The puzzle of Japans welfare capitalism, a review of the welfare regime approach

Abstract

There has been little consensus on Japan’s welfare regime since Esping-Andersen’s [1990. The Three Worlds of Welfare Capitalism. Cambridge: Polity Press] unclear categorisation of Japan as his only non-Western welfare state. This article is the first attempt to analyse academic research published in both English and Japanese. It presents a review of 40 collected studies (including 15 Western, 6 Asian and 19 Japanese articles), reached a wide variety of conclusions, defining Japan as eight different types: We point out that while the majority of Western studies tend to run statistical models including Japan among otherwise ‘Western’ welfare states with little theoretical justification, Japanese scholars tend to focus on Japan as a single case. The two very different approaches may have something to learn from each other, as in thesis+antithesis=synthesis. Now that we are aware of very different approaches to and conclusions about Japan’s welfare regime, the topic appears ripe for greater co-operation between scholars.