Abstract
In this chapter the author examines how local communities in rural areas fill the gaps between national, municipal, and private support in response to aging and depopulation. He describes Japan’s postwar welfare system and the post-bubble reforms in elderly welfare policies. Building on interviews and fieldwork with local residents and organizations in a village in central Japan, the author traces the historical development of the village’s community-based welfare services and analyzes the relationship between national welfare policies and local community welfare activities. He then analyzes the emergence of a resilient yet innovative moral economy of care that combines existing social networks with new social services, which together are rooted in the long-term relationships of mutual entailments and care in rural communities. The Japanese social welfare system, including its universal healthcare and pension system, was designed in the 1950s during a time of rapid economic growth and linked families’ access to welfare to employment systems.
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