Aging & Society: Eighth Interdisciplinary Conference

Abstract

Social welfare corporations (SWCs) are one of the main actors for providing welfare services in Japan. Not only do they provide formal services, nowadays they are expected to contribute to informal social services as well. Some of the corporations expand their work into community organizing in order to involve local people in the provision of their own services. Three examples will be shared in this paper. First, Riddell Wright Home Social Welfare Corporation provides a community gathering place and a system whereby people donate their work to the community. Second, Ogunimach-shyakaifukushi-kyougikai Social Welfare Corporation has a department that mainly provides job training and housing services for people who are challenged. For example, they bought a tofu shop from an elderly couple that was retiring and turned it into a job training program. They asked local farmers to grow special soybeans for making tofu. As a result, local farmers, who actually proved to be better at growing the beans, earned extra income. In addition, they taught members affiliated with the job training program how to grow the beans. Third, the Niji no Kai Social Welfare Corporation in Shiga prefecture started providing a mini market on wheels. As the community grows older, they consume less. The mountainous areas of the community suffer from a lack of shops for their daily food needs. The paper discusses the importance of the role of SWCs in an aging society, especially their use of community organizing as one method for strengthening community involvement.