Translating ‘welfare’

What strikes researchers who begin investigating the conceptual history of welfare and social policy in Japan is the sheer variety of translations of the term ‘welfare’. Depending on the context, people use two different translations: kōsei and fukushi, and sometimes combine the two as fukuri kōsei. The Ministry of Health and Welfare in Japan, established in 1938 and merged in 2001 with the Ministry of Labour into the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, was called the ‘Kōsei Shō.’ In contrast, people use the term fukushi, instead of kōsei, when they say ‘he/she is dependent on welfare,’ suggesting that the person receives benefits from the system of means-tested social protection. Firm-specific welfare provisions, such as housing, health services, and family allowances, are called fukuri kōsei. Fukushi kokka is used as a translation of ‘welfare state’, a term most frequently used by scholars and welfare advocates, but not politicians and the mass media.

As is the case with Western languages, Japanese has another term closely related to the word welfare, that is, ‘social security’. Translated as shakai hosyō, this term is associated with social insurance schemes in areas such as health care and pensions. By contrast, social welfare refers to means-tested social protection. Welfare is often used in this limited sense of the term. Confusingly, however, the word ‘welfare’ in ‘welfare state’ means welfare in the broad sense of the term, including social security, social welfare, and social services. In its recommendation to the government in 1950, the Advisory Council on Social Security classified various social security programmes into four categories: social insurance; public (governmental) assistance; public health and medical care; and social welfare (Advisory Council of Social Security, 1950). It proposed in 1950 that the core of Japan's social security structure should take the form of social insurance schemes financed through payroll contributions. Social policy is also a broad concept, covering welfare, education, labour management, and even peace and order in society. In other words, in Japan, social policy largely means a set of policies regarding all aspects of social life. More often than not, however, social policy specifically means welfare and social security policies.