Abstract
Families, and communities in general, change as the society surrounding them changes, causing a social transformation that further transforms them.
Such prophylactic policy must naturally and necessarily be directed at the family and at the children who are the people of the future. Such a policy is in a high degree an “investment,” in the personal capital of the country.
Myrdal, G. (1940, p. 206)
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Notes
- 1.
It has been pointed out that child poverty is also increasing in Japan. See Sect. 9.2.2.
- 2.
The ratio was 60.1% in 1992. As Fig. 11.2 indicates, it is 44.6% in 2014. The social norm has been changing gradually but speed of the change is low.
- 3.
See Takeda (2005) for comprehensive studies on reproductive and population policies of Japan.
- 4.
See also Yamashige (2002) for more discussion on the “Japanese-style welfare state” and relationship between the arguments by Garon (1997) and those in this book. The decline in the traditional social norm among young people in the past twenty years is quite large. “Molding Japanese minds” by the traditional government’s strategy does not seem to be working well to make Japanese society sustainable.
- 5.
The shock was called the “1.57 shock.”.
- 6.
The year is known as the bad year for girls to be born, according to Chinese astrology.
- 7.
Even today, there is a big gender gap in Japan. For example, in the “Global Gender Gap Index” published by the World Economic Forum, Japan ranks at 111th among 144 countries in 2016. The Japanese government’s policies for gender equality have been too small to change the structure of the Japanese society and economy.
- 8.
Rosenbluth (2007, p.19), for instance, observed the following: “Public provision of childcare, which is generous and nearly universal in Sweden, appears to have been more of a response to the need of working mothers .... than a cause of their initial foray into the market.”.
- 9.
See, for example, Rosenbluth (2007, Chap. 1) for this argument.
- 10.
In countries with high social expenditure on families, women in politics and business seem to have been the driving political force behind the enhancement of social policies, something that is missing in Japan.
- 11.
The basic problem is that it is difficult to implement policies that entail short-run costs and long-run benefits. For example, environmental policies present such a problem. One way of solving this problem is to use public debt, which turns short-run costs into long-run costs. Another way is to make the current generation to acknowledge the future benefits as benefits accruing to them. Changing the social norm to change people’s perspective via education, for instance, can be a public policy. If it is difficult, then supporting and empowering those who have such views and political influences can be another public policy to make society sustainable.
- 12.
- 13.
See, for example, Adserà and Ferrer (2014) for a comprehensive surve on the demographic effects of immigrants.
- 14.
There is an accumulation of researches on the benefits and costs of immigrants. See, for example, West (2011) for a general survey. In relation to the public policies, fiscal impacts of increasing immigrants have been studied well. In general, the fiscal impacts are estimated to be relatively small. See, for example, Rowthorn (2008).
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Yamashige, S. (2017). Epilogue: Social Transformation and Public Policies. In: Economic Analysis of Families and Society. Advances in Japanese Business and Economics, vol 16. Springer, Tokyo. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-4-431-55909-2_11
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