Abstract
In the process to reconstruct the welfare state after the 1970s, care which used to be provided mainly within a private family relationship, has been positioned as a social problem, requiring unique political measures. However, progress of this process has not always been straightforward and smooth. The resistant force that tries to keep care within “families” continues to exist in changing forms particularly in the Japanese society rooted in strong familism. The purpose of this paper is to clarify transformation of the family model assumed or expected by policies in each age, by tracing the trend of care policies after the 1970s. This paper address child-rearing and elderly care policies, focusing on its support measures for “labor” and “costs”, and various political documents were examined as main materials for analysis. It was clarified in results of the analysis that political measures to support child-rearing and elderly care were adopted along with care measures assuming a family based on gender roles in the 1970s-80s, while the model branched off after the 1990s. The necessity of measures to support childrearing has been recognized, because of changing environment of labor market for males and females and resulting transformation of families, however “the male breadwinner model” cannot be fully abandoned under the current situation. On the other hand, elderly care policies, at least for the purpose of institutional design, “individual units” became the premise of political measures, because of diversification of the residence forms and care structure for the elderly. However, the discrepancy between the family model in care policies and the social reality of families is significant in both areas, leaving many tasks.
