Sweden has experienced several changes in benefits and service systems as unemployment rates have reached high levels. It seems that the Swedish government has started to emphasize a "welfare to work" type policy, since some officials for various systems are allowed to stop benefits for unemployed recipients who do not try to find jobs. However, these changes can be understood as being in line with the so-called "work line" which has long formed part of Swedish employment policy. What is new in the 2000s is the increase in the numbers of the long-term unemployed. Disabled persons and immigrants account for many of the long-term unemployed, and benefit systems targeting them have been changed along with the "work line." The employment service office is the agency that offers labour market programs for them. Therefore, these programs have also been adjusted to help those who cannot go into the labour market without assistance. The responsibility of these programs for promoting social inclusion has also been enhanced.

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This article deals with the "1 euro job", a kind of job assistance for job seekers who are the object of "the basic support for job seekers" program established in 2005. 1 euro jobs are additional public and low-wage jobs for those who are long-term unemployed and those who have difficulty finding employment. Though the program aims at promoting movement into normal employment, its bridging effect for normal work is weak. In addition, it seems that 1 euro jobs can function as "participation income", a kind of basic income which enables people to get income support as long as they engage in 1 euro jobs. Facing increasing criticism, 1 euro jobs are being utilized in subordinate functions, and their period is limited. At the same time, a new effort called "citizen jobs" (Burgerarbeit) is under development. This article also considers the lessons to be learned from 1 euro jobs for the "intermediate work" that will be introduced in Japan in 2015, and points out the importance of maintaining worker protections and income support for workers in employment programs.

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In recent decades, advanced democracies have experienced important transformations in their welfare states. However, social policy scholars have not reached a shared view on how we should characterize the sea change in social policy of the late 20th and early 21st centuries. On the one hand, some scholars describe these changes in social and labor policies as "neoliberalism" because recent workfare reforms require social benefit recipients to enter the labor market or training, and tighten rules on eligibility for various benefits. On the other hand, Takada (2012) characterizes recent changes in social policy as "merit-free egalitarianism" since these changes, such as the Hartz IV reform (Germany) and RSA (France), decouple - not tighten - the linkage between paid work and an autonomous, decent life. This paper derives observable implications from these two confronting claims and evaluates their validity with empirical data. Specifically, it analyzes household data in 6 European countries - the U. K., Sweden, the Netherlands, Germany, France, and Italy - by using data from the Luxembourg Income Study (LIS).

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Many countries, including Sweden, Denmark and Japan, have undergone a considerable shift in policy orientation from disability assessment to work-capacity assessment. But there are large variations in the balance between integration policy and compensation policy across the OECD countries. In this special issue we deal with employment policies for persons with disabilities in Sweden and Denmark, and compare them with relevant policies in Japan. Though both Sweden and Denmark emphasize the social democratic policy model, Denmark is more integration-oriented. In this article, we first introduce the key trends in employment policies for persons with disabilities in OECD countries. Secondly, we examine the disability policy issue in Sweden and Denmark, including initiatives towards the mainstreaming of disability in employment policies, relationship with flexicurity policy, and the degree of income security achieved through more employment-oriented policies and work-capacity assessment. Finally, we compare their policies with those of Japan.

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Swedish disability employment policy is characterized by a social policy based on universalism and an active labor market policy. Measures to help people with disabilities are therefore an important part of the government's strategy for the implementation of the disability policy. Employment with subsidized wages and sheltered employment at Samhall AB have been the traditional Swedish measures. However, Sweden and other countries face a shift from sheltered activities to an inclusive working life in the regular labor market (mainstreaming). In 2012, the FunkA-Inquiry which was appointed to conduct a review of the labor market policies for the people with disabilities (2011) presented its comprehensive proposal on how labor market policy measures should be designed to effectively contribute to improving the prospects for people with disabilities to find and maintain employment. An important proposal is to classify the rules for subsidized wages under two main aims, namely development and security. The Inquiry proposes subsidized wages for development for those who need tailored work and different types of developmental initiatives, and subsidized wages for security for those who have reduced work capacity and the need for long-term support. The purpose of subsidized wages is to develop the individuals' resources and abilities to carry out their tasks. The Inquiry also proposes expanding employment support to make it possible for people with disabilities to obtain and maintain employment. Trying to streamline the previous labor market policy for people with disabilities without sacrificing the principle of generosity is a distinct feature.

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The number of people in Danish flex-jobs increased to about 50,000 in 2012. Previously, permanent wage subsidies of 50% or 65% were provided on special terms for people with disabilities who could not obtain jobs on normal terms and conditions. Disability pensions could be given to people between the ages of 18 and 65 whose abilities to work were permanently reduced. The reduction was to be large enough to prevent the relevant person from supporting himself by gainful employment, including flex-jobs. The amounts of wage subsidies for flex-jobs and disability pensions, as part of the well-known Danish flexicurity approach, were very generous. Since the beginning of 2013, far-reaching reforms of these schemes have been implemented: (1) people with disabilities under the age of 40 will have no access to disability pensions, but will receive individualized and coherent support, including flex-jobs in work capacity assessment programs; (2) the relevant employers will pay wages corresponding to the employees' actual working hours, and the municipalities will pay subsidies to the employees (previously to the employers) to cover the remaining hours, in ways which will lead to increases in the actual incomes of the targeted employees in accordance with increased hours of work. This paper discusses the implications of these reforms.

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In post-war Japan, in addition to company-based wage negotiations, inter-company wage negotiations existed in several industries. Social actors called these negotiations 'united negotiation,' 'group negotiation,' 'combined negotiation' or 'diagonal negotiation'. In these industries, associations of company-based unions took part in inter-company negotiation as major industrial relations actors. We call these negotiations 'industrial-level wage negotiations.' In this study I survey industrial-level wage negotiations in six industries: private railway, coal, beer, metalworking, textile and marine transportation. I explain how these negotiating systems were formed, and the course of their progress and decline. The associations of company-based unions also planned a conversion from company-based unions to industry-wide unions in the private railway and beer sectors. I also examine the purpose of industrial unionization and the course of its decline. I seek to compare inter-company negotiations and industrial unionization between European countries, Korea and Japan.

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This study examines the factors involved in inter-company wage negotiations, based on case studies of the negotiating activities of the Zenkoku-Kinzoku (National Trade Union of Metalworkers) Ishikawa branch and All Japan Seamen's Union. Zenkoku-Kinzoku's Ishikawa branch used the so-called "Ishikawa method" in its negotiations. This approach featured cooperative actions between enterprise unions under the control of the local headquarters to standardize working conditions. The distinctive feature of the seamen's approach was multi-employer negotiations between ship owners' groups and All Japan Seamen's Union. But some negotiating groups have broken down, and the number of multi-employer negotiations has decreased since 1980. Based on these two case studies, I conclude that the major factors characterizing intercompany wage negotiations were homogeneity of the business conditions of the companies involved, the power of industrial unions to influence wage negotiations, and the presence of union officers who promoted inter-company wage negotiations.

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This study focuses on two case studies, of the coal and textile industries, and discusses the functions of their inter-company wage bargaining systems, as well as the development and decline of those systems. As to their institutional functions, the participation of industrial relations actors, and the range and procedure of the bargaining are examined. With regard to their development and decline, the evolution of Japanese post-war industrial relations, the distinctive features of industrial relations actors, and the role of the Labor Relations Commission are examined. Inter-company wage bargaining in the coal industry, called "Taikakusen" (diagonal line) bargaining, was developed after highly integrated bargaining broke down. Bargaining by small firm groups in the textile industry, called regional group bargaining, was formed along with the major firm groups during the period of high economic growth. However, the periods of decline for the two cases were different, marked in both cases by more highly competitive markets where many firms had to withdraw from group bargaining because business performance differentials among them grew so large that some could not afford to pay the same wages, and also because some firms began shutting down.

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In recent years, there has been great concern in Japan regarding the excessive accumulation of retained earnings of social welfare corporations. The lack of initiative regarding unprofitable public utilities has also been pointed out. However, the following points should be noted with regard to public utilities and retained earnings. First, we cannot equate large sums of retained earnings with for-profit behavior. Next, in terms of interpreting the significance of social welfare corporations, it should be noted that funding regulations, restrictive government guidelines, trust-centered management by social welfare corporations, etc., have all prevented public utilities from operating effectively. And if public utilities are restrained, retained earnings do not decrease as long as social welfare services earn profits. In light of the above issues, measures to allow social welfare corporations to actively engage in public utilities are needed. This paper proposes that the definition of public utility be clarified and that the government agencies issuing restrictive guidelines be required to change their regulatory approaches. Further, the paper calls for regulations to be relaxed on social welfare corporations' use of balances carried forward.

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The purpose of this paper is to examine the three hypotheses proposed by Shojiro Ujihara in the early 1950's: the seniority system hypothesis, the long-term employment hypothesis and the closed company labor market (internal labor market) model hypothesis. For this purpose, the original completed survey sheets of the 'Keihin industrial area survey,' conducted by Ujihara in 1951, were investigated, transformed into data sets and analyzed. The findings are as follows: (1) The seniority systern hypothesis is partly supported by the fact that status and wage were determined by years of employment, although there were numerous exceptions, and the years of experience before employment also had certain effects on status and wage. (2) The long-term employment hypothesis is partly supported by the machine industry in the 1920's, the war-time era and the early 1950's. (3) The closed company labor market (internal labor market) hypothesis is almost completely disproved by the fact that there were many chances for mid-career leavers to enter large companies, especially in the prewar period.

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