Introduction to the Special Issue

Abstract

The present issue of Social Policy and Labor Studies features four papers that are based on presentations at the plenary session of the JASPS 134th Biannual Conference in 2017 entitled “Reconsideration of the Marketization of Welfare.” This introduction aims to describe the background and the intention of the plenary session, to introduce major points that were presented in the four papers of the Special Issue, and to discuss major issues for policy development and social policy studies that were raised by the presentations and discussions in this plenary session. The challenges facing social welfare policy in Japan examined here include unequal access to care services, worsening working conditions of care workers, and other related problems caused by the marketization of welfare. This introduction also examines challenges for social policy studies, including an analysis on the diversified and changing contexts of the third or nonprofit sector, the emergence of the “culture of the welfare market,” and changes in welfare and care labor in the context of the marketization of welfare.