Abstract
The purposes of this paper are to (1) review findings on health inequalities, (2) examine pathways from social disparities to health inequalities, and (3) examine the importance of social policy and examples in other countries. Social epidemiological research (1) has described socioeconomic inequalities related to health in Japan and (2) has revealed both the complex pathways of widening socioeconomic disparities that mediate health, and the social determinants of health such as social support and/or social capital. (3) Promising measures to reduce health inequalities also include both individual and societal level interventions. As a societal level measure, social policy is important for reducing socio-economic disparities and enriching social capital. When we learn from the experiences in other countries, we find that broad social policies regarding education, employment, and social security policy can be health-related policies. We have recognized the following three basic ideas, including (a) adopting approaches to deal with upstream factors in the chain of causal relationships, (b) considering Health in All Policies (WHO), and (3) environmental interventions.
