KJC Korea
Journal Central

This paper examines the policy of elders suicide prevention in Japan based on the social exclusion and inclusion. Even though suicide countermeasure is continuing more than a decade in Japan we noticed that the proportion of elders suicide doesn't decrease and the cause and countermeasure researched in terms of social exclusion and inclusion. The countermeasure elders suicide in Japan for analysis about subsumed action analyzed with the central point the first, how policy contents include multidimensional content second, how policy budget arranges multi-dimensionally third, how the main body of policy has connection with multi-dimensionally. As a result, policy contents deal with comprehensive parts but coping with elders still tends to focus on aspects of mental health and is not mentioned with strengthen welfare about financially-troubled, faithful subsumed revising system of social security. Also, placement and concentration of budget concentrated budget allocation about eased the mental health and you can see disadvantaged elders the subject of owners. Multidimensional action of the subject of policy propulsion in flared by institutional liaison in the center of mental health to practice community welfare activities as well as revising system demanded the connection with various agencies: a community welfare organs, academic worlds, resident groups, etc.

Once New Zealand was known as a welfare state pioneer with the Old Age Pension Act of 1898, the Social Security Act of 1938 and ‘by other means’, that is, through a range of policy instruments that tackled inequality and hardship within the labour market. However, the New Zealand government has made trials and errors to reform the Superannuation during the 1980s and 1990s. Superannuation reform was introduced in the context of a much wider revolution of economic policy, perhaps the most radical programme of economic liberalization an OECD country has ever seen. This revolution made New Zealand a political symbol of neo-liberal economic and social reform. But oversea attention has tended to focus on the economic half of the story while the welfare state reforms have rarely figured. Therefore, we will analyse the New Zealand’s Superannuation reforms: under what conditions is radical Superannuation retrenchment feasible? At a core of the analysis is the impact of the state of the domestic economy and of partisan factors, which, in turn, are likely to be mediated and cross-influenced by institutional configurations. One of my main conclusions is that the state of the domestic economy plays a much greater role in explaining Superannuation reform than is usually acknowledged in the political science theory. Moreover, we find evidence that the partisan composition of government impacts on retrenchment. Political institutions do matter, particularly the electoral system, which has important efforts on the way partisan influences.

Who leads pension reforms? Does the ‘pension politics of interest groups’ matter in pension reforms? This article provides a theoretical framework for analyzing ‘pension politics of interest groups’ in pension reform of liberal welfare states, created by parties and interest groups, and clarifies the types of pension reforms drawn from this framework. This article further examines ‘pension politics of interest groups’ interacts with country-specific institutional differences. This article also investigates cases of pension reforms in the U.S. and U.K. since 1980s. For the sake of effective case comparison, post-1980s period(the period of welfare retrenchment) is divided into two periods (the period of retrenchment and the period of permanent austerity). Additionally, this research focuses on behaviors of peak associations in examining the process of pension reform in each period. Through this analysis, I show that in the U.S. and U.K. interest groups have played active and inportant role in pension reforms and the outcomes of pension reforms vary according to institutional contexts of country. In the period of welfare retrenchment, pension reform with retrenchment-oriented characteristics have been implemented and succeeded in both U.S. and U.K. through developing ‘pension politics of interest group’ (incentive sharing between right party and economic interest groups). However, the pension reforms of the two countries in the period of permanent austerity exhibit different patterns: In the U.K. expansion-oriented pension reform is implemented and succeeded through ‘pension politics of interest groups’ (incentive sharing between left party and welfare clienteles interest group), while in the U.S, pension reform failed due to the strong influence from economic interest groups and institutional difference.

The low-wage disadvantaged faces a high level risk of falling in the household poverty in the case of unemployment. They can claim little or no financial support because a considerable level of employees is not registered for mandatory employment insurance or there is no unemployment assistance scheme. International comparison shows that Korea records the low level of beneficiary rates for dedicated unemployment compensation. This paper suggests the introduction of supplementary employment safety net. The low-wage workers in Korea experiences a very low level of long-term unemployment, but has little probabilities of escaping the low-pay traps. Considering these characteristics of low-wage workers in Korea, this paper recommends the introducing of activation-based unemployment assistance. Measures to facilitate gainful employment and encourage upward mobility to better paid and more stable jobs is likely to more helpful to those who are excluded from both the protection of employment insurance and public assistance. Policies for enlarging the public employment service, restructuring the public work programs, providing income support contingent on participation in activation programs, and improving the low-wage market conditions are needed.

The purpose of this study is to examine how the government's ageing population policies embrace the human rights of older persons to set out policy agenda for the establishment of ageing population policies that help protect human rights. First, the human rights elements in the establishment of 『The 2nd Plan for Ageing Society and Population』(hereinafter the “Basic Plan”) were examined. Second, 『Basic Plan』, 『2011 Central Government Execution Plan』 and 『2011 Seoul City Execution Plan』were reviewed to find out whether they conform to the 35 objectives of 『Madrid International Plan of Action on Ageing』(MIPAA). The analysis produced results that participation and transparency assurance mechanisms were identified in the establishment of basic plan but the human rights elements were found out to be insufficient or difficult to verify. The conformity test in comparison with MIPAA, Korea's ageing population policies turned out to reflect a large portion of human rights elements provided by MIPAA but fail to sufficiently embrace the policies with regard to older persons’ participation in decision-making processes and the underprivileged groups such as older women, older persons with disabilities, and older persons in rural areas. Older persons’ human rights policies must be upgraded to close loopholes in the existing plans in order to embrace the human rights of the elderly more actively in the establishment and planning of ageing population policies. Furthermore, more efforts are required to develop agenda for the protection of senior human rights, introduce human rights impact assessment, establish guidelines over the establishment and execution of human rights-based ageing population policies, and concentrate resources on underprivileged older population. For the establishment and execution of human rights-based ageing population policies, the basic and execution plans must be associated with each other to assure the systematization of human rights-based processes.

This study investigates expansion of the private health insurance(PHI) and its implications in Korea. The objective of this study is to examine the characteristics of PHI under developmental state and its changes in Korea and why the PHI is not relevant to supplementary role of the public health insurance, i.e., National Health Insurance(NHI). The developmental state with strong authority had lead economic growth resulted in the structural weakness of the NHI with low contribution-low coverage, which has been a good reason for expanding role of the PHI and it also supported growth of private insurance. The transition to deregulated market oriented system after the developmental state resulted in development by conglomerates rather than government and contributed to expand PHI rapidly. Although policy agenda on the PHI has been focused on supplementary role of the NHI, experiences in Korea do not support it. Thus, it should be cautious to expect usual supplementary role of the PHI in Korea.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the causes of economic insecurity and poverty of the youth in Korea and Japan. This study carried out ordered logit analysis to explore the characteristics of youth poverty in both countries, using the data such as JGSS and KLIPS. Research findings are as follows. First, poverty risk is unequally distributed among the youth. Young, less educated(high school graduates), and temporary, without work groups are more vulnerable to poverty. Especially, high schoolers are more likely to be poor than university graduates in Korea. Also, regular employment rather than the employment itself is likely to increase economic security in both countries. Second, in terms of family status, the married is less likely to be poor than the never-married, implicating the marriage functions as a positional goods in both countries. No kids enjoys relatively secure economic status, reflecting carrying less family care burden. Lastly, availability of parent resource like housing and income lowers the economic risks among the youth. In Japan these parent effects are bigger than Korea. The policy implications of these findings are discussed in conclusion.