97-F-28. Miyajima, Hiroshi, "Restructuring the Social Security System in Japan: An Overview", September 1997.

Japan's social security system has been highly evaluated by the standards of European and North American countries, so far as its economic or fiscal performance is concerned. However, we are forced today to restructure our social security system in response to a far more rapid aging of our population and a far deeper decline in our economic growth than has been expected. In this paper, we seek to examine issues on the existing social security programs in Japan, and to suggest a way to reform the programs by taking projected demographic and economic changes into consideration. In conclusion, we place special emphasis on the necessity for coordination among social insurance schemes and for privatizing social welfare services.