Kawamura, Kadoda, and Ogura.

• Position: Brief Article

Kawamura, Kadoda, and Ogura suggest that Japan's elderly health care system and its National Health Insurance (NHI) programs together have created a crisis in Japanese public health insurance. The two systems transfer funds from corporate employees and general tax revenues to pay health benefits, but beneficiaries themselves pay relatively little. As Japan's population ages, the number of health care beneficiaries continues to grow, putting enormous pressures on Japan's national budget and increasingly alienating corporate employees, who now pay almost...