An Analysis of the “First Welfare Year” Policy-Formulation Process in Japan: The Key to Responding to the Balance of Payment Imbalance Problem

TAKAHASHI Ryotaro

doi:10.50898/pfsjipf.15.0_194

<p> This paper clarifies that the “high welfare high burden” route was only partially achieved through analyzing the policy formulation process of free medical care for the elderly and pension system revision, which is the “first welfare year” policy. “First welfare year” is positioned as the dawn of the Japanese-type welfare state. Although policies encompassed in the “first welfare year” are regarded as systems that support the general public, it has been pointed out that it was a framework for damaging the fiscal balance. This paper provides a new viewpoint to the above evaluation by paying attention to the Ministry of Finance (MOF) under the current account imbalance problem. The tax burden rate increase was shelved by Nixon Shock. By the Smithsonian agreement, the MOF allowed to introduce free medical care for the elderly. Further, the adjusted inflation policy for the current account imbalance problem introduced labor-management cooperation and the pension level was raised, but the MOF introduced a system to avoid the burden on the state treasury. In other words, although “high welfare” was realized, “high burden” was realized only in the form of increasing social security burden.</p>

An Analysis of the “First Welfare Year” Policy-Formulation Process in Japan: The Key to Responding to the Balance of Payment Imbalance Problem

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