A Comparative Study on Elderly Welfare System between Korea and Japan

Abstract

Elderly welfare is what is the social activity and one field of social-welfare practice that allows the elderly to maintain basic desire and cultural living as one independent person through the stability of economic life caused by the elderly's difficulty in living, the maintenance of health in body and mind, the social participation and role performance, and the policy and system for opportunity of employment, and the welfare service. In addition to the global tendency of a swift rise in the elderly population, the aging phenomenon of the elderly population is recently showing more serious aspect. Thus, solution of elderly problem, which every nation faced in the global village, is being emerged as a big task. Also, the extension of the average longevity caused by development in medical technology is the process of a change into aging society. The elderly bracket in this process comes to suffer from the double torture called social alienation and economic difficulty. These problems are becoming a big issue in society beyond a level of responsibility in an individually old person, who is the main subject of difficulty. Even Korean people's average longevity has lengthened rapidly by virtue of development in medical art and of satisfaction of a basic desire such as food, clothing and shelter. As a result of examining a change in average longevity of OECD member countries for 40 years from 1960 to 2000, most of the Western advanced countries haven't been prolonged over 10 years. However, Korea was increased 23.1 years enough, and was a nation that is the highest in width of a rise in the average longevity during the same period. In this way, Korea's populational aging is being progressed swiftly in its contents or speed. Experts are considering that Korea's aging speed will establish the new world record. As a plan of coping with this phenomenon, the foreign advanced countries, which early experienced aging, are injecting huge finances in order to offer the elderly's income security system, elderly's health medical service, and welfare service necessary for the old life such as long-term protection problem. Japan, which belongs to the Oriental cultural area with similar emotion to us even among the advanced welfare countries, is a country that is enforcing by establishing the efficient aging policy. However, in case of Korea, the income security system for the elderly fails to give substantial help because of being restrictive in the beneficial subjects or allowance level. Even in the policy for housing security, the weight is being attached only to the housing supply regardless of the housing maintenance ability in low-income brackets. Thus, old people are suffering difficulty in managing residential life. A delivery system is not connected. Non-systematic parts are scattered such as insufficiency of managing the severally elderly facilities or manpower. The aging characteristic in Korea and Japan is being rapidly progressed enough to be unavailable for comparison with other advanced countries. Given examining welfare policy in two countries, Japan's social welfare policy is emphasizing the regional responsibility, user's self-option, and User Pays Principle due to being influenced by neo-liberalism. On the other hand, in case of Korea, it is the real situation of being stressed the publicity in social welfare(non-profitability), the nation's responsibility, and the government's powers. Accordingly, the purpose of this study is to be conducive to a way of going to happy life in the senescence hereafter by grasping problems about Korea's current elderly welfare system and suggesting improvement direction through comparing the elderly welfare system between Korea and Japan.