lowest among the industrialized countries, even though Japan’s labor force participation rate (the percentage of people between 16 and 64 who are employed or looking for a job) is 6 percent higher than the average in the European Union (Nippon 2007: 113). Compared to other developed countries, the salary replacement rate of public pension benefits is typical, and the percentage of national income received by the poorest 10 percent of the population is high (Gruber and Wise 1999: 29; Tanzi and Schuknecht 2000: 40; Ministry of Health and Welfare n.d.: 482). And despite these positive results, in some areas the government’s welfare spending is comparatively modest (see Table 17.2). <target id="page_190" target-type="page">190</target>Comparative welfare outcomes https://www.niso.org/standards/z39-96/ns/oasis-exchange/table">

Life expectancy 2005

Infant mortality per 1,000 live births 2005

Unemployment

Adult obesity 2005

1960–1995

2005

Long term (over 12 months) 2006

Youth (under 25) 2006

Australia

80.9

5.0

n.a.

5.1%

17.8%

10.6%

n.a.

Belgium

79.4

3.7

6.7%

8.4%

55.6%

18.9%

12.7%

Denmark

77.9

4.4

n.a.

5.0%

20.4%

7.6%

11.4%

France

80.3

3.6

5.8%

10.0%

44.0%

23.9%

9.5%

Germany

79.0

3.9

4.0%

11.2%

57.2%

13.5%

13.6%

Italy

80.4

4.7

7.8%

7.8%

52.9%

21.6%

9.9%

Japan

82.0

2.8

1.9%

4.4%

33.0%

8.0%

3.0%

Netherlands

79.4

4.9

5.1%

5.2%

45.2%

7.6%

10.7%

New Zealand

79.6

5.1

n.a.

3.7%

7.1%

9.6%

20.9%

Spain

80.7

4.1

10.0%

9.2%

29.5%

17.9%

13.1%

Sweden

80.6

2.4

2.7%

7.8%

14.2%

21.3%

10.7%

U.K.

79.0

5.1

5.5%

4.6%

22.1%

13.9%

23.0%

U.S.

77.8

6.8

6.0%

5.1%

10.0%

10.5%

32.2%

Average

79.8

4.3

5.6%

6.7%

31.5%

14.2%

14.2%

Sources: OECD 2007: 10–11, 34–35; OECD 1997: 45.