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The Part I of the Supplement to Volume 1, Journal of Population and Social Policy: Population Study features the International Workshop on Low Fertility and Social Policies held at Aisan Development Bank Institute (ADBI) in Kasumigaseki Building on November 21 and 22 and the Seventh Welfare Policy Seminar on Low Fertility and Social Policies held at the United Nations University Hall on November 23. The workshop was cosponsored by the National Institute of Population and Social Security Research (NIPSSR) and the project on Intergenerational Equity, the Institute of Economic Research, Hitotsubashi University. The seminar was sponsored by the NIPSSR and supported by the Yomiuri Newspapers. The major aims of the workshop and the seminar were to understand social, economic, and cultural background of low fertility in developed countries, to know various child-related policies undertaken by them and to broaden our perspectives of social policies related to low fertility, ranging from child allowances to childcare services in the context of far-below-replacement fertility, hyper-aging of population and prospective population decline in Japan and other OECD countries. The workshop/seminar featured speakers from various disciplines, notably demographers, sociologists and economists. Several foreign scholars were invited to present papers on demographic and policy situations related to low fertility in their countries and the state-of-the-art research on child policy. Japanese researchers presented papers mainly drawing on studies conducted in the research projects mentioned below. The workshop on the first two days consisted of paper presentation and discussion in a small group of scholars and administrators. On the first day, the current demographic situation and the relationship between fertility and child or family policies in developed countries were reviewed in internationally comparative perspectives. On the second day, the comparative review of the first day continued and, then, various policy issues such as in-cash or in-service child policy, tax credit and child/family allowances and the relationship between day care markets and public day care services were discussed in detail. The Welfare Policy Seminar on the third day was open to the general public, with two keynote lectures in the morning and a panel discussion in the afternoon. The workshop and the seminar were coordinated by Yukiko KATSUMATA, Senior Researcher, NIPSSR, in association with Makoto ATOH, Director-General, NIPSSR. They were undertaken as the final outcome of the three research projects related to the two coordinators: the FY2001-2002 Research Project on the Effect of Child Allowance, Taxation and Childcare Services on Familial Households (Principal Investigator: Yukiko KATSUMATA: NIPSSR) funded by a MHLW* scientific research grant; the FY2000-2002 Research Project on Low Fertility and Family Policies in Developed Countries (P.I.: Makoto ATOH/Hiroshi KOJIMA, NIPSSR) funded by a MHLW scientific research grant; and the FY2000-2004 Research Project on Intergenerational Equity (P.I.: Noriyuki TAKAYAMA, Hitotsubashi University) funded by a MECSST** scientific research grant. While Part I mainly consists of original or revised version of papers presented at the workshop and the seminar and they are arranged in the order of presentation in the program below (only the names of authors are listed), there are some additions and omissions. Originally, Winfried SCHMAEHL, Germany had been scheduled to give one of the keynote lectures at the Welfare Policy Seminar, but he could not attend and Gerda NEYER kindly replaced him drawing on her paper presented in the workshop. Thus, his paper is included near the end of Part I. The report by Anne REINSTADLER et al. is included at the end of Part I because it had been commissioned for the Research Project on Low Fertility and Family Policies in Developed Countries and because it was distributed by Hiroshi KOJIMA as a reference material for his presentation in the workshop. One of the papers presented but not included in Part I, "Effects of Child-related benefit in Japan" by Aya ABE has been published in Journal of Population and Social Policy: Social Security Study, Vol. 1, No.1. Another paper,"Transitions Into and Out of Poverty: Comparison between Immigrant and Native Children" by Yoshimi CHITOSE are not included in Part I because they have is under review elsewhere.
Notes for the following abbreviations: |
Program of the Workshop/SeminarThe First day: November 20thOpening Session: "The Aim of the Workshop" 9:00 to 9:05
The Session 1: "International Comparisons of Low Fertility and Family Policies" 9:05 to 11:15
Coffee Break 11:15 to 11:30
The Session 2: "Low Fertility and Family Policies of Nordic Countries" 11:30 to 13:00
Lunch Break 13:00 to 14:30
The Session 3: "Low Fertility and Family Policies of the German-Speaking Countries and the Netherlands" 14:30 to 16:00
Coffee Break 16:00 to 16:15
The Session 4: "Low Fertility and Family Policies of the French-Speaking World" 16:15 to 17:45
The Session 5: "Low Fertility and Family Policies of the Southern European Countries" 9:00 to 10:30
Coffee Break 10:30 to 10:45
The Session 6: "Low Fertility and Family Policies of the English-Speaking World" 10:45 to 12:15
Lunch Break 12:15 to 13:45
The Session 7: "Economic Status of Familial Household and Social Policy" 13:45 to 15:15
Coffee Break 15:15 to 15:30
The Session 8: "Daycare Services for Children and Family and Labor Policy" 15:30 to 17:00
The Final session: Summary and Discussion 17:00 to 18:00
Closing: 18:00 The Third Day: November 22ndThe Seventh Welfare Policy Seminar "International Seminar on Low Fertility and Social Policies" Morning Session: 10:00 - 12:15 Opening Address 10:00 to 10:05
Lunch Break 12:15 to 14:00
Afternoon Session: 14:00 - 17:00 Makoto Atoh "Policy Debate on Low Fertility in Japan" 14:00 to 14:20 Panel Discussion: Part 1 : 14:20 to 15:40
Coffee Break 15:40 to 16:00 Panel Discussion: Part 2: Extended discussion 16:00 to 17:00
Closing: 17:00 |
(Photo Album)