Abstract
The purpose of this paper is as follows. After giving an overview of the support system for the care of the elderly and persons with disabilities in Japan, it traced the process of the two systems growing closer to one another from the establishment of the long-term care insurance system to the present, and a perspective for considering future care policies for the elderly and persons with disabilities in Japan was presented. The following were the results : ⑴ currently, care for the elderly and persons with disabilities are dealt with separate systems, but during the transition of the care support system for persons with disabilities since 2000, it has become closer to the mechanism of the long-term care insurance system, and it has many commonalities and similarities with the long-term care insurance system ; ⑵ in the discussion over the revision of long-term care insurance, the official goal was to “universalize the system,” but the true purpose was to secure financial resources for the sustainability of the system, and although most opinions support reduction of the scope of insured persons and beneficiaries, this has not been realized ; and ⑶ the services of the long-term care insurance system in the future must be reconsidered, and comprehensive discussion of the care support system for the elderly and disabled is necessary.
