Income support for displaced workers in Japan

A well-designed system of income support can minimise the hardship resulting from displacement without unduly dulling the incentive for job losers to move quickly back into jobs. This chapter examines the availability and the adequacy of income support for the displaced workers in Japan. The main source of public income support for displaced workers in Japan is Employment Insurance (EI) and this chapter assesses EI coverage and adequacy for different groups of displaced workers in detail. Other potential sources of public income support for displaced workers are shown to be relatively unimportant for this group. By contrast, private sources of income support are shown to play an important role in Japan for some displaced workers, particularly long-tenure employees in large firms who enrol involuntary early retirement plans.