Abstract
The concept of social security stems from the religious consciousness, national identity, and sense of family in western European society. In both Japan and China, the social security system, in which social insurance is at the core, is a foreign cultural import from western Europe. In the 20th century, in the process of China's and Japan's introduction of social security, it is not only the two countries'modernization processes and national situations that have had great impact on social security, but also their traditional cultures. This paper deals mainly with the following two questions: how have the traditional cultures of the two countries affected the establishment and operation of their social security systems, and what influence has the achievement of social security and national welfare systems exerted on the traditional cultures of the two countries, i. e., what tendencies may be found in the two countries'traditional cultures?
