Welfare Policy &
Labour Markets
Transformations of the Japanese &
Swedish Models for the 21st Century

Edited By Naomi Maruo, et al.
December 2004
Almqvist & Wiksell
ISBN: 9122020772
275 pages, Illustrated, 6 ¾" x 9 ½"
$97.50 Paper Original

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Japan and Sweden are known for having adopted quite different approaches to the problem of providing welfare and security for their citizens. Japan has relied much on the family, whereas Sweden has extended its governmental policies more than most other countries both at the central and municipal level.

Sweden has been seen as a typical welfare state, while Japan was at one time the focus of world attention for its excellent economic performance. Through the 1980s, there was much consensus within each country that the model chosen for providing welfare over the entire life cycle was a successful one.

The 1990s, however, turned out to be a turbulent period for both countries. Triggered by macro-economic shocks that in particular hit the financial sectors, confidence in the policies and institutions that seemed to have been so successful declined in both Japan and Sweden.

Yet while the economy of Japan has stagnated in the last decade, Japanese economic policies aimed at overcoming depression and stagnation are eminently worth studying. A comparison of the contrasting anti-depression policies of Sweden with those of Japan in the 1990s, for example, is most instructive.

Welfare; Sociology
Stockholm Studies in Sociology, No. 23

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