抄録
Historical background of the Japanese Society for the Study of Social Welfare made its post-war "democratization" rather difficult. It was established in 1954, while closely related academic societies of social policy and that of nursery and pre-school education had started in 1948 and 1950 respectively. This delay of the post-war re-organization left some impact as to the membership constitution of the Society. Today, the characteristics of the Society are summerized as (1) its membership with many practitioners, (2) the lack of researchers in the field of child development and education, and (3) the not-yet attained full recognition in the academic world. In order to be recognized as a full member of the National Academy of Sciences, the Society must become more independent from Japanese Sociological Society; must establish academic titles of bachelors and masters, and doctorate of Social Welfare, for which we have been working foryears. The study of social welfare is more and more important today. Researchers of this field must have closer contacts with the practice and voluntary study groups among social workers. The Society must organize inter-disciplinary research projects and committees on important issues, so that the Society and its members have clearer view of the important issues and widely shared concern for them. Those are the urgent tasks of the Society if it is to function as an academic organization for the betterment of social welfare of the people in its true sense.
