Japanese Social Security for the Elderly from a Viewpoint of Life Cycles
Masanobu MASUDA and Katsuhisa KOJIMA
This article presents an overview of the historical development of the social security system for the elderly and a general view of current social security policies in Japan. Furthermore, we analyze the benefits and burden of social services in terms of life cycles as well as income distribution by age groups, and discuss the issues of the social security system to be dealt with in the future.
The characteristics of social security systems for the elderly have been changing from the aid for the poor to general and universal policies by which anybody in need of assistance can receive social services and benefits regardless of his/her income. The social security benefits for the elderly have been expanding in recent years. Their share is approximately two thirds of the total social security benefits. However, there is an excessive income transfer from the working generations to the elderly. In the future it is necessary to reevaluate and reexamine the benefit and burden level for the elderly and make adjustments among different programs such as pension, medical, and long term care insurance in order to make the social security system more efficient and to reduce the burden on the working generations and thereby secure impartial benefits and burdens among different generations.
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