D. Realization of Universal Coverage of Public Pension Insurance and Public Sickness Insurance
The rapid and profound social changes discussed above drew people's attention to the need for a realization of universal public pension insurance and sickness insurance programs. When Japan's rapid economic development started in the middle of the 1950's, public pension insurance only covered employed persons. In case of public sickness insurance, too, the compulsory program only covered the employees. The public sickness insurance program for the self-employed of 1938 was not compulsory. Therefore, quite a large number of local governments did not put this program into practice.
Universal coverage of public sickness insurance was realized by the National Health Insurance Law for Self-employed Persons (Kokumin Kenkouhoken-hoh) which was enacted in 1958 and fully put into practice in 1961 . In the same year, universal public pension coverage was also realized by the National Pension Insurance Law for Self-employed Persons (Kokumin Nenkin-hoh) which was enacted in 1959 and put into practice in 1961 (refer to Appendix B).
E. Development of Public Services for the Elderly after 1960
Around the year 1960, Japan managed to succeed in meeting the basic needs of her citizens. At the same time, she finished constructing the basic legislative and administrative framework needed for protecting and promoting basic human rights, i.e., the Livelihood Protection Law (1950), Child Welfare Law (1947), the Law for the Welfare of the Handicapped Persons (1949), universal coverage of public sickness insurance (1961), and universal coverage of public pension insurance (1961).
Thus, Japan began to pay more attention to the social and humanistic aspects of the life of the people, and started to develop various public services to meet such needs, including the needs of the elderly for health, social, cultural, and recreational services. It should be noted, however, that the efforts of the National Government for the development of public services for the elderly before the 1980's were designed to catch up with those of the other industrialized countries of Western Europe and North America. Except for several minor services, Japan followed the paths which other industrialized countries had trailblazed for the promotion of the well-being of the elderly. Therefore, let me touch very briefly on those developments which seem important in light of the purpose of this booklet.
