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Outline of the Chairman's Summary
of the East Asian Ministerial Meeting on Caring Societies
as presented at the Press Conference

(By Minister of Health and Welfare Jun'ichiro Koizumi, Chairman of the Meeting)

(provisional translation)
December 5, 1996

  1. In today's conference, there was a presentation on Japan's social security experience, centered on issues of health and medical care as well as welfare services and income-security issues from the Japanese side, followed by initial comments from several nations. Discussions by all the participants were conducted in a very active manner thereafter. Through the discussions in today's meeting, mutual understanding was fostered with respect to the challenges faced by each country and its response to them. I believe that this will benefit the future development of social-security policies. This is the very aim of the "Initiative for a Caring World," namely, to exchange experiences and to deepen mutual understandings. This meeting was really a success in the sense that the initiative proposed by Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto was supported by the participating countries and was put into practice.

  2. The Meeting can be briefly summarized as follows:

(1)
At the opening of the meeting, Prime Minister Hashimoto, in his keynote address, depicted social security as the structure comprised of the self-reliance and self-help efforts of the individual as a vertical pillar and the spirit of social solidarity as a horizontal beam. He looked back over Japan's experiences during the past fifty years in social security from the perspective of cooperation between the public and private sectors and discussed some future directions.

(2)
The subsequent discussions in the sessions revealed that the issue of social security is becoming crucially important for participating countries which are faced with many challenges of their own.
Taking into account their fiscal situations as well as current and future aging of their populations, participating countries are facing the need to review their systems as a whole, and to promote their efficiency. Each of the participating countries is tackling such challenges, keeping in mind the balance between economic and social development.
It has become clear through exchanges of views that each country is making efforts for reform in search of new directions.
Added to this was the reconfirmation that the philosophy of social security to support each other for those problems which cannot be dealt with by individual effort in the spirit of social solidarity--is indeed universal, although the relations amongst families, communities, and the state which surround individuals may differ in various social and cultural contexts.
Furthermore, urbanization is becoming an issue for many countries, which leads to the need for proper waste management as well as expansion of coverage of the water supply system. It was also recognized that maintaining a supply of safe water is greatly effective in the fight against communicable diseases.
Moreover, as exemplified by the cases of emerging and re-emerging diseases such as HIV/AIDS, there are many urgent tasks which can only be tackled by collaboration beyond national boundaries. The significance of international coordination with the active participation by international organizations was recognized.

(3)
From these perspectives, the main concept of today's meeting, to share knowledge and experiences relating to social security policies in each country, was timely. All participating countries and international organizations including observers have reached a consensus that it is highly significant to understand each other through active discussions.

(4)
Social security policies and policies in other areas are defined by various socio-economic factors of each country. Although successes in one country cannot be easily transplanted into another country, there is a common understanding as a result of this meeting that it is most beneficial to understand each other as well as to share experiences.

(5)
Today's meeting marked a great first step in promoting the Initiative for a Caring World. It was confirmed that this first step should be followed by continuing efforts to deepen mutual understanding and to share experiences.
The initiative bloomed fully here in Okinawa today. We sincerely hope that this flower will bear good fruits in every corner of the world in the future.
I believe that efforts should be made to best utilize the results of this meeting in countries of the world as well as WHO, OECD, and other international fora, including a meeting of high-level social-security officials of East Asian countries which is to be held next year to deepen future discussions. My earnest hope is for Japan to actively engage in development projects in the field of social security in a broad sense. I would like to confirm that we will continue to promote the Initiative for a Caring World. It was also confirmed that further discussions will be held amongst participating countries on the proposal of holding another Ministerial-level meeting.

(END)

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