I. The Scope of Social Security Expenditures

1.	The scope of social security expenditures is based on the ILO (International Labor Organization) standards for international comparison."

The ILO defines the social security expenditures as all of the schemes or services which meet the following three criteria:

1. The objectives of the schemes must be to grant benefits for at least one of the following risks and needs: (1)Old age; (2) Survivor; (3) Invalidity; (4) Employment injury; (5) Sickness and health; (6) Family; (7) Unemployment; (8) Housing; (9) Public assistance and others.
2. The system must have been set up by legislation which attributes specific individual rights to, or which imposes specified obligations on, a public, semi-public or autonomous body.
3. The system should be administered by a public, semi-public or autonomous body founded by legislation; or by a private body which has been granted rights to perform legal obligations. Specifically, the schemes for employment injury compensation are conducted by a private body as the case may be; though it should be included in the scope of social security expenditures.
   

On the basis of the criteria listed above, the following schemes are included in these statistics: social insurance (including unemployment insurance and employment injury compensation insurance), family allowances, special schemes for public employees, public health service, public assistance, social welfare schemes, and aid for war victims.

Social security expenditure is based on the above ILO standards and is estimated in each fiscal year budget for expenditure in each system of social security in Japan. Since 1949, ILO has conducted 19 international inquiries on the cost of social security, and provides social security expenses data submitted by various countries in "The Cost of Social Security" on its internet homepage.

(See http://www.ilo.org/public/english/protection/socsec/publ/css/cssindex.htm)

2.	Social security expenditure is divided into "Medical care," "Pensions," and "Welfare & Others:"

1. "Medical care"includes costs for medical insurance, medical service system for the aged, medical aid for public assistance, medical services for Workmen's Accident Compensation Insurance, as well as costs related to government-financed special medical services, such as the treatment of tuberculosis and mental disorders, and public health services conducted by local health centers.
2. "Pensions" includes payments by public pension schemes such as National Pensions and Employee's Pension Insurance. It also includes some cash benefits paid in the form of pensions within the scheme of gratuities for retired public employees, and the scheme for Workmen's Accident Compensation Insurance.
3. "Welfare & Others" includes public assistances other than medical services, cash benefits for child allowance, expenses for social welfare services such as for facility administration, sickness and injury cash benefits within the health insurance schemes, leave compensation benefits paid by the Workmen's Accident Compensation Insurance, and unemployment benefits from Employment Insurance.
   

3.	The functional classification of social security expenditures sums up benefits for each of the risks and needs included in 1-i of the above Scope of Social Security Expenditures.

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