Main description:

Japan is the fastest aging country, with the largest super-aged society in the world and growing larger by the day, yet its universal health care costs are relatively low. In Health Insurance Politics in Japan, Takakazu Yamagishi draws back the curtain for an international audience and investigates how Japan has been able to control health care costs through health insurance politics.

Covering the period from the Meiji Restoration to the Abe Administration, Yamagishi uses a historical institutionalist approach to examine the driving force behind the development of health insurance policies in Japan. Yamagishi pays special attention to the roles of government and medical professionals, the main actors of the policymaking and medical worlds, in this development. Health Insurance Politics in Japan pushes Japan into the spotlight of the international conversation about health care reform.

Contents:

Introduction: To Understand the Health Insurance Policy Development in Japan1. Westernizing Medicine2. Reacting to Deteriorating Health3. Improving People's Health for War4. Reforming Health Care with the United States5. Achieving Universal Health Insurance6. Consolidating Universal Health Insurance7. Making Universal Health Insurance Survive8. Japanese Health Care in the Globalization EraConclusion: For the Future of Health Insurance Politics