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Re-examination of the “Recommendations on a Social Security System” of 1950

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Japan's Shifting Status in the World and the Development of Japan's Medical Insurance Systems

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Abstract

This chapter analyzes the origin and significance of the “Recommendation on Social Security System,” drafted by the Advisory Council on the Social Security System in October 1950. It was essentially a comprehensive social security plan , a culmination of a series of progressive social security schemes considered during the Allied occupation. Many previous studies consider this recommendation a monumental work in Japanese social security history. However, the Dodge Line had already shattered any possibility of realizing the recommendation. With the government basically ignoring the ideals and objectives of the 1950 Recommendation, none of its elements were implemented. At the end of 1950, Japan continued to rely on ad hoc measures with regard to medical insurance programs, as the medical insurance system became more broadly based and lacked central government policy to guide it.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    For the list of members and the list of committee members after its reorganization in December 1949, see Sorifu Shakai Hosho Seido Shingikai Jimukyoku (1961), pp. 59–60, 89; For the list of committee members at the beginning and the chart of changes of members from May 1949 through December 1979, see Sorifu Shakai Hosho Seido Shingikai Jimukyoku (1980) (229, back pages 1–32).

  2. 2.

    Insurance physicians are those physicians who agree to consult with patients covered by medical insurances.

  3. 3.

    For a complete list of members and the main duties of each new committee, see the table on p. 76.

  4. 4.

    “Social Insurance ,” Encyclopedia Britannica.

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  1. Osaka University, Osaka, Japan

    Yoneyuki Sugita

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Sugita, Y. (2019). Re-examination of the “Recommendations on a Social Security System” of 1950. In: Japan's Shifting Status in the World and the Development of Japan's Medical Insurance Systems. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-1660-9_7

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