Research on Sustainable Medical Care and Social Security

2018 Research Project

Research Topic

Lead Researcher

Yoshinori Hiroi, Professor, Kokoro Research Center, Kyoto University

Collaborating Researchers

Hiromi Matsuba, Fellow Researcher, Special Researcher, Chiba University Graduate School of Humanities and Social Sciences

Naoya Ono, Senior Researcher, Institute for Future Engineering

Takako Yasutome, Member of the Japanese Research Association for Community Development, Former Associate Professor at Shizuoka University of Welfare

Although the cost of medical care and social security in Japan are on the rise, current policies avoid burdening today’s citizens with the taxes necessary to fund such programs. This is leading to over 1000 trillion yen of debt that will have to be covered by future generations.
A large scale multi-national comparative questionnaire survey (World Values Survey) ranks Japan highest in “Social Isolation” among developed countries. In such circumstances, it is necessary to design new policies and systems for medical care and social security while tracing back the theoretical ideologies and philosophies underlying each institution.
This project investigates practical policy ideas for sustainable medical care and social security and outlines the underlying ideas and ideals that inform the policies, while taking into consideration that Japan as a global front runner in aging and population decline. This project should help to significantly resolve these pressing problems that Japan is facing.

2018/11/06