Medical benefits for workmen under social insurance in Japan.

Japan was the first Asian country to introduce social insurance measures and she has expanded them during the last few decades. The first social insurance law was passed in 1922 dealing with worker’s health insurance in general. It was followed by many schemes of social insurance. National Health Insurance in 1938, Seamen’s Insurance in 1939, Employees’ Pension Insurance in 1941 and so forth. After World War II the new Constitution was enacted by which the Japanese Government was made responsible for the provision of medical care services for the whole nation. At present approximately the whole population is covered by either one or more of the various social insurance schemes. The main social insurance programs are shown in Figure 1 and Table 1. Most of these insurance schemes are compulsory under Japanese law. Since it would be too difficult and complicated to explain all of these forms of social insurance in detail, we will discuss only about two schemes directly related to medical care services for the workers; namely, the Health Insurance Scheme for non. occupational diseases and disorders (sickness or injury off the job) and Workmen’s Compensation Insurance for occupational diseases and disorders (sickness or injury on the job). ∗PMID: 4263523 [PubMed indexed for MEDLINE] Copyright c ©OKAYAMA UNIVERSITY MEDICAL SCHOOL Acta Med. Okayama 25, 217-228 (1971) MEDICAL BENEFITS FOR WORKMEN UNDER SOCIAL INSURANCE IN JAPAN Hideyasu AOYAMA, Masanori GOTO, Tsuyoshi NAGIRA, Ikuo FUJITA and Masuhiro NAKAMURA De/Jartment of Hygiene, Okayama University Medical School, Okayama, Japan (Director: Prof. M. Ohira) Received for publication, April 28, 1971 Japan was the first Asian country to introduce social insurance measures and she has expanded them during the last few decades. The first social insurance law was passed in 1922 dealing with worker's health insurance in general. It was followed by many schemes of social insurance. National Health Insurance in 1938, Seamen's Insurance in 1939, Em ployees' Pension Insurance in 1941 and so forth. After World War II the new Constitution was enacted by which the Japanese Government was made responsible for the provision of medical care services for the whole nation. At present approximately the whole population is covered by either one or more of the various social insurance schemes. The main social insurance programs are shown in Figure 1 and Table 1. Most of these insurance schemes are compulsory under Japanese law. Since it would be too difficult and complicated to explain all of these Public Employmenl Security Office National Health Insurancl': Oq{anization Labour Standard Inspt'tlion Office Social Insurance Brench Office City, town and vill.ge liealth Insurance Socit'ty Branch Office. • concerned Eaeh National Public Sl!'rvjCf' Mutual Aid Association l;nt>mp)o)'ment Insurance 'st>ction, Prelectural (;o\,ernment Lahour Stlndard Bureau, Preft'ctural Go\'ernment Emplo~'ment Security Bureau, Minilltr)'of Uihour Labour Standard Bureau, Ministry of Labour ArcounlinK BJreau, Ministry of Finance Insurance Se<'tion. Pr"fectural Government Pen.ion B Mini.").-~ !/:,' of Health and \\ tlfne I II (supernslon l • 'I:' ,-..--, ,-, ~,. '. National Pension Section, ' .",' Prefectural Government Social Insurance Agency (administration) Insurance Bureau. MinistfY of Health and Welfare r Is--,.p_",v_i'_ion_,--, ,~~,