Abstract
Prof. Hiromichi Nishimura made important contributions to the development of the Society for the Study of Social Policy in postwar Japan. He tackled major issues such as controversies about the nature of social policy and the development of theory on social policy. In addition, he played a leading role in making the Society for the Study of Social Policy one of Japan's leading research associations. It seems that we have had few opportunities to refer to social policy theories, including those developed by Prof. Nishimura, in the second half of the 20th century. We should bear in mind that we continue to study the works of Prof. Nishimura because of the insights they provide for pursuing a vision of 21st century social policy. This special issue focuses on Prof. Nishimura so as to identify the place of his contributions in the development of Japanese social policy research.
