Report on VSJF Annual Conference 2008
Demographic Change in Japan and the EU – Comparative Perspectives
Date: November 28 – November 30, 2008
Place: Mutterhaus Tagungshotel, Düsseldorf-Kaiserswerth
Cooperation: Heinrich Heine University Dusseldorf
Organizers: Annette Schad-Seifert and Shingo Shimada
Language: English
Thirteen speakers from Germany, England, Japan and the Netherlands presented their papers in four sessions on the topics “Demographic Trends and Social Analysis”, “Family and Welfare Policies”, “Ageing Society and the Organization of Households” and “Demographic Change and the Economy”. More than 120 participants from different countries attended the conference. As in the years before a Gender-Workshop on the topic “Gender equality and demographic change” took place a day prior to the annual meeting.
The conference was opened by the greetings of VSJF-president Wolfram Manzenreiter, Ken’ichirō Tanaka (consul, consulate general of Duesseldorf), Ulrich von Aleman (dean faculty of arts, university of Duesseldorf) and Uwe Kerkmann (office of economic development, city of Duesseldorf).
The first session “Demographic Trends and Social Analysis – Observations from Japan and the EU” was opened by Uta Meier-Gräwe (University of Giessen). Her paper “Why do we need a paradigm change in family policy?” dealt with the question of how to cope with low fertility in Germany and focused on issues of family policy. She maintained that although the value of having a family and children is being highly appreciated, young families tended to stay childless and the share of families with more than two children in Germany is very low. According to Meier-Gräwe this gives evidence to the fact that family and professional career are still difficult to combine and that attitudes and expectations on family and partnership diverge greatly between young women and men. While young women seem to aspire a gender equal division of labour within family, young men still tend to see themselves as breadwinners. Due to this divergence, families stay childless. In her paper Meier-Gräwe tried to answer the question on how policy measures can positively influence families’ decision for children. She pointed out that a major factor for taking up familial responsibility is the possibility for both sexes to continue a professional career. Furthermore, the so called “rush hour of life” – that is the accumulation of familial and occupational tasks and responsibilities in a very short period of time – has to be decompressed in order to influence fertility positively. Meier-Gräwe concluded that family policy should focus on the reorganization of family and work by providing gender-equality in career-interruptions and childcare leave.
As the second speaker in the session Sawako Shirahase (University of Tokyo) presented on socioeconomic inequality and change in the demographic structure. Focusing on ageing and income inequalities in different countries, she showed that the socioeconomic situation of people aged over 65 is strongly connected to the household structure in which they are living. The demographic change brought not only a change in population structure, but also of household structures, which have pluralized. Societies where the elderly live in various types of households tend to show a larger extent of income inequality. According to this, the socioeconomic situation of old people differs by the type of household. Particularly, one-person households of female elderly face the most serious problems in economic well-being. Shirahase points out that Japan is no longer an exceptionally equal society and now shares many social problems such as high poverty among the elderly.
The first session was concluded by keynote speaker Florian Coulmas, director of the German Institute for Japanese Studies in Tokyo. He presented on the ageing of societies and changes in family structures with regard to happiness and individual possibilities to realize a happy life. According to Coulmas the search for happiness in the public discourse in Japan is a sign for drastic social change, which results in demographic change. The increasing shares of older people and the decreasing potential for young people to find stable income jobs directly influence personal attitudes and individual expectations on well-being, meaning of life and sense of happiness. The German Institute for Japanese Studies is starting a project that is going to deal with the changing attitudes of happiness in rapidly ageing societies and the media-constructed discourse of how to achieve a happy life.
In the second session “Family and Welfare Policies in Japan and the EU” Christian Tagsold (University of Duesseldorf) gave a paper on long-term care insurances in Germany and Japan. He maintained that the introduction of the long-term care insurance in Japan has lead to controversial debates in regional areas. On the one hand the system was supported as a step towards more independence in regional policy. On the other hand some of the reforms were rejected. Politicians who aimed at ending the controversy were trying to understand the new system better, by collecting more knowledge on the German system, which has influenced the design of the long-term care insurance in Japan. Tagsold illustrated how the German insurance system was discussed by Japanese specialists and how processes of contextual translation helped to solve problems.
The following paper was presented by Axel Klein (German Institute for Japanese Studies, Tokyo). He focused on the question of political responses to low fertility in Japan. Since 1990, the problem of the falling birth-rate is on Japan’s political agenda and so far quite a number of countermeasures have been enacted to bring about an effective turn-around in the fertility development, but up to now the birth-rate continues to decrease. Klein tried to answer the question why - despite of the failure of previous countermeasures - political actors have not enacted different, more effective responses to low fertility. He came to the conclusion that low fertility have had a low political market value, did hardly exert pressure on political decision makers to act and that political responses to low fertility have been easily taken hostage by other policy fields.
Aya Ezawa ended the second session with a presentation on public assistance programs and single mothers. Public assistance programs in Japan have been subject to significant restructuring in the recent years. Faced with increasing numbers of families in need, policy makers have introduced major reforms in form of welfare-to-work policies, which aim to reduce reliance on public assistance by promoting higher levels of employment, particularly among single mothers. Yet, as studies conducted in conjunction with the implementation of these programs have shown, finding employment is not just a matter of will and effort. The majority of single mothers who are receiving public assistance have few qualifications and resources, making it difficult to find full-time employment with a living wage. In her paper, Ezawa explored the challenges single mothers face in finding employment and becoming ‘independent’ from state assistance as envisioned by policy makers. Based on an examination of the life trajectories of single mothers, who have received public assistance in past and present, as well as surveys and data provided by welfare offices, she examined the potential impact of social origins, formal and informal resources, as well as everyday strategies on single mothers’ life trajectories and ability to move beyond public assistance.
The third session dealt with the ageing society and the organization of households. Maren Godzik (German Institute for Japanese Studies, Tokyo) opened the session with a paper on alternative forms of living. The demographic change and the pluralisation of living arrangements lead to a breakdown of the three-generation household and to the establishment of the nuclear family. Therefore, the ageing of the Japanese population raises the question of care for the elderly. Apart from numerous innovations in the mainstream welfare and housing policies, which have already been introduced, including the implementation of the public long-term care insurance and sheltered housing or assisted living schemes, private initiatives have started to organize alternative forms of living. Although their number is limited, some became widely known and serve as examples not only for similar projects but also for public and commercial housing projects giving them a greater importance than the number of alternative projects might suggests. In her paper Godzik introduced alternative housing forms in Japan and categorized different types of alternative housing with regard to their concepts and their target groups. On the basis of some examples, which have been explored more closely, partly by means of qualitative interviews with organizers of collective houses and co-housing forms of living (gurūpu ribingu), she tried to answer the question whether these forms of living can be a solution for a broader segment of Japan’s ageing society.
The next paper was presented by Richard Ronald (Delft University of Technology) which examined the role of the housing system in the emerging divide between younger and older generations in Japan. While the extreme nature and impact of demographic change in Japan, with increasing longevity, declining fertility and a fundamental shift in the ratio between the retired and working populations has been well documented, the role of housing markets and the property sector, although having significant consequences in the structure of life courses, has not been so central to debates. The contention of Ronald’s paper was that, in combination with restructuring in employment conditions, and the pension and welfare sector, in particular, the housing system in Japan is shaping demographic changes and may be considered a driver of declining family formation and fertility rates and a major feature of socioeconomic inequality between younger and older cohorts.
The session was concluded by Akiko Oda (University of Surrey) who gave a paper on care dynamics focused on disabled older men. Due to the change and pluralisation in living arrangements, older people increasingly have to rely on their own means to take care of each others needs. This has placed an increased strain on older women in particular who have to care for a disabled partner and are traditionally subjugated by power dynamics where the older Japanese male maintains the dominant Daikokubashira status. To try to ease the care burden, the Long Term Care Insurance (LTCI) scheme was introduced by the Japanese Government in 2000. However, the older couples in Oda’s study have shown a reluctance to take up this help, instead largely relying on their own means as well as being put off from invoking external care by a number of complex factors that relate to socio-economic issues, pragmatism, social stigma, class, and gendered norms.
The fourth session on the topic “Demographic Change and the Economy” was opened by Florian Kohlbacher (German Institute for Japanese Studies, Tokyo) who presented a paper on the ageing workforce. According to Kohlbacher, Japan is the country most severely affected by the demographic shift as its population is not only ageing but also shrinking, and so is its labour force. Besides, the so-called “year 2007 problem” bears an imminent problem with broad consequences: The potential mass retirements of the Japanese baby-boomer generation have spurred a discussion about the issues of lost knowledge and labour shortage and their respective countermeasures. Kohlbacher’s presentation provided an overview and evaluation of the year 2007 problem and the challenge of an ageing workforce and discussed the implications for businesses in Japan.
Secondly, Atsuhiro Yamada (Keio University) spoke on the effectiveness of new job security measures for the older employees in Japan. His paper examined the amended Law for the Stabilization of Employment of Older Persons (LSEOP) that was enforced in 2006. The LSEOP requires enterprises to take one of three job security measures for their employees in line with the upward revision of the pensionable age: a) any increase in the mandatory retirement age that exceeds the current pensionable age; b) the introduction of continuing employment systems; or c) the complete abolition of mandatory retirement systems. Yamada’s results suggested that a wage reduction after the mandatory retirement age is a key determinant of continued employment in an enterprise. Because the LSEOP does not regulate wage reductions, the effect of the LSEOP is limited. However, his results also implied that this would be appropriate for avoiding the distortion of labour demand, particularly the increase of young recruits.
The third paper of Cosima Wagner (University of Frankfurt) discussed the question, whether the use of “social robots” could be a means to overcome the hardships of the ageing society, especially the decreasing number of Japan’s workforce population. A field of special interest is the “elderly care”-sector, where an increasing number of elderly people will need support in daily tasks and care in the near future. As numerous studies suggest, very soon the “robotic nurse” or robot technology based care will not only be a solution for the shortage of care givers but will also become an important business in the future silver market. Based on her dissertation project on Japan’s robot culture (to be published soon) Wagner’s talk introduced the expectations and measures regarding the use of robot technology in the elderly care sector in Japan.
The final paper of the conference was given by Cornelia Storz (University of Frankfurt). It focused on the creation of markets using the example of Japan’s silver market. Storz concentrated on conditions under which markets are created. She pointed out that processes of market creation are complex and go beyond the simple assumption that markets simply “emerge”.
The final discussion made clear that the demographic change of societies is not only a problem with concern to the changing population structure. Rather the growing differentiation and diversification of households, living arrangements and ways of employment are considered as posing a challenge to the future sustainability of societies. Today’s industrialized societies are facing a growing polarization of incomes, living conditions and career options that divide people not only economically. In his book “Race for the Exits” the political scientist Leonard Schoppa has differentiated between “voice” and “exit” as options for individuals, who are dissatisfied with their life options, either to raise their voice (“voice”) or to leave the society (“exit”). The increasing share of individuals who decide for the second option (“exit”) – either by leaving the country or by staying away from family, employment and wealth – is considered as problematic. Central to all studies on demographic change is the question how societies can be reconstructed and be made adaptive to these changes in order to survive as solidarity communities.
Programme:
Friday, November 28
13.30 h Registration
14.00 h Opening Remarks, Greetings
14.15 h Introduction to the Conference Topics
Annette SCHAD-SEIFERT
Opening Session 1: Demographic Trends and Social Analysis – Observations from Japan and the EU
Chair: Annette SCHAD-SEIFERT
14.30 h Why do we Need a Paradigm Change in Family Policy?
Uta MEIER-GRÄWE (Justus-Liebig-University Gießen)
Socio-economic Inequality in a Rapidly Ageing Society - Japan, in Crosscultural Comparison With Europe
Sawako SHIRAHASE (Tokyo University)
16.00 h Coffee Break
16.30 h Population Decline and Ageing in Japan – the Bitter Fruits of Success
Keynote Speech: Florian COULMAS (German Institute for Japanese Studies)
19.00-21.00 h Dinner
Saturday, November 29
Session 2: Family and Welfare Policies in Japan and the EU
Chair: Michiko MAE
09.00 h Social Policy in Comparison – Germany and Japan
Christian TAGSOLD (Heinrich Heine University Duesseldorf)
Political Responses to Low Fertility in Japan
Axel KLEIN (German Institute for Japanese Studies)
Japanese Single Mothers in an Era of Welfare Restructuring
Aya EZAWA (Leiden University)
10.30 h Coffee Break
Session 3: Ageing society and the organization of households
Chair: Shingo SHIMADA
11.00 h Elderly Housing in Contemporary Japan – Exploring Alternative Forms of
Living
Maren GODZIK (German Institute for Japanese Studies)
Generational Devides in Housing Pathways and Life Courses in Japan
Richard RONALD (Delft University of Technology)
Care Dynamics Focussed on Disabled Older Men
Akiko ODA (University of Surrey, UK)
12.30 -13.30 h Lunch
14.00 h Parallel Working Group Sessions
15.30 h Coffee Break
16.00 h Parallel VSJF Section Sessions
18.00 h Dinner
19.30 -21.00 h VSJF General Member Meeting
Sunday, November 30
Session 4: Demographic Change and the Economy
Panel 1: How Enterprises Cope with Demographic Challenges
Chair: Ruprecht VONDRAN
09.30 h Japan’s 2007 Problem and the Challenge of an Ageing Workforce
Florian KOHLBACHER (German Institute for Japanese Studies)
The Effectiveness of New Job Security Measure for the Older Employees in
Japan
Atsuhiro YAMADA (Keio University)
11.00 h Coffee Break
Panel 2: The silver market and seniors as consumers
Chair: Florian KOHLBACHER
11.30 h "Silver Robots" and "Robotic Nurses"? Japanese Robot Culture and
Elderly Care
Cosima WAGNER (Johann Wolfgang Goethe University Frankfurt)
How are Markets Created? The Case of Japan’s Silvermarket
Cornelia STORZ and Werner PASCHA (Universitys Frankfurt, Duisburg-Essen)
12.30 h Closing Remarks
13.00 h End of the Conference