ABSTRACT
The important events in the historical development of social policy for aging in the past fifty years in Japan can be interpreted as the outcomes of conflict between conservative and progress-oriented people. The conservatives want to preserve the traditional East Asian family system as long as possible with a minimum of public expenditure for social security and social services. In contrast, progressives place supreme importance on the building of a welfare state and a welfare society as an ultimate national goal. They desire to renovate our social system completely so as to realize a society in which women are liberated from the traditionally imposed burden of caring for impaired aged parents-in-law in their own homes, and thus create gender equality.
