e) Sheltered Housing
Sheltered housing for the elderly was started in 1988, as reported earlier in this paper. Unfortunately it is not yet very well developed in Japan. The fundamental reason is that the National Government is still placing great emphasis on investment for the construction of roads, harbors, and other basic Public Works. Compared to these Public Works, public housing, including those for the elderly, receives minor attention from the Ministry of Construction.
Epilogue - Future Outlook
As described in the previous section, Japan has a wide variety of programs and services for the welfare of the elderly. Most of the important services, however, have yet to be fully developed. Especially in the field of long-term care services-both community care services and institutional care services, the shortage of services is very serious. In order to cope with this situation, the National Government started the Ten-year Gold Plan in 1990 and revised it in 1994, as discussed above. The problem is, however, that the population aging will continue at an accelerated pace in the next century, and various needs of older persons, especially the needs for long-term care, will grow very rapidly.
In order to meet the expanding needs for long-term care and secure a decent level of care services for every senior citizen, we shall have to start another New Gold Plan before the year 2000. The budget needed for it will be much greater than that for the present New Ten-year Gold Plan. Thus, securing the necessary amount of revenue for the second Plan to be started soon is one of the most important issues for the National Government.
The answer from the National Government is the establishment of a public long-term care insurance program. In June, 1996, the Ministry of Health and Welfare finished its first draft and presented it to the National Advisory Council on the Health and Welfare Services for the Elderly. After a long patient negotiation with a number of related government advisory councils, political parties, representatives of local governments, the Ministry of Health and Welfare finalized its draft in November 1996, and presented it to the National Diet. The draft was finally approved by the National Diet in December 1997.
