welfare for the elderly include long-term care insurance, while family policies include childcare services
and financial support such as child allowance, and support for single-parent households. Policies for
persons with disabilities include the provision of care services and financial support. Public assistance is
available as part of the financial support system for the poor. As part of the system to protect workers,
employment insurance, work-related accident insurance, and others are available.
Kinds of benefits provided through these social security schemes are either in-kind or in-cash. Table
2.1 lists major social security schemes by types of benefits and in-kind/in-cash classification based on
International Labour Organization (ILO) classification standard.Many social security schemes in Japan adopt the social insurance system. There are five social
insurance systems, namely the public pension, health insurance, long-term care insurance, employment
insurance, and work-related accident insurance. Of these insurances, all citizens are enrolled in the public
pension and health insurance programs. This universal coverage in public pension and health insurance is a
main characteristic of the Japanese social security system. Furthermore, citizens aged 40 and over are
covered by the long-term care insurance, and employees are covered by the employment insurance and
work-related accident insurance.
The social insurance systems mentioned above are financed by social insurance premiums and
supplemented by the tax revenue in forms of subsidy. The social insurance premiums is shared by all
insured, in most cases, according to their ability to pay (the level of income). Thus, the function of social
insurance is to share the risk among insured persons, and at the same time, to redistribute income among