ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on social enterprises (SE) active in the fields of health and social service provision. It provides an overview of health and long-term care services in Japan, presents types of service providers and compares them in light of the EMES indicators. The chapter explores health cooperatives in urban areas and Koseiren in rural areas as typical SE models, and explains their characteristics and institutional trajectories. The Japanese health care system is characterised by the existence of a compulsory medical insurance system, weakly coordinated medical institutions on the supply side and consumers’ free access to health care on the demand side. The demand side of medical services is characterised by consumers’ free access to medical institutions. There exists a variety of organisational forms of health and social service providers. This is a result of piecemeal institutional evolution, which catered to specific needs while the taxation regime became increasingly complex.
