Basic Income in Japan

Basic Income in Japan is the first collective volume in English entirely devoted to the discussion of Japan's potential for a basic income program in the context of the country's changing welfare state. Vanderborght and Yamamori bring together over a dozen contributors to provide a general overview of the scholarly debate on universal and unconditional basic income, including a foreword by Ronald Dore. Drawing on empirical data on poverty and inequality as well as normative arguments, this balanced approach to a radical idea is essential reading for the study of contemporary Japan.

Basic Income in Japan is the first collective volume in English entirely devoted to the discussion of Japan's potential for a basic income program in the context of the country's changing welfare state. Vanderborght and Yamamori bring together over a dozen contributors to provide a general overview of the scholarly debate on universal and unconditional basic income, including a foreword by Ronald Dore. Drawing on empirical data on poverty and inequality as well as normative arguments, this balanced approach to a radical idea is essential reading for the study of contemporary Japan.

Foreword; Ronald Dore 1. Income Security and the 'Right to Subsistence' in Japan; Toru Yamamori and Yannick Vanderborght 2. A Comparative Look at the Feasibility of Basic Income in the Japanese Welfare State; Yannick Vanderborght and Yuki Sekine 3. Transforming Japan's Bismarckian Welfare State: Basic Income versus Inclusive Social Insurance; Takashi Suganuma 4. Is There a Future for a Universal Cash Benefit in Japan? The Case of Kodomo Teate (Child Benefit); Aya K. Abe 5. The 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake and Basic Income; Toru Yamamori 6. The Future of the Public Assistance Reform in Japan: Workfare versus Basic Income?; Hayato Kobayashi 7. Beyond the Three Selection Principles of Welfare Policy (Work, Family and Belonging): Towards a Reconsideration of the Fujin Hogo Jigyo (Women's Protection Project) in Japan; Kaori Katada 8. The Impact of Basic Income on the Gendered Division of Paid Care Work; Junko Yamashita 9. Basic Income and Unpaid Care Work in Japan; Sakura Furukubo 10. Beyond the Paradigm of Labor: Everyday Activism and Unconditional Basic Income in Urban Japan; Julia Obinger 11. The Tensions between Multiculturalism and Basic Income in Japan; Fumio Iida 12. What Do People Think about Basic Income in Japan?; Yoshio Itaba 13. What Needs to Be Considered When Introducing a New Welfare System: Who Supports Basic Income in Japan?; Rie Takamatsu and Toshiaki Tachibanaki 14. The Financial Feasibility of Basic Income and the Idea of a Refundable Tax Credit in Japan; Shinji Murakami 15. The Potential of Introducing Basic Income for the 'New Public' in Japan: A Road to Associational Welfare?; Hiroya Hirano