Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-4rdpn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-11T04:27:53.406Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The puzzle of Japans welfare capitalism: a review of the welfare regimes approach

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 April 2020

Martin Powell ,
Ki-tae Kim  and
Sung-won Kim
Martin Powell*
Affiliation:
Health Services Management Centre, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, UK
Ki-tae Kim
Affiliation:
Korea Institute for Health and Social Affairs, Yeongi-gun, Korea
Sung-won Kim
Affiliation:
Graduate School of Humanities and Sociology, University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan
*
CONTACTMartin Powell m.powell@bham.ac.uk
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

There has been little consensus on Japans welfare regime since Esping-Andersens [1990. The Three Worlds of Welfare Capitalism. Cambridge: Polity Press] unclear categorisation of Japan as his only non-Western welfare state. This article is the first attempt to analyse academic research published in both English and Japanese. It presents a review of 40 collected studies (including 15 Western, 6 Asian and 19 Japanese articles), reached a wide variety of conclusions, defining Japan as eight different types: We point out that while the majority of Western studies tend to run statistical models including Japan among otherwise Western welfare states with little theoretical justification, Japanese scholars tend to focus on Japan as a single case. The two very different approaches may have something to learn from each other, as in thesis antithesis synthesis. Now that we are aware of very different approaches to and conclusions about Japans welfare regime, the topic appears ripe for greater co-operation between scholars.

Keywords

Japanwelfare regimereviewEast Asian welfare modelclassificationEurocentric research
Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of International and Comparative Social Policy , Volume 36 , Issue 1 , March 2020 , pp. 92 - 110
Copyright
© 2019 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Amenta, E. (2003). What we know about the development of social policy. Comparative and historical research in comparative and historical perspective. In Mahoney, J. & Rueschemeyer, D. (Eds.), Comparative historical analyses in the social Sciences (pp. 91–130). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
An, J., Lin, C.-W., & Shinkawa, T. (2015). The familialistic welfare regime in Japan, Korea and Taiwan. In Shinkawa, T. (Ed.), Welfare regimes (pp. 7–34). Tokyo: Minervashobo. (in Japanese).Google Scholar
Aspalter, C. (2006). The East Asian welfare model. International Journal of Social Welfare, 15, 290–301. doi: 10.1111/j.1468-2397.2006.00413.x CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Aspalter, C. (2011). The development of ideal-typical welfare regime theory. International Social Work, 54(6), 735–750. doi: 10.1177/0020872810393765 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bambra, C. (2006). Decommodification and the worlds of welfare revisited. Journal of European Social Policy, 16, 73–80. doi: 10.1177/0958928706059835 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bambra, C. (2007). Defamilisation and welfare state regimes: A cluster analysis. International Journal of Social Welfare, 16(4), 326–338. doi: 10.1111/j.1468-2397.2007.00486.x CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Castles, F., & Mitchell, D. (1992). Identifying welfare state regimes. Governance, 5, 1–26. doi: 10.1111/j.1468-0491.1992.tb00026.x CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Castles, F., & Obinger, H. (2008). Worlds, families, regimes: Country clusters in European and OECD area public policy. West European Politics, 31(1–2), 321–344. doi: 10.1080/01402380701835140 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Choi, Y. J. (2012). End of the era of productivist welfare capitalism? Diverging welfare regimes in East Asia. Asian Journal of Social Science, 40, 275–294. doi: 10.1163/156853112X650827 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ebbinghaus, B. (2012, September 6–8). Comparing welfare state regimes: Are typologies an ideal or realistic strategy? Draft paper presented at ESPAnet Conference, Edinburgh.Google Scholar
Esping-Andersen, G. (1990). The three worlds of welfare capitalism. Cambridge: Polity Press.Google Scholar
Esping-Andersen, G. (1997). Hybrid or unique?: The Japanese welfare state between Europe and America. Journal of European Social Policy, 7(3), 179–189. doi: 10.1177/095892879700700301 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Esping-Andersen, G. (1999). The social foundations of postindustrial economies. Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Estevez-Abe, M. (2008). Welfare and capitalism in postwar Japan. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ferragina, E., & Seeleib-Kaiser, M. (2011). The welfare regime debate: Past, present, futures? Policy & Politics, 39, 583–611. doi: 10.1332/030557311X603592 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ferragina, E., Seeleib-Kaiser, M., & Tomlinson, M. (2013). Unemployment protection and family policy at the turn of the 21st century: A dynamic approach to welfare regime theory. Social Policy & Administration, 47(7), 783–805. doi: 10.1111/j.1467-9515.2012.00855.x CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Goodin, R. (2001). Work and welfare: Towards a post-productivist welfare regime. British Journal of Political Science, 31, 13–39. doi: 10.1017/S0007123401000023 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Goodman, R., & Peng, I. (1996). The East Asian welfare state. In Esping- Andersen, G. (Ed.), Welfare states in transition (pp. 192–224). London: Sage.Google Scholar
Hayashi, T. (2006). A note on the welfare state typology. Study on tax System, 50, 244–251.Google Scholar
Hiraoka, K. (2006). The development of social security and the restructuring of welfare state regime. In Fujimura, M. (Ed.), Welfarization and the mature society (pp. 123–148). Tokyo: Minervashobo. (in Japanese).Google Scholar
Holliday, I. (2000). Productivist welfare capitalism: Social policy in East Asia. Political Studies, 48, 706–723. doi: 10.1111/1467-9248.00279 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hong, I. (2014). Trends and determinants of social expenditure in Korea, Japan and Taiwan. Social Policy and Administration, 48(6), 647–665. doi: 10.1111/spol.12089 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hudson, J., & Hwang, G. (2013). Pathways of welfare state development in East Asia. In Izuhara, M. (Ed.), Handbook on East Asian social policy (pp. 15–40). Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hudson, J., & Kühner, S. (2009). Towards productive welfare? A comparative analysis of 23 OECD countries. Journal of European Social Policy, 19, 34–46. doi: 10.1177/0958928708098522 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hudson, J., & Kühner, S. (2012). Analyzing the productive and protective dimension of welfare: Looking beyond the OECD. Social Policy & Administration, 46, 35–60. doi: 10.1111/j.1467-9515.2011.00813.x CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ito, S. (2008). Transformation of Japan’s welfare regime; The development and characteristics of risk management since the 1990s. The Bulletin of School of Nursing and Social Services, Health Sciences University of Hokkaido, 8, 1–11. (in Japanese).Google Scholar
Kasza, G. (2002). The illusion of welfare ‘regimes. Journal of Social Policy, 31, 271–287. doi: 10.1017/S0047279401006584 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kasza, G. (2006). One world of welfare: Japan in comparative perspective. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Kim, K.-t. (2014). From worlds to cases: Case selection and ‘other worlds’ in the welfare modelling business. Social Policy and Society, 14(2), 309–321. doi: 10.1017/S1474746414000554 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kim, S.-w. (2012). Japan as a late-coming welfare state. Weekly Journal of Social Security, 2667, 44–49. (in Japanese).Google Scholar
Korpi, W., & Palme, J. (1998). The Paradox of redistribution and strategies of equality: Welfare state institutions. American Sociological Review, 63, 661–687. doi: 10.2307/2657333 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Krämer, H. (2013). Historical origins of a welfare-state regime: Unemployment protection in Japan, 1919–1949. Social Science Japan Journal, 16(1), 131–153. doi: 10.1093/ssjj/jys041 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kröger, T. (2011). Defamilisation, dedomestication and care policy: Comparing childcare service provisions of welfare states. International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy, 31(7/8), 424–440. doi: 10.1108/01443331111149860 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ku, Y. W., & Jones Finer, C. (2007). Developments in East Asian welfare studies. Social Policy & Administration, 41(2), 115–131. doi: 10.1111/j.1467-9515.2007.00542.x CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kurowska, A. (2016). (De)Familialization and (de)genderization – competing or complementary perspectives in comparative policy analysis? Social Policy & Administration, 52(1), 29–49. doi: 10.1111/spol.12272 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kwon, H. (1997). Beyond European welfare regimes. Journal of Social Policy, 26, 467–484. doi: 10.1017/S004727949700514X CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lee, Y. J., & Ku, Y. (2007). East Asian welfare regimes: Testing the hypothesis of the developmental state. Social Policy & Administration, 41, 197–212. doi: 10.1111/j.1467-9515.2007.00547.x CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lohmann, H., & Zagel, H. (2016). Family policy in comparative perspective: The concepts and measurement of familialization and defamilialization. Journal of European Social Policy, 26(1), 48–65. doi: 10.1177/0958928715621712 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Miyamoto, T. (1997). Theory and reality of comparative welfare state studies. In Okazawa, N. & Miyamoto, T. (Eds.), A comparative welfare state study; fluctuations and alternatives. Tokyo: Horitsu Bunka Sha.Google Scholar
Miyamoto, T. (2003). The expansion of welfare regime theory and its issues. In Uzuhashi, T. (Ed.), Welfare states in comparison (pp. 11–41). Tokyo: Minervashobo. (in Japanese).Google Scholar
Miyamoto, T. (2008). Welfare politics: The livelihood system and democracy in Japan. Tokyo: Yuhikaku. (in Japanese).Google Scholar
Miyamoto, T., Peng, I., & Uzuhashi, T. (2003). The position and the dynamics of the Japanese style welfare state. In Esping-Andersen, G. (Ed.), Welfare states in transition (pp. 295–336). Tokyo: Waseda University Press. (T. Uzuhashi, Trans.).Google Scholar
Nakahara, K. (2007). Japan’s welfare regime and its limit. Hiroshima Law Journal, 31(2), 1–38. (in Japanese).Google Scholar
Ninomiya, A. (2002). The crisis of Japan’s economy and the way to the welfare state. Tokyo: Shinnihon Shuppansha. (in Japanese).Google Scholar
Obinger, H., & Wagschal, U. (2001). Families of nations and public policy. West European Politics, 24(1), 99–114. doi: 10.1080/01402380108425419 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
OECD. (2019). OECD social expenditure update update. Paris: OECD. Retrieved from http://www.oecd.org/social/soc/OECD2019-Social-Expenditure-Update.pdf Google Scholar
Orloff, A. S. (1993). Gender and the social rights of citizenship: The comparative analysis of gender relations and the welfare states. American Sociological Review, 58, 303–328. doi: 10.2307/2095903 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Orloff, A. S. (1996). Gender in the welfare state. Annual Review of Sociology, 22(1), 51–78. doi: 10.1146/annurev.soc.22.1.51 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Orloff, A. S. (2009). Gendering the comparative analysis of welfare states: An unfinished agenda. Sociological Theory, 27(3), 317–344. doi: 10.1111/j.1467-9558.2009.01350.x CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Peng, I. (2000). A fresh look at the Japanese welfare state. Social Policy & Administration, 34(1), 87–114. doi: 10.1111/1467-9515.00179 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Powell, M., & Barrientos, A. (2004). Welfare regimes and the welfare mix. European Journal of Political Research, 43, 83–105. doi: 10.1111/j.1475-6765.2004.00146.x CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Powell, M., & Kim, K.-t. (2014). The ‘chameleon’ Korean welfare state. Social Policy & Administration, 48(6), 626–646. doi: 10.1111/spol.12088 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Powell, M., & Yoruk, E. (2017). Straddling two continents and beyond three worlds? The case of Turkey’s welfare regime. New Perspectives on Turkey, 57, 85–114. doi: 10.1017/npt.2017.30 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rice, D. (2013). Beyond welfare regimes: From empirical typology to conceptual ideal types. Social Policy & Administration, 47(1), 93–110. doi: 10.1111/spol.12001 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Saxonberg, S. (2013). From defamilialization to degenderization: Toward a new welfare typology. Social Policy and Administration, 47(1), 26–49. doi: 10.1111/j.1467-9515.2012.00836.x CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schröder, M. (2009). Integrating welfare and production typologies: How refinements of the varieties of capitalism approach call for a combination of welfare typologies. Journal of Social Policy, 38(1), 19–43. doi: 10.1017/S0047279408002535 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Scruggs, L. A., & Allan, J. P. (2006). Welfare state decommodification in 18 OECD countries. Journal of European Social Policy, 16, 55–72. doi: 10.1177/0958928706059833 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shalev, M. (2007). Limits and alternatives to multiple regression in comparative research. In Mjset, L. & Clausen, T. (Eds.), Capitalisms compared (Comparative Social Research, Volume 24) (pp. 261–308). Emerald Group Publishing Limited.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shinkawa, T. (2000). Characteristics and transformation of Japan’s welfare regime. Contemporary Thought, 28(4), 140–154.Google Scholar
Shinkawa, T. (2009a). Comparing welfare regime shift and the Japan’s experience. In Miyajima, H., Nishimura, S., & Kyogoku, T. (Eds.), Social security and economy I company and labour (pp. 29–51). Tokyo: University of Tokyo Press. (in Japanese.Google Scholar
Shinkawa, T. (2009b). Perspectives on welfare regime analysis: A case of welfare state experiences in postwar Japan. Social Policy, 1(2), 49–63. (in Japanese).Google Scholar
Shizume, M., & Kondo, M. (2013). In order to compare welfare states, Shizume, Masato and Masaki Kondo. Comparing Welfare States, Minervashobo. (in Japanese).Google Scholar
Skinkawa, T., & Tsuji, Y. (2014). Conceptual development of welfare and social policy in Japan. In Beland, D. & Petersen, K. (Eds.), Analysing social policy concepts and language (pp. 193–210). Bristol: Policy Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Takegawa, S. (2005a). Japan’s welfare-state regime: Welfare politics, provider and regulator. Development and Society, 34(2), 169–190. (in Korean).Google Scholar
Takegawa, S. (2005b). Japan’s welfare state regime; welfare politics, provider and regulator. In Takegawa, S. & Kim, Y.-m. (Eds.), The welfare state in Korea and Japan (pp. 108–127). Tokyo: Doshindo Publisher. (in Japanese).Google Scholar
Takegawa, S. (2007). Solidarity and recognition: The welfare state globalization and individualization. Tokyo: University of Tokyo Press. (in Japanese).Google Scholar
Tsuji, Y. (2012). The transformation of the familialistic welfare regime and gender politics. Tokyo: Minervashobo. (in Japanese).Google Scholar
Uzuhashi, T. (1995). The typology of welfare state and Japan’s position; using Esping-Andersen’s theory. Journal of Ohara Institute for Social Research, 445, 1–14. (in Japanese).Google Scholar
Vrooman, J. (2012). Regimes and cultures of social security: Comparing institutional models through nonlinear PCA. International Journal of Comparative Sociology, 53(5–6), 444–477. doi: 10.1177/0020715212469512 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Walker, A., & Wong, C. (1996). Rethinking the Western construction of the welfare state. International Journal of Health Services, 26(1), 67–92. doi: 10.2190/0L9E-J9EQ-GLWH-T9WH CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Yang, Nan. (2017). East Asia in transition: Re-examining the east Asian welfare model using fuzzy sets. Journal of Asian Public Policy, 10(1), 104–120. doi: 10.1080/17516234.2016.1258525 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Supplementary material: File

Powell et al. supplementary material

Appendix

Download Powell et al. supplementary material(File)
File 35.3 KB