Basic Income in Japan: Prospects for a Radical Idea in a Transforming Welfare State

277 Pages·2014·1.042 MB·English

by  Yannick Vanderborght, Toru Yamamori (eds.)

Basic Income in Japan
Exploring the Basic Income Guarantee
Basic income is one of the most innovative, powerful, straightforward, and contro-
versial proposals for addressing poverty and growing inequalities. A Basic Income
Guarantee (BIG) is designed to be an unconditional, government-insured guarantee
that all citizens will have enough income to meet their basic needs. The concept of
basic, or guaranteed, income is a form of social provision and this series examines the
arguments for and against it from an interdisciplinary perspective with special focus on
the economic and social factors. By systematically connecting abstract philosophical
debates over competing principles of BIG to the empirical analysis of concrete policy
proposals, this series contributes to the fields of economics, politics, social policy, and
philosophy and establishes a theoretical framework for interdisciplinary research. It
will bring together international and national scholars and activists to provide a com-
parative look at the main efforts to date to pass unconditional BIG legislation across
regions of the globe and will identify commonalities and differences across countries
drawing lessons for advancing social policies in general and BIG policies in particular.
Series Editors:
Karl Widerquist is an associate professor at SFS-Qatar, Georgetown University.
James Bryan is an associate professor of Economics at Manhattanville College.
Michael A. Lewis is an associate professor at Hunter College School of Social
Work.
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Simon Birnbaum
Alaska’s Permanent Fund Dividend
Edited by Karl Widerquist and Michael W. Howard
Basic Income Guarantee
Allan Sheahen
Basic Income Guarantee and Politics
Edited by Richard K. Caputo
Exporting the Alaska Model
Edited by Karl Widerquist and Michael W. Howard
Citizen’s Income and Welfare Regimes in Latin America
Edited by Rubén Lo Vuolo
Independence, Propertylessness, and Basic Income: A Theory of Freedom as the Power to
Say No
Karl Widerquist
Basic Income and the Free Market: Austrian Economics and the Potential for Efficient
Redistribution
Edited by Guinevere Liberty Nell
Basic Income in Japan: Prospects for a Radical Idea in a Transforming Welfare State
Edited by Yannick Vanderborght and Toru Yamamori
Basic Income in Japan

Prospects for a Radical Idea in a
Transforming Welfare State
Edited by
Yannick Vanderborght and Toru Yamamori
BASIC INCOME IN JAPAN
Copyright © Yannick Vanderborght and Toru Yamamori, 2014.
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2014 978-1-137-35657-4
All rights reserved.
First published in 2014 by
PALGRAVE MACMILLAN®
in the United States— a division of St. Martin’s Press LLC,
175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010.
Where this book is distributed in the UK, Europe and the rest of the world,
this is by Palgrave Macmillan, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited,
registered in England, company number 785998, of Houndmills,
Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS.
Palgrave Macmillan is the global academic imprint of the above companies
and has companies and representatives throughout the world.
Palgrave® and Macmillan® are registered trademarks in the United States,
the United Kingdom, Europe and other countries.
ISBN 978-1-349-47052-5 ISBN 978-1-137-34808-1 (eBook)
DOI 10.1057/9781137348081
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Basic income in Japan : prospects for a radical idea in a transforming
welfare state / editors, Yannick Vanderborght and Toru Yamamori.
pages cm.—(Exploring the basic income guarantee)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. Guaranteed annual income—Japan. 2. Social security—Japan.
3. Welfare state—Japan. 4. Japan—Social policy. I. Vanderborght,
Yannick. II. Yamamori, Toru, 1970–
HD4928.A52J326 2014
362.5(cid:25)820952—dc23 2014012904
A catalogue record of the book is available from the British Library.
Design by Newgen Knowledge Works (P) Ltd., Chennai, India.
First edition: October 2014
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Contents

List of Illustrations vii
Foreword: Basic Income and Japan ix
Ronald Dore
1 Introduction: Income Security and the “Right
to Subsistence” in Japan 1
Toru Yamamori and Yannick Vanderborght
Section I Basic Income and the
Welfare State: Past and Future
2 A Comparative Look at the Feasibility of Basic Income
in the Japanese Welfare State 15
Yannick Vanderborght and Yuki Sekine
3 Transforming Japan’s Bismarckian Welfare State:
Basic Income versus Inclusive Social Insurance 35
Takashi Suganuma
4 Is There a Future for a Universal Cash Benefit in Japan?
The Case of Kodomo Teate (Child Benefit) 49
Aya K. Abe
5 The 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake and Basic Income 69
Toru Yamamori
6 The Future of the Public Assistance Reform in Japan:
Workfare versus Basic Income? 83
Hayato Kobayashi
7 Beyond the Three Selection Principles of Welfare Policy
(Work, Family, and Belonging): Toward a Reconsideration
of the Fujin Hogo Jigyo (Women’s Protection Project)
in Japan 101
Kaori Katada
vi CONTENTS
Section II Basic Income and the Labor
Market: Deconstructing the Boundaries?
8 The Impact of Basic Income on the Gendered Division of
Paid Care Work 117
Junko Yamashita
9 Basic Income and Unpaid Care Work in Japan 131
Sakura Furukubo
10 Beyond the Paradigm of Labor: Everyday Activism
and Unconditional Basic Income in Urban Japan 141
Julia Obinger
11 The Tensions between Multiculturalism and
Basic Income in Japan 157
Fumio Iida
Section III Realizing Basic Income:
The Potential of a Radical Reform
12 What Do People Think about Basic Income in Japan? 171
Yoshio Itaba
13 What Needs to Be Considered When Introducing a New
Welfare System: Who Supports Basic Income in Japan? 197
Rie Takamatsu and Toshiaki Tachibanaki
14 The Financial Feasibility of Basic Income and the
Idea of a Refundable Tax Credit in Japan 219
Shinji Murakami
15 The Potential of Introducing Basic Income for the “New
Public” in Japan: A Road to the Associational Welfare State? 247
Hiroya Hirano
Notes on Contributors 263
Index 267
Illustrations

Figures
2.1 The basic pension and other retirement programs 18
3.1 Structure of Kaihoken in 1961 (health insurance system) 39
12.1 What do you think about the idea that the government
covers the minimum necessary cost of living? 175
12.2 Basic income and gender 177
12.3 Basic income and age 178
12.4 Basic income and marital status 179
12.5 Basic income and with/without children 179
12.6 Basic income and the number of children 180
12.7 Basic income and have/have not received public assistance 181
12.8 Basic income and health condition 182
12.9 Basic income and monthly wages 182
12.10 Basic income and financial assets of the household 183
12.11 Basic income and educational background 184
12.12 B asic income and inequality in living standards
(income, consumption, assets, etc.) 185
12.13 B asic income and “Do you think that the income
gap in Japan is too wide?” 186
12.14 B asic income and “Do you think that it is the
government’s responsibility to reduce the income gap?” 187
12.15 B asic income and “Do you think that there is equality of
opportunity in Japan, where everyone can succeed?” 188
12.16 B asic income and “Do you think that the income gap
will increase in the coming five years?” 189
12.17 Basic income and relationship with neighbors 190
13.1 Distribution of political attitudes 205
13.2 Distribution of opinions in support of basic income and
negative income tax 205
13.3 Political attitudes and opinions in support of basic income 208
13.4 Opinions in support of negative income tax 211
Tables
3.1 Chronological table of main social policy event in Japan 38
viii ILLUSTRATIONS
3.2 Changing numbers of regular and irregular workers,
and the unemployed 1990–2010 43
3.3 N umber of persons covered by health insurance
according to systems 44
4.1 H istory of the child benefit (“Jido Teate” and
“Kodomo Teate”) in Japan 54
4.2 Editorials of major newspapers regarding whether or
not the Kodomo Teate should be means-tested 61
12.1 The descriptive statistics 173
12.2 Comparison with other countries (%) 175
12.3 The financial resources for basic income 176
12.4 Principal component analysis of inequality 186
12.5 Estimated result 191
13.1 Descriptive statistics 203
13.2 Ordered logistic regression analysis on the opinions in
support of basic income and negative income tax
(all cases included) 206
13.3 Ordered logistic analysis on the opinions in support of
basic income (by each political attitude) 209
13.4 Ordered logistic analysis on the opinions in support of
negative income tax (by each political attitude) 212
14.1 Transition of progressive income tax rate structure 222
14.2 Adjusted numerical values from the 2010-based
consumer price index (CPI) 225
14.3 Transition of adjusted progressive income tax rate structure 226
14.4 Social security expenditure by functional category
for fiscal year 2009 228
14.5 Annual basic income 230
14.6 1969 progressive income tax formula 231
14.7 1969 revenue estimate of withholding income tax
abolishing tax deductions 232
14.8 1969 revenue estimate of self-assessed income tax
abolishing tax deductions 233
14.9 1974 progressive income tax formula 235
14.10 1 974 revenue estimate of withholding income tax
abolishing tax deductions 236
14.11 1 974 revenue estimate of self-assessed income tax
abolishing tax deductions 237
14.12 1 969 estimate of withholding income tax abolishing
tax deductions refundable tax credit 239
14.13 1969 estimate of self-assessed income tax abolishing
tax deductions refundable tax credit 240
Graph
4.1 Percentage of children receiving the Jido Teate: 2000–2011 51
Foreword: Basic Income

and Japan
Ronald Dore
Basic Income

Before I get to the “and Japan” and the questions raised in this admirably
informative book, let me give you a short summary of my expectations about
basic income (BI) in all advanced industrial societies.
1. Roughly there are three basic approaches to social welfare policy.
Two individualistic and the third what one might call collectivist or
communitarian.
(a) s ocial insurance schemes, such as Japanese unemployment insur-
ance. The entitlement of individuals depends on their own per-
sonal contributions. Such schemes are both individualistic and
egalitarian.
(b) targeted income transfers: Means-tested benefits, paid out of the
taxes on the income of the majority of the population, to tar-
geted minorities whose income would otherwise be so low (usu-
ally calculated as x percent of the median) as to evoke pity and
charity—the disabled, the widows with children, the long-term
unemployed, the working poor. This is individualistic, but not so
egalitarian insofar as a society in which the work ethic prevails
(in Japanese, hatarakazaru mono kuubekarazu [who doesn’t work
should not eat]), tends to deprive those who are the object of pity
and charity of their dignity as citizens. See Kaori Katada (chap-
ter 7) in this volume on the deserving and the undeserving poor,
which also reminds us of the gender issues that detract from the
collectivist sense of social solidarity.
(c) BI, by contrast, is collectivist and egalitarian. The state continues
to draw revenues from those who work, but it treats that rev-
enue as collectively owned and spends a sizeable part of it, not
only on public services shared by all, such as roads and defense
and schools and hospitals, but also on paying to each citizen a