Social Policy and the Ethics of Care : Implications for Japan’s Disability Policy

Abstract

This paper regards the ethics of care as the theoretical foundation of social welfare, despite the fact that in the public/private dichotomy it has been considered to be applicable only to the private sphere. By investigating, with reference to the ideas of several care ethicists, what an ideal social welfare policy should be from the viewpoint of the ethics of care, this paper demonstrates that contemporary Japanese disability policy is characterized by liberalism （the ethics of justice）. Liberalism presupposes a ‘strong’ individual as the target of disability laws. In contrast, the ethics of care deems human vulnerability as natural and inevitable.

Accordingly, this paper argues that we should adopt the perspective of the ethics of care as an alternative to that of liberalism when examining the nature of social welfare policy. We as a species are vulnerable, and our lives are relational and mutually interdependent. This reality of human nature should underpin social welfare policy.