2016 Volume 8 Issue 2 Pages 135-147
The purpose of the presentation is to investigate the background of the Halfway Employment policies which have been revised in both Japan and Korea, and to consider the possibilities of the revised policies.The “Kushiro Model” was a practical example of the welfare independence support program. It demonstrated the possibility of ‘Half Welfare and Half Employment’ as a new form of support for economic independence. In Korea, the “Hope Reborn Project” devised by the Ministry of Health and Welfare offered many different programs provided by the case managers and, in practice, supported the same basic scheme as the ‘Half Welfare and Half Employment’ program.However, in Japan, the Public Assistance for Low―income Families program was reformed and re―established as the Law to Support Independence of People in Need. At the same time, in Korea, the Hope Reborn Project of the Ministry of Health and Welfare was unified with the Successful Employment Package that was managed under the auspices of the Ministry of Employment and Labor.The Halfway Employment program was a new scheme aiming for Support for Self―Sufficiency, and was called ‘Half Welfare and Half Employment’, but it reverted to the traditional scheme aiming at economic independence in order to allow recipients to break away from protection in both Japan―and Korea.This presentation seeks to identify the problems that were encountered when officials attempted to reform policies related to public assistance for low―income people, efforts that occurred simultaneously in Japan and Korea. It seeks also to clarify the significance of Halfway Employment as a new scheme aiming to support economic independence under the rubric of ‘Half Welfare and Half Employment.’
Annals of the Society for the Study of Social Policy
