* CONTENTS

1. Review of Social Security Statistics in Japan 2. Trends of Social Expenditure in Japan between 1980 and 2007 3. Conclusions

* SUMMARY

This paper is divided into two parts. The first part gives an explanation of the international statistical frameworks of the ILO and the OECD used for the analysis of social expenditure, describes how they were introduced and developed by the Japanese government, then reports on recent changes introduced after the Global Financial Crisis of 2008 and on policy discussions which have taken place in Japan on possible reforms of the taxation and social security systems. The second part of the paper describes the trends of Japanese social expenditures between 1980 and 2007 classified according to OECD guidelines using the OECD SOCX database...