defined as follows: various forms of support are provided in a continuous and comprehensive manner in accordance with the situation of each elderly person, and changes in that situation, with the long-term care insurance services as the core. The primary characteristic of the Japanese long-term care policy trend is evident in the name - communitybased integrated care - which itself is a fusion of the two distinct concepts: integrated care and communitybased care. Another prominent characteristic is that long-term care insurance, rather than the medical care system, is the driving force of the initiatives. Since its inception, long-term care insurance system has been constantly harassed by the need to respond to increases in costs brought about by a rapidly ageing population [5–6]. When long-term care insurance system was originally established, it was separate from the medical insurance system; the recent integration of long-term care and medical care in service provision has important policy implications. This paper will summarize the process by which the concept of integrated care was adopted by long-term care policy and the measures designed to promote that care, particularly the reforms of the long-term care insurance system in 2005/6 and 2011. Consideration will be given to the concepts of integrated care and community-based care, the agenda of cost containment and service streamlining, and coordination with medical care