Unemployment insurance - Shitsugyohoken

Japanese: 失業保険 - しつぎょうほけん

It is a type of social insurance that aims to guarantee the livelihood of workers by providing income security for a certain period of time in the event that they become unemployed. In the unemployment insurance system, the payment of insurance premiums during the period of employment is a prerequisite for unemployment benefits, but some countries have established non-contributory unemployment benefit systems. In a capitalist society, workers are at risk of survival if they are unemployed for a long period of time, so without a system of unemployment insurance or unemployment benefits, unemployed people would be forced to work, even if it was an unstable job with poor working conditions.

[Mitomi Noritaka and Goga Kazumichi]

Foreign unemployment insurance systems

In the mid-19th century in England, trade unions organized by skilled workers (United Machinists' Union) contributed dues from their relatively high wages to set up funds to prepare for unemployment and illness. However, unskilled workers, such as women and young workers, were excluded from these mutual aid systems. As technological innovation progressed toward the end of the 19th century, the degree of dependence on skilled workers decreased, and the proportion of semi-skilled and unskilled workers among factory workers gradually increased. Since they had no means of protecting their livelihood in the event of unemployment, they launched a large-scale campaign to have the government establish a livelihood security system in the event of unemployment. Against this backdrop, the National Insurance Act was passed in 1911, establishing the world's first unemployment insurance system. However, due to financial reasons, application was limited to seven sectors: architecture, civil engineering, shipbuilding, machinery, steelmaking, vehicle manufacturing, and lumbering. In Germany under the Weimar regime after World War I, a non-contributory unemployment benefit system was established. The International Labour Organization (ILO), founded in 1919, adopted the "Convention concerning Unemployment" (Convention No. 2) and the "Recommendation concerning Unemployment" (Recommendation No. 1) at its first general conference that same year, calling for the establishment of unemployment insurance systems in all countries. Against this backdrop, unemployment insurance systems were established in Italy (1919), Austria (1920), Poland (1924), Bulgaria (1925), Germany (1927), France (1930), and Sweden (1934).

[Mitomi Noritaka and Goga Kazumichi]

Japan's Unemployment Insurance System

Japan ratified the ILO Convention on Unemployment in 1922 (Taisho 11), and the Constitutional Council submitted an unemployment insurance bill to the Imperial Diet in the same year, but the bill was not debated. In 1934 (Showa 9), the ILO recommended the implementation of an unemployment insurance system, but its enactment was postponed until after World War II. After Japan's defeat in the war, mass unemployment and national poverty spread, and the Unemployment Insurance Law was enacted in December 1947, retroactively implemented to November of the same year. Initially, the insured persons were workers in workplaces that were compulsory covered by the Health Insurance Law, and day laborers, service industry workers, and construction industry workers were excluded. For this reason, the law had little effect on the income security of the large number of unemployed people at the time of its enactment. In 1955, the uniform payment of unemployment benefits was changed to a four-stage system of payment periods based on the length of the insurance period. Furthermore, in 1960, the Public Employment Security Office began to arbitrarily extend individual benefits, and the associated differentiation of payment periods began. In addition, a separate day laborer unemployment insurance system for day laborers was established in 1949.

From the mid-1960s onwards, government guidance was strengthened to help unemployment benefit recipients find employment. The method adopted was to presume that unemployed people who insisted on job-seeking conditions that the public employment security office deemed inappropriate were "unwilling and unable to work" and not to determine their eligibility for benefits. The Employment Measures Act (Act No. 132 of 1966) established a system of occupational transition benefits consisting of employment guidance allowances, wide-area job-seeking expenses, relocation funds, etc., to provide the institutional backing for preventing long-term retention of the unemployed and promoting the reallocation of labor at low wages.

[Mitomi Noritaka and Goga Kazumichi]

Transition to the Employment Insurance Act

In 1974, the Unemployment Insurance Law was replaced by the Employment Insurance Law (Law No. 116 of 1974) (which came into force in April 1975). Employment insurance was mandatory for all business establishments with fewer than five employees, except for privately owned businesses in the agriculture, forestry and fisheries industries. Insured workers were those whose regular working hours per week were 20 hours or more, whose employment period was more than one year, and whose total annual wages were expected to be 900,000 yen or more. The "900,000 yen or more" provision was abolished in April 2001, and the employment period was changed to "expected to be employed for 31 days or more" in April 2010.

The number of days of unemployment benefits was initially set at 90 days for those who had been insured for less than one year, but was later set at 90 days for those under 30, 180 days for those between 30 and 45, 240 days for those between 45 and 55, and 300 days for those over 55 if the period was longer than one year. The number of days of benefits was later adjusted according to the period of insurance coverage and the reason for leaving the job, but the number of days of unemployment benefits is generally shorter than in Western countries. This, combined with the fact that the amount of unemployment benefits in Japan does not have the principle of minimum living security as institutionalized in Western countries, is a factor that pressures unemployed people to work. According to ILO data ( The Financial and Economic Crisis; A Decent Work Response , 2009), the proportion of unemployed people in Japan who are not receiving unemployment benefits reaches 77% (2006). By comparison, the figures are 6% in Germany (2008), 20% in France (same), 59% in the United States (same), 56% in Canada (same), 45% in the United Kingdom (same), and 84% in China (2005).

A feature of employment insurance that was not seen in the previous unemployment insurance system is the establishment of various subsidy systems for employers. For example, a new system (employment adjustment benefits, later renamed employment adjustment subsidies) was established to subsidize employers for part of the leave allowances that employers are required to pay to workers when they reduce operations due to a recession or other reasons. Initially, the subsidy system started as the three employment projects (employment improvement projects, ability development projects, and employment welfare projects), but the content of the projects has since diversified with the aim of maintaining or expanding employment at companies. For example, there are special subsidies for the development of employment for the elderly (subsidizing part of the wages of unemployed workers aged 65 or older who are employed for a certain period of time or more for one year), trial employment subsidies (subsidizing the trial employment of job seekers who have difficulty finding employment due to their work experience, skills, knowledge, etc.), and career development promotion subsidies (subsidizing part of the wages and training costs of workers who are provided with vocational training).

[Kazumichi Goga and Noritaka Mitomi]

"Introduction to the Study of Employment Security Law" by Lin Dihiro et al. (1975, Horitsu Bunkasha)" ▽ "Modern Employment Issues and Labor Unions" by Oki Kazunori et al. (1978, Rodo Junposha) " ▽ "Modern Japanese Labor Policy" edited by Miyoshi Masami (1985, Aoki Shoten) ▽ "Practical Guide to Employment Insurance" edited by the Ministry of Labor's Employment Security Bureau (1997, Labor Administration Research Institute)" ▽ "Employment Insurance Division, Employment Security Bureau, Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare, Handbook of the Employment Insurance Law" (2003, Employment Issues Research Group)

[Reference items] | Employment continuation benefit system | Employment insurance | Unemployment | Social insurance

Source: Shogakukan Encyclopedia Nipponica About Encyclopedia Nipponica Information | Legend

Japanese:

労働者が失業した場合に、一定期間の所得保障を行うことによって、労働者の生活を保障しようとする社会保険の一種である。失業保険制度では就業期間中に保険料を納付したことが失業給付の前提となるが、無拠出の失業手当制度を設けた国もある。資本主義社会では失業が長期間続くと労働者は生存の危機にさらされるため、失業保険や失業手当の制度がなければ、失業者はたとえ労働条件の劣悪な不安定な職であっても就労を強制されることになる。

［三富紀敬・伍賀一道］

外国の失業保険制度

19世紀なかばのイギリスでは、熟練労働者を組織した職業別労働組合（合同機械工組合）が相対的に高い賃金から組合費を拠出し、失業や疾病に備えて基金を設けた。しかし、女性や年少労働者などの不熟練労働者はこうした共済制度から排除されていた。19世紀末にかけて技術革新が進み、熟練労働者に依存する度合いが減少し、しだいに工場労働者のなかでは半熟練または不熟練労働者の比重が大きくなった。彼らは失業時の生活防衛手段を確保していなかったので、政府に対して失業時の生活保障制度を設けるように大規模な運動を行った。こうしたことを背景に1911年に国民保険法が成立、世界初の失業保険制度が設けられた。ただし、財政的理由により適用は建築、土木、造船、機械、製鉄、車両製造、製材の7部門に限定されていた。第一次世界大戦後のワイマール体制下のドイツでは、無拠出の失業手当制度が設けられた。1919年に創設されたILO（国際労働機関）は同年の第1回総会で「失業に関する条約」（第2号条約）と「失業に関する勧告」（第1号勧告）を採択し、各国で失業保険制度を設けることを求めた。こうした動きを背景にイタリア（1919）、オーストリア（1920）、ポーランド（1924）、ブルガリア（1925）、ドイツ（1927）、フランス（1930）、スウェーデン（1934）で相次いで失業保険制度が創設された。

［三富紀敬・伍賀一道］

日本の失業保険制度

日本ではILO「失業に関する条約」を1922年（大正11）に批准し、憲政会は同年の帝国議会に失業保険法案を上程したが審議未了に終わった。1934年（昭和9）には失業保険制度の実施についてILOの勧告を受けたが、その成立は第二次世界大戦後まで持ち越された。敗戦後、大量失業と国民的窮乏が広がるなか、1947年12月に失業保険法が制定され、同年11月にさかのぼって実施された。当初、健康保険法の強制適用事業場の労働者を被保険者とし、日雇労働者、サービス業・建設業労働者などは適用除外とされた。このため、制定当時大量に存在した失業者の所得保障にはほとんど効力をもたなかった。その後1955年には、失業給付の一律支給を変更して、保険期間の長短による支給期間の4段階制が導入された。さらに1960年には、公共職業安定所の専断による個別的給付の延長措置と、これに伴う支給期間の差別化が始まった。なお、1949年に日雇労働者を対象とする日雇失業保険制度が別に定められている。

　1960年代中葉以降は、失業給付の受給者に対する就職斡旋(あっせん)が行政指導によって強められた。公共職業安定所が不適当と認める求職条件に固執する失業者などを「労働の意思および能力のない」者と推断して受給資格の決定を行わないという方法がとられた。1966年に制定された雇用対策法（昭和41年法律第132号）は、就職指導手当をはじめ広域求職活動費、移転資金などからなる職業転換給付金制度を設け、失業者の長期滞留の防止と低賃金での労働力の再配置を進めるための制度上の裏づけとした。

［三富紀敬・伍賀一道］

雇用保険法への転換

1974年に失業保険法にかわって雇用保険法（昭和49年法律第116号）が制定された（1975年4月に施行）。雇用保険は従業員5人未満の農林水産業の個人経営を除くすべての事業所に強制適用された。被保険者となる労働者は1週間の所定労働時間が20時間以上で、雇用期間が1年を超えること、および年間賃金総額が90万円以上あると見込まれる場合とされた。「90万円以上」という規定は2001年（平成13）4月より撤廃、また2010年4月より雇用期間は「31日以上雇用されることが見込まれること」に変更された。

　失業給付の所定給付日数は、当初、被保険者期間が1年未満の場合には一律90日とされたのをはじめ、これが1年以上の場合には年齢別に30歳未満90日、30歳以上45歳未満180日、45歳以上55歳未満240日、55歳以上300日と定められた。その後、保険加入期間および離職理由によって給付日数に差が設けられたが、失業給付の所定給付日数は西欧諸国に比べ全体として短い。これは、日本の失業給付額が、欧米諸国で制度化されているような最低生活保障の原則を欠いていることと相まって、失業者に就労を迫る要因となっている。ILOのデータによれば（The Financial and Economic Crisis; A Decent Work Response, 2009）、日本の失業者のなかで失業給付を受給していない者の比率は77％（2006年）に達する。ちなみにドイツ6％（2008年）、フランス20％（同）、アメリカ59％（同）、カナダ56％（同）、イギリス45％（同）、中国84％（2005年）である。

　かつての失業保険制度にはみられない雇用保険の特徴は、使用者に対する種々の助成金給付制度を設けたことである。たとえば、企業が不況などを理由に操業短縮する際、事業主が労働者に支給することを義務づけられている休業手当の一部を事業主に対して助成する制度（雇用調整給付金、後に雇用調整助成金に名称変更）を新たに設けた。当初、助成金制度は雇用三事業（雇用改善事業、能力開発事業、雇用福祉事業）として始まったが、その後、企業の雇用維持または雇用拡大を目的に事業内容は多様化した。たとえば、高年齢者雇用開発特別奨励金（65歳以上の離職者を一定時間以上、1年以上雇用する労働者として雇い入れた場合、賃金の一部を助成）、試行雇用奨励金（職業経験、技能、知識などの面で就職が困難な求職者を試行的に雇用した場合に助成）、キャリア形成促進助成金（労働者に対して職業訓練を実施する場合に賃金および訓練経費の一部を助成）などがある。

［伍賀一道・三富紀敬］

『林迪廣他著『雇用保障法研究序説』（1975・法律文化社）』▽『大木一訓他著『現代雇用問題と労働組合』（1978・労働旬報社）』▽『三好正巳編著『現代日本の労働政策』（1985・青木書店）』▽『労働省職業安定局編著『雇用保険の実務手引』（1997・労務行政研究所）』▽『厚生労働省職業安定局雇用保険課編『雇用保険法便覧』（2003・雇用問題研究会）』

[参照項目] | 雇用継続給付制度 | 雇用保険 | 失業 | 社会保険

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