Japan National Council of Social Welfare

ANNUAL REPORT

2018-2019

FEATURE ARTICLE
Promotion of Social Welfare in the New Era, Reiwa-Towards the prosperous welfare society
where we live togetherIn this new era, Reiwa, we still face to the low birthrate and aging
population problem. While daily life issues have been complicated andgetting serious, some new needs arise, and we need new
countermeasures for them. In this article, we would like to introduce
you how Japan National Council of Social Welfare (JNCSW) tackles
priority issues aiming at the prosperous welfare society where we live
together.
Progress and Challenges of Social Welfare in Heisei Era
The drastic change in social welfare field in Heisei Era is thetransformation from the poor relief social welfare to the universal
social welfare. Conducted were the amendment of so called “8 laws ofsocial welfare,” the reform of social welfare basic structure, i.e.,changing the use of social welfare service from the placement base to
the contract base, the introduction of long-term care insurance, etc.
With the quantitative expansion of social welfare service, it madepossible that everyone could use care service, childcare service, etc.
On the other hand, the basic ideas of how a family should be or how acommunity should be have changed drastically because of theunsustainable employment affected by the long economic recession,
decreasing population, progress of the low birthrate and aging
population, expansion of regional disparity, etc. Consequently, arisen
are many problems that cannot be solved only with individual effort;people sunk into poverty because of illness, unemployment or familycare, working poor, etc. Serious daily life issues such as abuse or DV,
social withdrawal, isolation from the community, etc. are also revealed.

Movement towards the Establishment of a Sustainable Social Security
SystemSince 2009, the population of Japan has got lesser and lesser. In 2017,
the total population of Japan was 126,710,000, and it is estimated that
it will be decreased to 110,920,000 in 2040 when the junior babyboomers generation become elderly 1 . After 2025 when the babyboomers generation reaches 75-year-old, elderly population will
increase gradually, whereas the productive working population (15≦65) will decrease steeply.
Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare established “Social Security andWork Style Reform Headquarters for 2040” in October 2018 to promote
an initiative to realize a sustainable all generation type social security
so that everybody can live longer an active life. It discussed① the realization of a whole consultation (consultation withoutrefusal),② the promotion of initiatives good for inclusive community,③ the facilitation of service (living together service) both the elderliesand people with disabilities can use,to realize an inclusive community society.

Promotion of Cooperation and Collaboration Initiatives to Realize an
Inclusive Community Society
Inclusive community society means a society in which all the people
including children, elderlies, and people with disabilities can create
and enhance a community, life, and raison d'etre together. To realize
such society, fixed role as “giver” and “taker” is useless. It is necessary
to develop a community where people have their own role and can live
1Population Projections for Japan 2017, National Institute of Population and Social Security

Researchin their own ways supporting each other occasionally changing theirpositions from “supporting side” to “supported side” and vice versa.
Also it is required to live in collaboration with public services such associal welfare.
Social welfare system in Japan has been subdivided and specializedaccording to the target beneficiaries such as the elderlies, people withdisabilities or children, etc. and developed in it separately so far. It was
not bad; however, because of that, many people cannot have enoughpublic service or support as they fell in a gap between those divisions.
For a long time, councils of social welfare, commissioned welfarevolunteers, commissioned child welfare volunteers, social welfare
foundations, social welfare institutions, etc. have been working on thedevelopment of welfare towns. Now, utilizing their own expertise as
well as communicating and collaborating each other, they proceed
various practices to detect complicated and serious new social welfare
problems in their early stage so that they can provide necessary
support immediately.
Based on it, towards the realization of an inclusive community society,the establishment of comprehensive community care system,
enhancement of the self-reliance support system for needy persons,local contribution activities by social welfare foundation, etc. arepromoted aiming at the accomplishment of “the prosperous welfare
society where we live together” advocated in “JNCSW Social Welfare
Vision 2011.”
Strengthening of the Disaster Prevention／Disaster Support Activities
in Social Welfare Field
In Heisei Era, large-scale disasters occurred in various places, andsince the Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake occurred in 1995, a large
number of volunteers have involved in support activities for victims indisaster areas. Therefore, 1995 is calls as “the first year of volunteer.”
The way of support (or how to support) at the time of disasters has beenchanged drastically, and the role of social welfare becomes moresignificant
today;
long-term
supportsuchastheestablishment/management of volunteer centers, watching service forvictims, life consultation service, etc.
In 2018, large-scale disasters such as earthquake or heavy rain
occurred one after another in various places in Japan. Working
together with councils of social welfare or social welfare
personnel/organizations in disaster areas, JNCSW collected anddistributed information on damage or support needs, and developed
activities such as the establishment/management of disaster volunteer
centers in damaged areas, special loan of welfare life fund (emergencysmall loan) for victims, implementation of necessary support fordamaged social welfare institutions to continue their service, etc.
JNCSW will make efforts to get ready for possible large-scale disasters
in the future by preparing a system of social welfare personnel even in
the time of peace towards the strengthening of the disasterprevention/disaster support activities in social welfare field.

Attractive and Challenging Social Welfare Jobs and Securing Human
Resource
To address present challenges required for social welfare, an urgent
problem is to secure human resource working in social welfare field.
According to the estimate of the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare,
it is necessary to secure approx.60,000 care workers per year towards
2025 fiscal year2. Concerning child care services, it is planned to accept
320,000 more children within 5 years from 2018 to 2022 fiscal years toeliminate the waiting list of children and to support the employmentof women. Hence it is also required to secure child care workers3.
JNCSW Policy Committee formulated “Measures to be taken forsecuring, training, and settlement of social welfare human resource
supporting community,” and encourages social welfare foundations all
2

Necessary Number of Care Workers based on the 7th Care Insurance Project Plan, Ministryof Health, Labor and Welfare
3 Parenting Relief Plan, Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare

over Japan to take specific actions.
Also, social welfare personnel is encouraged to deliver information onfascination and gratification of social welfare jobs (in other words,three positive “ing”s of social welfare, i.e., touching, moving andappreciating) outward for the positive evaluation for social welfare jobs.
Initiatives to deepen understanding of welfare workplaces, such as
internship or work experience program in a nursing care office, in acommunity or education site are also important.