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

在荷兰和英国，老年人的劳动参与率在1970年代初至1990年代中期急剧下降，这是因为为了给年轻的求职者腾出空间，对老年工人实行了提前退出政策。荷兰引入自愿退休制度，作为提早退休的途径，并提供优厚的福利，创造了所谓的“提早退休文化”。在英国，虽然撒切尔政府没有承诺推行提早退休政策，但丧失工作能力福利实际上扮演了提早退休途径的重要角色。自20世纪90年代中期以来，两国都试图改变政策，积极老龄化社会，以科普人口老龄化的挑战，如劳动力短缺和社会保障制度的危机。一揽子政策包括：第一，关闭提前离职途径的措施;第二，为老年人提供终身学习和技能培训机会的措施;第三，支持雇主为老年工人制定支助性规定的措施。这些政策的关键词是“多样性”和“社会包容”。年龄歧视不能作为老年工人的问题来解决。其他各种歧视，包括性别歧视、残疾歧视、种族歧视等，应在欧盟指令的指导下，作为人权问题综合处理。日本一直注重延长老年工人的就业期限，前提条件是终身就业制度将永远持续下去，因此应将这一综合办法引入日本。然而，在全球化时代，这一前提条件被严重削弱。欧洲的经验不仅对重新考虑日本的老年工人政策，而且对重新考虑整个社会保障体系都可能有用。

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.