SOCIAL POLICY OF ACTIVEAGEING: DEVELOPMENT IN THE UK AND THE NETHERLANDS

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The labor participation rate of older persons in the Netherlands and the UK had dramatically decreased between the early 1970s and the mid-1990s as a result of early exit policies for aging workers in order to make rooms for younger job seekers. The Netherlands introduced the VUT system as a pathway to early retirement with generous benefits which had created the so-called 'early retirement culture', In the UK though the Thatcher government did not committed to an early retirement policy, the Incapacity Benefits had virtually played an important role as a pathway to early retirement. Since the mid-1990s, the both countries have been trying to make a policy change toward an active aging society in order to cope with challenges of population aging, such as labor shortage and crisis of social security systems. The policy package has consisted of, first, measures for closing pathways of early exit, second, measures for providing opportunities of lifelong learning and skills-training for older persons, and third, measures to support employers developing supportive provisions for older workers. The keywords of the policies are 'diversity' and 'social inclusion'. Age discrimination cannot be solved as a problem of older workers. Other various discriminations including gender, disability, race and so forth should be tackled synthetically as the issue of the human rights based on the guideline of the EU directive. This comprehensive approach should be introduced to Japan, which has been focusing on extending employment period of older workers with a precondition that the lifelong employment system would continue forever. However, the precondition has been seriously weakened in the era of globalization. The European experiences might be useful to reconsider not only Japanese policies for older workers, but also the social protection system as a whole.