The thesis of social policy research is the demonstration of policy discourse whose purpose is to meet social needs. Policy discourse as resource theory must, fundamentally, demonstrate evidence from the viewpoint of the efficiency and equality of resource distribution. We can then develop an institutional theory that seeks to meet social needs based on such evidence. Therefore, education policy research in the context of social policy research should be undertaken by focusing on resource theory whose purpose is to meet the social needs of education. Studies on social investment strategy in welfare state research should also initially be aimed at resource theory that mainly focuses on the verification of the efficiency and equality of educational investment.

This paper focuses on the social functions of education to outline the historical evolution of the education system in Japan from the establishment of the public school system in the late nineteenth century to its present trends as it developed in association with social policy aimed at alleviating poverty and social exclusion. The idea of social investment proliferated in Europe with the politics of welfare state reorganization from the 1990s. These changes broadly concerned education, such as early childhood education and care, childrearing support, vocational training, and employment support, especially for women and young unemployed or unstable workers. Simultaneously, Japan’s education reforms progressed toward a diverse and flexible school education. One proposal at the beginning of this century even considered the diversification of educational service providers, which might significantly alter the conventional public education system’s assumptions. To understand the significance of the social investment strategy in Japan’s historical context, this paper provides a historical description of the changing relationship of education to the state and society, emphasizing the presentation of issues rather than an examination of detailed facts.

In almost every country in the world, governments are involved in some way in the provision or financing of education. As public resources are allocated for this purpose, a transparent and objective discussion about the effectivity of such investments becomes mandatory. A large number of studies has been performed in the field of Economics on Western countries during the last half-century, which attempt to precisely identify and quantify the causal effect of public resources on educational outcomes.

In Japan, collection, preparation and access to the necessary data is rather limited, and as a result, empirical research on this matter has fallen behind. However, the panorama has changed drastically in recent years due mainly to several factors, including : better availability of data on academic ability tests and the initiatives of researchers in the fields of Economics, Sociology and Psychology.

In this report, I attempt to present the basic methods and concepts employed in the quantitative educational policy evaluation, and to summarize what empirical studies have （and have not） been able to show so far. I also discuss about the proper implementation and interpretation of empirical studies for educational policy selection and design.

Focusing on “career education”, which has been promoted as one of Japan’s most important education policies since the 2000s, this paper critically examines this philosophy’s use of activation―to encourage each person’s “social and occupational independence” through the development of “basic and general skills”. Then, based on the concept of “career education theory of rights”, we propose the necessity of an educational theory that aims to form a society as a safety net on which people can be “dependent” as well as develop individual skill for “independence”. In order to put this theory into practice, we applied the concept of social activation, which emphasizes social solidarity rather than economic benefit, and developed practical discussions related to curriculum and class management in elementary and secondary education. Based on the above discussion, we suggest that career education is needed to build a social and human model on which more people can become “independent” = “dependent” as a theoretical basis for education, and that there are limits and possibilities to the role that education can play as a social investment strategy.

When it comes to the functions of school, people tend to first think of education （forming human capital）, but school has so far played a role of creating ‘bonds’ （social capital） with its local communities and labour markets. Considering that ‘the Matthew Effect’ remains however equal educational opportunities are set and that even in a highly technological society those who are stuck in low wage and low skilled work are still needed, the limits of the social investment strategy whose emphasis is put disproportionately on the labour supply side （this is characteristic of the European SI） are obvious. Therefore, the author argues that ‘high schools with difficulties’ in particular needs ‘community embedment approach,’ which lays much importance on the function of creating ‘bonds.’ This approach tries to create ‘gently sloping’ transition paths during and after graduating school, that is, to make its local labour markets as easy to enter and stay in as possible. From the case study of the collaboration for this approach between Osaka Prefectural Nishinari High School and A Dash Work Creation, however, the limits of school resources are undeniable. Therefore, what is necessary is the institutional reconstruction at each scalar level.

The male-breadwinner-and-housewife family model prevailed in the post-war economic development period in both Japan and West Germany. This paper examines whether this family model changed from the 1990s to the 2010s, along with the conditions that might have prompted this change.

In recent years, policies to support women engaged in both working and childbearing have advanced significantly in the two countries. Particularly in Germany, a new concept, the work-care family model, has been proposed in a government report. In spite of the general rise in the female labor participation rate and in double-earner families, researchers have yet to examine the extent to which the post-childbirth housewife model continues, along with the ensuing disconnection between work and career. This paper investigates both the persistence of and very recent changes in this model. It also examines critical divergences in the conditions of part-time work in Japan and Germany, and how this might lead to different variations in the work-care family model.

Although the need for women in Japan to continue employment has long been recognized, many women continue to leave jobs before and after giving birth for the first time. Despite the high number of quits resulting from first childbirths, the conditions of women who continue to work during the perinatal period have not been adequately explored in previous studies.

In this paper, we focus on the continued employment of women pregnant with their first child. We use the results of a questionnaire survey of mothers in the second trimester ; the survey was conducted at a mother’s class in Osaka from November 2014 to February 2015.

According to Vital Statistics in Japan-Trends up to 2016, the average age of mothers in Japan having a first child in 2016 was 30.7, 5.0 years higher than in 1975. With more people starting to have children later in life, an increasing number of couples have to rely on fertility treatments to conceive. While giving attention to the factors contributing to later childbirth, we examine the effect of advanced maternal age on women’s employment during the perinatal period.

This paper discusses the legal basis and legitimacy of social protections for foreigners provided by local governments, as well as the limits of those policies. At present, as a result of decentralization, the official notifications regulating public assistance for foreigners have been converted into technical advice under the Local Autonomy Act, rendering the legal basis of protections provided by local governments unclear. This change has enabled anti-foreigner movements to bring residents’ audit requests to local governments, and to launch lawsuits that question the legal basis and the legitimacy of protections provided by local governments to foreigners. Therefore, in this paper, I investigate the aforementioned materials in order to clarify how local governments have sought to demonstrate the legal basis and legitimacy of providing assistance to foreigners. It was found that local governments generally protect foreigners as “a contribution or assistance,” and that it is possible to judge whether foreigners are protected at the local government’s discretion. Based on these findings, I argue that, given the complexities of local government discretionary authority, the difficulty of understanding cost burdens related to assistance programs for foreigners, and the international Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees, protections based on official notifications should be regarded as a limitation, and that legislation to promote the provision of assistance for foreigners is needed.

This paper analyzes the Welfare Pension Insurance Draft, which was the original bill of the Workers’ Pension Insurance Act in Japan. This act was drafted by the Planning Division of the General Affairs Bureau in July 1939, based on the Planning Division’s 1938 pension plan. This study draws on historical documents such as the minutes of the Wartime Labor Measures Committee, published by the Research Institute of National Policy. The following three points became clear. First, the Planning Division’s 1938 pension plan was designed to solve social problems caused by the Great Depression. Second, although Hidefumi Kawamura, head of the Planning Division of the General Affairs Bureau, proposed the Welfare Pension Insurance Plan to replace the National Labor Adjustment Fund Plan, comprehensive unemployment insurance did not become a wartime labor policy. Third, the Welfare Pension Insurance Draft drafted by the Planning Division of the General Affairs Bureau in July 1939 embodies technical matters based on Kawamura’s Welfare Pension Insurance Plan, the purpose of which was to ensure livelihood stability by preventing lower-income citizens from falling into poverty. In proposing this draft, Kawamura’s Planning Division aimed to enact a permanent public pension.

Due to the rapid increase in international students enrolling in vocational schools and Japanese language institutes, a total of more than 300,000 students were studying in Japan at the end of 2017. Of those students, seventy percent work part-time. Given this situation, this paper will explore the relationship between international students’ part-time jobs, their nationality, and regional industries by using data from Japan Student Services Organization （JASSO）.

The findings show that the ratio of students working part-time jobs was high in prefectures where both vocational schools and manufacturing plants were located. The ratio of part-time income to total income was high where there were many students from low-income countries. The above data indicates that international students are attracted to areas where manufacturing plants are available as places to work. In addition, it has become clear that foreign students from low-income countries have become an important labor force in regional economies. Under such circumstances, it is necessary to keep an eye on the economic conditions of foreign students, in particular to debts they may have incurred before studying in Japan, and to pay attention to the balance between hours for study and part-time work.