Waseda University Institute of Comparative Law

     As the economic and social systems, which had supported the development of Japan after the Second World War, reached an impasse, efforts on a national scale have been made including regulatory reforms. However, it has become clear that these efforts have also given rise to various issues, as symbolized by phrases such as “arrival of a society of disparity” and “widening poverty”. Measures to address these issues have become important political challenges especially now that we are faced with the economic crisis following Lehman Brothers’ shock in 2008. On the employment front, the unemployment rate is expected to rise, and workers, especially non-regular employees such as dispatch workers and temporary workers, will face further uncertainty about their future employ. At the same time, economic disparity will widen and the problem of poverty will become more apparent.

     Britain’s Beveridge Report: Social Insurance and Allied Services (1942), which influenced the formation of social security systems in developed countries, placed full employment as a prerequisite for social security. This report is said to have influenced Japan as well. The unemployment level in Japan was low throughout its high economic growth period, when the nation had come close to achieving a fully employed society. However, the unemployment rate increased following the collapse of the economic bubble in the 1990s, and such a full employment model no longer holds true for Japan. The destabilization of employment triggered by the economic crisis this time round is expected to make the situation even worse.

     In this age of crisis, the social security system in Japan has done little to establish a well-developed safety net for the unemployed, as seen in European countries. No universal program exists in Japan to protect the livelihood of the unemployed once the period of unemployment insurance benefit payments, which account for only a short period of up to one year, expires, unless a person ultimately passes a stringent means test and is deemed eligible to receive public assistance. Although training and education benefits are provided as part of unemployment insurance benefits, many non-permanent workers are unable to join the unemployment insurance scheme. Moreover, such benefits are not designed to support long-term unemployment. The restructuring of the safety net, including the introduction of an unemployment assistance program funded by tax resources to protect the livelihood of the long-term unemployed during their vocational training, will be an issue to be addressed in the future.

     The judicial fields to address these issues are labor laws and social security laws. Historically speaking, in Japan, social security laws branched out from labor laws and became an independent field of study as the social security system developed. This process itself is desirable from the viewpoint of judicial development. However, social security laws have tended to focus on ensuring livelihood by way of public benefits that are provided by the state as the responsible body, and had little interest in employment, which should take a central place as in the lives of the citizens. Labor laws, in contrast, have interest in themes such as restructuring of the safety net and the work-life balance, as labor is supplied in increasingly diversified forms. With regards to restructuring of the safety net, although legal protection of non-regular workers and the Minimum Wage Act are discussed, the perspective on how to best maintain the livelihood of these workers and the poor is weak.

     As a concept to embrace both labor laws and social security laws, a realm of social law has traditionally existed. Despite the advancement of specialization, it is necessary to cast fresh eyes on the viewpoint of social law which deliberates both employment and the role of social security in a comprehensive manner. By taking both of the two points in perspective, restructuring of a stable safety net will become possible.