2022 Volume 63 Issue 2 Pages 1-13
This study analyzed how Daily Life Security Law (DLS) funds were reduced during the “welfare retrenchment period” using blame avoidance strategies. In the 1980s, financial difficulties compelled the Japanese cabinet to reduce social security costs. To achieve this, the cabinet opted for neoliberal measures. Thus, social security systems suffered budget cuts, especially the DLS. Studies showed that the reduction of retrenchment benefits in the DLS revealed the effects of its “optimization” but did not clarify how this optimization was realized in the 1980s. We therefore posited that skillful strategies of blame avoidance, similar to those used during the pension system reform (as pointed out by Toshimitsu Shinkawa), were employed in the DLS welfare retrenchment reform and explained how the DLS was reduced using these strategies. We used the city of Kitakyushu as a local municipal case study for implementing DLS. We clarified that these aforementioned strategies are different from those implemented in the pension system. Ultimately, these methods were partially successful at reducing DLS welfare during this period.
