Universal basic income Universal basic income (UBI) is a social welfare proposal in which all citizens of a given population regularly receive an unconditional transfer payment, that is, without a means test or need to work. It would be received independently of a ...

refers to a social welfare system where all citizens or residents of a country receive an unconditional lump sum income, meaning an income that is not based on need (i.e. it is not means tested). The proposal has been debated in a number of countries in recent years, including Japan. According t
Hirano Hiroya
of

Mejiro University is a private university in Shinjuku, Tokyo, Japan. Established in 1923, it was chartered as a women's junior college in 1963, and opened as a four-year university in 1994. The school also has facilities in Saitama, Saitama Prefecture, including ...

, the growing debate is understandable, as social exclusion, precarity in the labor market and poverty have increased in recent decades. Indeed, the state welfare system in Japan developed quite late and is still considerably less generous than in Europe, with the state playing a much smaller role in welfare provision and families, local communities and corporations play a larger role. In response to the combined effects of automation and job uncertainty, three political parties support universal basic income:

Nippon Ishin no Kai The is a conservative and right-wing populist political party in Japan. Formed as ''Initiatives from Osaka'' in October 2015 from a split in the old Japan Innovation Party, the party became the third-biggest opposition party in the National ...

Reiwa Shinsengumi is a left-wing populist and progressive political party in Japan founded by actor-turned-politician Tarō Yamamoto in April 2019. The party was formed by left-wing members of the Liberal Party who opposed its merger with the Democratic Party fo ...

and

Greens Japan The is an established national green party in Japan. After the electoral success of Green activist Ryuhei Kawada in the 2007 House of Councillors election, the local green political network Rainbow and Greens had reportedly decided to disso ...

. Japanese academics arguing for basic income includ
Toru Yamamori
of

Doshisha University , mottoeng = Truth shall make you free , tagline = , established = Founded 1875,Chartered 1920 , vision = , type = Private , affiliation = , calendar = , endowment = €1 ...

an
Hiroya Hirano
of Nihon Fukushi University. Ronald Dore, a British sociologist specializing in the Japanese welfare state, has also been engaged in the basic income debate for many years, arguing for its implementation. The main organization promoting basic income in Japan is BIEN Japan, which is part of the Basic Income Earth Network (BIEN).

History (year by year)

* 2002: The first basic income-book in Japanese, "Welfare Society and Social Security Reform: New horizon of Basic Income", is published. * 2008: The Japanese Association for Feminist Economics have its yearly meeting, with basic income as the theme. * 2009: The Democratic Party organize a meeting where 40 MP takes part. New Party Nippon includes basic income in their manifest. * 2012: Greens Japan (Japanese Green party) is endorsing basic income from its start. * 2014: ''Basic Income in Japan'', by Yannick Vanderborght and Toru Yamamori, is the first book in English entirely devoted to the possibility for basic income in Japan. * 2015: Tomoyuki Taira, former MP, gives a BI-lecture in Tokyo on March 10. * 2016: A symposium on basic income and artificiell intelligens is arranged by "The Robotic Center". * 2017: Japanese media coverage intensifies. This includes national TV showing a short program about UBI, based on a news editor's visit to Finland and includes an interview with basic income expert Toru Yamamori. * 2019: The political party

is established, which supports a

basic income Universal basic income (UBI) is a social welfare proposal in which all citizens of a given population regularly receive an unconditional transfer payment, that is, without a means test or need to work. It would be received independently of a ...

of ¥30,000 per person per month whenever inflation is below 2%. * 2022: The political party,

, announces its support for the introduction of a universal basic income of ¥60,000 per month, with additional supplements for non-coupled elderly

References

External links

BIEN Japan homepage

Universal basic income Forward-thinking or wrong-headed?
Justin McCurry, EUROBIZ Japan, 2017. Retrieved 4 October 2018. {{Basic income Japan Economy of Japan Politics of Japan Social security in Japan Welfare in Japan