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The pacific war (1937–45) marked the most innovative period in the development of public welfare in Japan, comparable to the 1880s in Germany, the 1908–14 era in Britain, and the 1930s in the United States. Wartime welfare policy set precedents that shape many aspects of welfare provision in Japan to this day. It is a cruel paradox, but war, despite its immediate, catastrophic effects on human well-being, has played a major role in the evolution of the welfare state.

World War II marked a massive change in Japan’s public welfare policies. The demands of total war greatly increased the state’s responsibility for the well-being of its subjects. Both the military and a new Ministry of Health and Welfare generated expansive new programmes despite the absence of pressure from political parties or labour unions. Not only soldiers and their families but also members of the civilian labour force were targeted as vital ‘human resources’ for war. Among the most noteworthy policies were public health insurance, pensions, public assistance for the poor, housing, and pronatal measures. Many policies and institutional changes enacted during the war survived to provide the foundation for Japan’s post-war welfare state.

It is fitting to measure Perestroika's impact through the contents of the leading political science association journals. The original Perestroika manifesto railed at theAmerican Political Science Review(APSR), and many subsequent Perestroika protests condemned the skewed contents of theAPSR, theAmerican Journal of Political Science(AJPS), and theJournal of Politics. Large national and regional associations publish and pay for these journals. The position of Perestroika has been that their contents should represent the many types of research that political scientists are doing, which was not the case when the movement began.