October 31, 2016

October 10, or the second Monday of the month since 2000, is celebrated as National Sports Day in Japan, as the opening ceremony of the 1964 Tokyo Olympics was held on this day about 50 years ago. The year 1964 was monumental for this nation also in that Japan joined the OECD, and that it started the Tokaido Shinkansen bullet train (high-speed rail), obtaining a loan from the World Bank. A little earlier in 1961, Japan implemented the National Pension system, which covers all the people in principle, including the self-employed and the unemployed. The nation also established universal coverage with all the people joining some sort of public medical insurance. So, this month, we’ll look at the ILO’s activities on social protection—a concept that encompasses social security.

Social protection, which is one of the ILO’s four strategic objectives for the Decent Work Agenda, involves not just social security but also securing healthy and safe jobs and building working conditions that are conducive to higher productivity. Unfortunately, 73 per cent of the world’s population does not have access to adequate social protection. It means 5 billion people live in anxiety every day.

The ILO has been working to enhance social protection since its inception. It listed the provision for old age and injury in its Constitution, and it further referred to the extension of social security measures to provide a basic income to all in need of such protection and comprehensive medical care in the Declaration of Philadelphia in 1944. We already have Social Security (Minimum Standards) Convention, 1952 (No. 102) and many other ILSs on this subject. Furthermore, the ILO adopted the Social Protection Floors Recommendation (No. 202) in 2012, given the current situation stated earlier. “The social protection floors” refers to insurance for essential medical care and basic incomes; we believe that this can help improve the lives of all the people including children, those in working age, and the older generations, eliminate poverty and inequality, and promote growth and development.

Though the ILO has implemented many technical cooperation projects, this programme to build social protection floors for all people has been designated as one of the five global flagship programmes that aim to enhance the efficiency and impact of its development cooperation with constituents. This programme extends social protection to people who are partially covered, or living in indignity without any protection, aiming to change the lives of 130 million people by 2020, on the budget of 50 million USD. It has already provided support to 136 countries in the past decade.

The ILO also publishes the World Social Protection Report regularly. The latest edition, World Social Protection Report 2014-15, is subtitled “Building economic recovery, inclusive development and social justice”. It summarizes the latest global trends in social protection, with chapters on ‘Social protection for children and families’, ‘Social protection for women and men in working age’, ‘Social protection for older women and men’, ‘Towards universal coverage in health’, and ‘Expanding social protection’.

Now, Japan has seen a half century since the establishment of the universal health and pension coverage, during which the social security system has been revised drastically several times. We are facing enormous social shifts such as changes in the labour market and the issue of working poor and income gaps, as the ageing of society and declining birth rate issue worsens. So, Japan is discussing how to update the social security system so that it can protect, evolve and pass it on to future generations. Our system always faces some challenges, but I do hope our experience in this field may provide some help to nations that are exploring ways to extend social protection.