The Japanese Familial Welfare Mix at a Crossroads

Abstract

Japan is sometimes referred to as a hybrid of the conservative and liberal welfare regimes (Esping-Andersen 1997). A major feature of social security in Japan is its occupationally fragmented, social insurance schemes modeled after the Bismarckian model, which is typical of a conservative welfare state (Bonoli and Shinkawa 2005). Japan, however, is deviant from the conservative model in some important respects, such as low generosity of social protection and extended roles of firm-specific welfare, which make Japan closer to the liberal welfare regime. Taking Japan as a hybrid, however, raises a theoretical difficulty. Once we accept the idea of a hybrid, all welfare states can likely claim to be hybrids. After all, no country can perfectly fit a single model, yet our typologies of welfare states are weakened by accepting the idea of hyhrids.

1. The views expressed here are those of the authors and not those of the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta or the Federal Reserve System. The authors thank Daniel Béland and Brian Gran for their helpful comments on this chapter. Christina Ewig thanks the Fulbright New Century Scholars program for their generous financial support of this research and the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee which granted her leave from her regular teaching duties to direct their study abroad program in Santiago during the Spring of 2005. She also extends thanks to the many informants in Chile for their generosity of time and insights during the course of this research.