Photo: Roger Walch

The earthquake and tsunami caused extensive and severe structural damage in Japan, including heavy damage to roads and railways as well as fires in many areas, and a dam collapse. As of 26 July 2011, the Japanese authorities have confirmed that over 15,000 people were killed, another 5,000 were reported missing, more than 719,000 buildings were damaged or destroyed, and as many as 92,000 people were evacuated from the disaster zones. The earthquake and the tsunami combined to create the worst natural disaster the country has experienced since the Second World War.

After the earthquake, the government took a range of immediate countermeasures, with priority to the safety of the people affected by the disaster. These measures included the rescue and recovery of persons killed, injured or displaced, sending of relief supplies, and restoration of essential infrastructure (electricity, water, transport etc.) damaged by the disaster.

Responses of the social security system to the disaster

In addition to this essential emergency assistance, action had to be taken to ensure the social security system continued to function properly to provide financial and other support to people affected by the disaster. More than 200 actions were taken by the various social security institutions in the month immediately following the earthquake. The institutional response to the national disaster included:

• Detaching doctors, pharmacists, health-care professionals, psychological support teams and child-care staff to the disaster area;
• Providing medical supplies and arranging for affected people who had lost their health insurance cards to receive medical services;
• Providing assistance to hospitals and patients in the affected area;
• Improving the living environment in the evacuation centres;
• Enabling provision of special unemployment insurance benefits to affected people who had lost their job due to the disaster and strengthening job-seeking assistance for this category;
• Reviewing and strengthening occupational safety measures in the disaster area to prevent further occupational accidents;
• Postponing of social insurance contribution payments; and
• Establishing one-stop offices in the affected areas to provide welfare services, “life consultations” that give advice to people to help them return to a normal life, including job-seeking assistance and pension services.

 
These additional measures had to be taken at a time when the social security offices and personnel had also been impacted by the earthquake.

 
Main measures taken by the Japan Pension Service to restore services in the area

The Japan Pension Service (JPS), which is responsible for national public pension operations, established the JPS Disaster Countermeasures Headquarters immediately after the earthquake. The centre was responsible for collecting and coordinating information on the disaster situation and the safety and whereabouts of its staff in local offices in the affected area, as well as determining actions required to restore pension services in the post-disaster period.

Although 30 out of the 312 JPS local offices (i.e. nearly 10 per cent of the total) were affected by the disaster, the offices in the area were reopened by 29 March 2011, albeit with reduced services.

Due to the number of people killed or otherwise affected, the need for pension consultations substantially increased, and it is expected that the number of applications for survivor pensions will also rise steeply. Many JPS personnel in other parts of the country volunteered to transfer temporarily to the Tohoku region to help re-establish public pension services to affected customers and to cope with the expected increase in claims as well as to provide consultation services at additional temporary consultation offices established in the area. A toll-free counselling service was introduced.

On 28 February 2011, just before the earthquake, the JPS launched the “Nenkin Net” online service, which enabled customers to check their pension records through the JPS website. Due to the disruption of the postal service in the affected area, delivery of the “Nenkin Teiki Bin” (Pension Coverage Regular Notice), which provides information to customers on contribution payments, benefit estimates and periods of pension coverage was temporally suspended. The JPS therefore encouraged customers living in the affected area to check their pension records online using the “Nenkin Net” during the period of suspension.

Financial support to assist post-disaster reconstruction

On 2 May 2011, the “Law on special financial assistance and grants to address the Great East Japan Earthquake” was brought into effect. This law provides fiscal assistance to the affected local governments to promote speedy post-disaster reconstruction, reduces the burden of social insurance contributions, as well as provides financial support for small and medium-sized companies.

With regard to social security, the financial support provided by the new law included a number of measures:

• The exemption from the payment of contributions – such as for pension insurance, medical insurance, unemployment insurance and child allowance – for affected companies that meet certain conditions;
• The exemption or reduction in individual payments (user fees) for part of the cost of staying in a hospital or a care facility;
• A special extension of the benefit period for unemployment insurance;
• A special procedural rule to allow survivors of family bread winners reported missing due to the disaster on 11 March, to apply for the survivor pension after three months instead of the usual one-year-waiting-period ;
• Raising the government subsidy rate for the restoration of affected social infrastructure, such as medical and social welfare facilities, from one-third or one-half to two-thirds to facilitate access to health care and welfare services.

Implications of the disaster for the future of the social security system

The government had been discussing social security reform since December 2010 in the context of securing a more stable and sustainable system. The impact of the disaster highlighted the need for and the importance of social security and social solidarity and has caused the government to rethink the direction that the social security reform should take.

The Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare set out its vision for social security reform, taking into account the impact and lessons learned from the disaster, in the Council for Intensive Discussion on Social Security Reform. The vision states that:

• Social infrastructure, including medical and social welfare facilities, must be restored urgently in the affected area to ensure that adequate assistance, such as health care and welfare services, can be provided to all affected people. Employment measures will be key in helping those affected to recover and return to a normal life.
• Achieving social security reform and fiscal soundness simultaneously will be a major challenge given that the social and economic damage caused by the disaster will have an impact on the stability and sustainability of the system. With a view to strengthening social security, it will be essential for the Ministry to clarify the benefit priorities and allocate the budget of a particular benefit as appropriate to its level of priority.
• Population ageing is progressing rapidly in Japan and many vulnerable people, such as elderly and persons with disabilities, were affected by the disaster. Post-disaster reconstruction should not only address the immediate need to restore fully social protection services but should also create an innovative model for a safer and more friendly society for these people.
• The disaster has served to highlight the importance of mutual assistance and social solidarity. The response of local communities, people and volunteers to the disaster has demonstrated beyond doubt that the philosophy of mutual assistance is an intangible resource inherent in Japanese society and its people. Social security reform can be achieved by strengthening social solidarity and mutual assistance, since this philosophy is the primary objective of social security.

References:

Law on special financial assistance and grants to address the Great East Japan Earthquake

Date of establishment of the Law: 2 May 2011
Date of enforcement of the Law: 2 May 2011

Website of the Prime Minister of Japan and his Cabinet
http://www.kantei.go.jp/foreign/incident/index.html

Website of the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare
http://www.mhlw.go.jp/english/index.html

Website of the Japan Pension Service
http://www.nenkin.go.jp/english/index.html