Establishment and Change in the Evaluation Regime of Social Welfare

: In Connection with the Introduction of Performance Management

Abstract

Using the concept of the ‘evaluation regime’ that signifies the interrelated structure of evaluation systems in public policy, this study analyzes the establishment and change in the evaluation systems of social welfare in Japan. It also considers the reforms and policy changes in social welfare, the development of the government system for policy evaluation, the establishment of the cross-ministerial system for performance management, and the introduction of performance management in the local government welfare plans and social welfare programs. Moreover, this study discusses several issues regarding the future of the evaluation regime in social welfare. Findings reveal that some changes in the evaluation regime were entailed by developing the evaluation system of local government welfare plans and the cross-ministerial system of performance management. The last section of this study discusses several issues, including the sectionalism in the ministerial management of local government plans, background of the performance management, the New Public Management theory and the governance, and the place of program evaluation in the evaluation regime.