Japan's social insurance and some policy suggestions for Vietnam

HANOI NATIONAL UNIVERSITY UNIVERSITY OF ECONOMICS

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HOANG THI HANH

JAPANESE SOCIAL INSURANCE

AND SOME POLICY SUGGESTIONS FOR VIETNAM

MASTER'S THESIS IN POLITICAL ECONOMY

HANOI NATIONAL UNIVERSITY UNIVERSITY OF ECONOMICS

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HOANG THI HANH

JAPANESE SOCIAL INSURANCE

AND SOME POLICY SUGGESTIONS FOR VIETNAM

Major: Political Economy Code: 60 31 01

MASTER'S THESIS IN POLITICAL ECONOMY

SCIENTIFIC INSTRUCTOR: ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR, DR. PHAM THI HONG DIEP

COMMITMENT

I hereby declare that this is my own research work under the guidance of Associate Professor, Dr. Pham Thi Hong Diep.

The data and documents presented in the thesis are honest, ensuring objectivity and scientificity. The reference documents have clear origins and sources.

Hanoi, April 22, 2014

Thesis author

Hoang Thi Hanh

INDEX

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS i

LIST OF TABLES i

INTRODUCTION 1

CHAPTER 1: THEORETICAL ISSUES ON SOCIAL INSURANCE 7

1.1. The nature and role of social insurance 7

1.1.1. Concept and classification of social insurance 7

1.1.2. Characteristics of social insurance 11

1.1.3. The role of social insurance 13

1.2. History of the birth and development of social insurance 15

1.2.1. History of World Social Insurance 15

1.2.2. History of Vietnamese social insurance 16

1.3. Social insurance system 19

1.3.1. Social insurance regimes according to the recommendations of the International Labor Organization 19

1.3.2. Factors affecting the development and implementation of social insurance regimes 22

1.3.3. Contents of social insurance regimes 25

CHAPTER 2: CURRENT STATUS OF IMPLEMENTATION OF SOCIAL INSURANCE REGIMES IN JAPAN 34

2.1. The formation and development process of Japanese Social Insurance 34

2.2. Basic regimes of Japanese social insurance 36

2.2.1. Retirement regime 36

2.2.2. Employment insurance regime 40

2.2.3. Health insurance regime 43

2.2.4. Long-term care insurance 46

2.3. Existing problems and reform trends in the implementation of social insurance regimes in Japan today 48

2.3.1 In implementing the pension regime 48

2.3.2. In implementing the employment insurance regime 53

2.3.3. In implementing the health insurance regime 60

2.3.4. In implementing the long-term care insurance regime 62

2.4. Some comments on Japan's social insurance regimes 65

CHAPTER 3: SOME SUGGESTIONS ON POLICY FOR SOCIAL INSURANCE IN VIETNAM FROM JAPANESE EXPERIENCE 68

3.1. Some features of the current situation and issues facing Vietnam Social Insurance today 68

3.1.1. Achievements of Vietnam Social Security 68

3.1.2. Existing problems and limitations 71

3.1.3. Current issues facing Vietnam Social Insurance 72

3.2. Similarities and differences between Vietnam Social Insurance and Japan Social Insurance 76

3.3. Some experiences of Japan in building and implementing social insurance regimes 77

3.4. Some policy suggestions to improve Vietnam's basic social insurance regimes 80

3.3.1 Retirement regime - Need to know

porch

Private pension insurance

supplement 80

3.3.2. Unemployment insurance regime

– Build

g loss insurance

career

according to the insurance policy

work for workers

g 83

3.3.3. Health insurance regime - Practice

porch

National Health Insurance 85

3.3.4. Building a long-term social insurance regime to ensure social security for the elderly 88

CONCLUSION 89

LIST OF REFERENCES 90

INTRODUCTION

1. Urgency of the topic

Social insurance originates from the state's responsibility to groups of people and communities who are at risk or lose income for some reason. The first social insurance model was born about 200 years ago in Europe with many efforts by the Prussian state to overcome income inequality, regulate risks, and create conditions for poor groups to enjoy minimum conditions. Today, ensuring social security is a basic human right, the level of ensuring social security rights is an important criterion to assess the level of development of a country and nation. In which, social insurance is the main pillar in the social security system of each country. Vietnam has just entered the process of integration and development, there are many issues and goals that need to be resolved, including the indispensable goal of implementing social security for all people. Therefore, to stabilize and develop the country's socio-economy, it is necessary to promote research to build an effective social insurance system, in which it is necessary to focus on analyzing and learning social insurance models of countries around the world.

Japan has been considered an economic powerhouse since World War II, a world leader in science and technology, with the third largest economy in the world in terms of gross domestic product after the United States and China. With that economic potential, Japan has the conditions to develop a comprehensive social security system with wide coverage to all members of society. The Japanese social security system began to take shape with the promulgation of the Poverty Relief Regulations in 1874, then successive laws related to social security issues were born such as: Pension Law, Health Insurance Law, Social Welfare Law, Homeless Law... Currently, the social security system in Japan includes social relief systems to ensure a minimum standard of living for all those facing difficulties in life.

by supporting health care, education costs, housing, vocational training, building rehabilitation facilities, dormitories for the poor...; social welfare system providing for the disabled, the elderly, children...; social insurance with a public pension system ensuring income security for the elderly; health insurance with a public health system providing health care for the people and disease prevention for the goal of healthy living for the Japanese people... One of Japan's successes is to build and maintain a public-private partnership model in implementing social security. In which, a part of social security spending is taken from the state budget, the remaining main source of supply is companies and economic groups. Thanks to that, the resources for implementing social security in Japan are enormous, creating conditions for expanding the coverage of the safety net. Japan's achievements in the field of social security in general and social insurance in particular have provided practical foundations and valuable lessons for developing countries, including Vietnam. So how is the Japanese social insurance system implemented? What is different about Vietnamese social insurance compared to Japanese social insurance? What can our country learn and how can we learn from Japan's experience to build an effective social insurance system? These are the issues that need to be studied to develop the social insurance system in Vietnam. Based on the above reasons, the author chose the topic "Japanese social insurance and some policy suggestions for Vietnam" as the research topic for his master's thesis.

2. Research status of the topic

In recent years, our country has had many articles and research works related to the issue of social security and applying lessons learned from developed countries in building a social security system in general and a social insurance system in particular. Some of the works include:

- Duong Phu Hiep, Nguyen Duy Dung (1998), “ Some social welfare issues of Japan and Vietnam”, Japan Research Center. The book is edited on the basis of a collection of 17 relatively comprehensive and in-depth research reports by authors inside and outside the Japan Research Center on social welfare issues in Japan and Vietnam.

- Dinh Cong Tuan (2008), “The EU social security system and lessons for Vietnam”, Social Science Publishing House, Hanoi. Based on the study of the social security systems of some typical EU countries such as the UK, France, Germany, Sweden, etc., author Dinh Cong Tuan analyzed and evaluated the successes and limitations of those systems, thereby drawing lessons for planning Vietnam's social security system in the coming time.

- Do Thien Kinh (2005), “Japan’s experience in building a social welfare system” , Institute-level project – Vietnam Academy of Social Sciences. The project analyzed Japan’s welfare system and drew lessons for Vietnam in building and developing social welfare policies.

Recently, a workshop with the theme “Social Security Assurance – Japanese Experience” jointly organized by the Vietnam Academy of Social Sciences (VASS) and the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) in Hanoi provided valuable Japanese experiences in implementing social insurance policies as a practical basis for application in Vietnam.

Japan has also had many systematic research works on the country's social security, typically: Shuzo Nishimura (2011), "Social Security in Japan", Japan Institute of Population and Social Security; Toshiaki Tachibanaki (2006), "Japanese Social Security Reform in the 21st Century" , Kyoto University. However, specialized research on social insurance

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