Old-Age Policy and Long Term Care in Japan: Structures and Cases (Joint seminar with FASS Health Research Cluster)
Abstract
Japan has the oldest population in the world and its welfare-state policies are focused on problems of aging. Most notable is the public, mandatory long-term care insurance (LTCI) system initiated in 2000. In terms of coverage and benefits Japan's LTC policy is one of the most generous in the world. It operates on social insurance principles but provides only formal services, not cash. This presentation will begin with an overview of Japanese old-age policy before an explanation of how LTCI works. The impact of LTCI on Japanese older people, especially how it has affected the lives of frail older people and their caregivers will be examined through an urban and a rural case.
About the Speakers
Professor John Creighton Campbell John Creighton Campbell is Emeritus Professor of Political Science at the University of Michigan and currently a Visiting Scholar at the Institute of Gerontology at the University of Tokyo. He is a renowned academic especially on health policy in Japan and has authored more than 20 books and research monographs, including books on Contemporary Japanese Budget Politics, How Policies Change: The Japanese Government and the Aging Society, and, with Naoki Ikegami, The Art of Balance in Health Policy: Maintaining Japan’s Egalitarian, Low-Cost System. These books and many articles and chapters were published in Japanese as well as English. He has served as a program officer at the Social Science Research Council, Director of the Center for Japanese Studies at Michigan, and Secretary-Treasurer of the Association for Asian Studies. His research these days centers on Japanese and comparative policy for the elderly, particularly long-term care, as well as broader welfare state concerns. He is currently visiting National University of Singapore as FASS Distinguished Scholar hosted by Department of Japanese Studies and FASS Health Cluster.
Professor Ruth Campbell Ruth Campbell has been working in the field of aging for more than forty years beginning as the leader of a senior citizens group in New York City. With a background in social work and aging, she has taught at the University of Michigan School of Social Work and Institute of Gerontology, and was Professor at Tohoku Fukushi University (2002-2005). In Michigan, she also served as Associate Director for Social Work and Community Programs at the University Of Michigan Geriatrics Center (1978-2006). Ruth began research on the elderly in Japan since 1976 and has continued through the years to study older people and their family relationships, caregiving and Japanese programs and services for the elderly. She has numerous publications on aging in Japan, her most recent research focused on Japan’s national long-term care insurance and its impact on caregivers and care receivers. She is currently Visiting Scholar at Institute of Gerontology, The University of Tokyo and her current project is a life story project with older Japanese couples in which one of the spouses has dementia.
