I investigate the relationship between basic livelihood levels and benefit levels of the National Pension Plan (NPP) from 1959 to 2004 by financial re-calculation periods. I also estimate the extent of benefit reduction as a result of the 2004 NPP reform.The NPP benefit levels had been correlated with the levels of consumption or public livelihood assistance for old age from the establishment of the NPP plan until the 1999 pension reform, so that the NPP had been securing basic livelihood for old age. However, the linkage between NPP benefits levels and the levels of consumption or public livelihood assistance for old age was abolished by the 2004 pension reform. With this reform, the NPP benefits would be automatically reduced by 15% as well as the benefits of Employees' Pension Plan (EPP). As a result, the ratio of standard NPP benefits to public livelihood assistance for old age would decrease to the level in the 1960's by 2023. In this respect, the effect of 2004 pension reform on benefit cut might be more intense in the NPP than in the EPP. If the NPP benefits cuts of similar amounts are continued in the next pension reform, the NPP aim of guaranteeing basic livelihood for pensioners would not be achieved.

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Although it is often "warned" that since a child is powerless and easily hurt, and that, if abused, is likely to grow to be a criminal or an abusive parent, recent studies in North America have resulted in rejecting this kind of causality. In Japan, however, the thinking is still strongly maintained that assistance to children should be considered as for the weak. While a change in the paradigm of aid philosophy from one based on paternalism to that of empowerment is taking place, it seems to this writer that empowerment of children is ignored. This paper reexamines the traditional view of the child in the child welfare field, and a pathological model in the field of child abuse intervention from the viewpoint of "RESILIENCE", while it introduces an assistance program to the abused children, quoting the Child Abuse Prevention program that has come to be known as a model program to empower the children.

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Foster parent homes accept children who cannot live with their parents and provide them with an alternative family environment. There, they are able to have the chance to develop attachment to the foster parents and to go through a more normal growth process. To recover from maternal deprivation and to cure trauma by neglect from the early stage after birth, it is necessary to establish a mutual and constant relationship between foster parents and children. In this paper, by analyzing the fostering processes recorded through our interviews with a foster parent at her home over three years, we study how the foster parent and fostered child have confronted these issues and have formed an attachment. In conclusion, in order to treat and nurture an abused child, it is necessary to provide a receptive, permanent and intimate relationship and environment of holding and sympathy, especially in the first fostering stage. The present paper also insists on the necessity of continuous social-support by the professional to the foster parent, especially in the primary care stage just after acceptance of the child.

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In the United States and Europe, many research projects regarding family members' attitudes towards relocation of residents with intellectual disabilities from large institutions to community based residences have shown that at the beginning of a de-institutionalization project, family members were opposed to such programmatic change. In order to respond to residents' desires to move to community based residences without imposing a psychological burden on their family members, it is important to facilitate family members' satisfaction with the relocation process. This paper analyzes the reasons for family members' opposition to relocation by qualitative research in Institution A/B. The result points to the following: 1. Dependence on institutional services and settings. 2. Concerns because of the severity of the disabilities of their relatives. 3. Uncertainty concerning adverse impact on family members: a. Increase of care imposed on family members; b. Uncertainty concerning after their parents' death. 4. Uncertainty concerning the various things related to community based services: a. Principles of normalization; b. Relocation as adverse impact on their relatives; c. Financial burden imposed on their relatives; d. Insufficiency in infrastructural support in the society. 5. Dissatisfaction with lack of involvement of family members in the decision making process related to relocation.

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People waiting for admission to special nursing homes for the aged (waiting people, hereafter) were surveyed concerning their situations and conditions for continued nursing care at home. Subjects were users of 33 providers of nursing care and support at home. Two surveys were requested:(1) on caregivers requested to reply through care managers in charge and (2) on the managers. Replies were 384 for (1) and 462 for (2). The surveys revealed the following:(1) depression was observed in 29.1% of the caregivers and 34.5% had practiced "inappropriate nursing care" such as abuse,(2) about 60% of nursed people were judged to "need to be admitted to a special nursing home within a year" by both the caregivers and the managers, and (3) 64.3% of the caregivers replied that the arrangement for short stay would be effective to extend the nursing period at home, whereas 45.9% replied that the period could not be extended even if services are improved. Waiting people and caregivers face severe situations. More people seem to need to be admitted soon than reported in the past. Some extent of facility improvement as well as improvement of services at home including short stay seemed necessary.

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