SOCIAL POLICIES VS. SOCIAL RISKS. A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF ROMANIAN & JAPAN'S SYSTEM

In a democratic state, social protection is a fundamental state policy, because by its implementation is carried preventing, restricting or eliminating the consequences of events which are considered "social risks" on the living standards of the population. In these circumstances, social policies are not a study on society and its problems poverty, inequality, discrimination, unemployment, marginalization, but are studying the mechanisms of response to these problems so that by actions to be achieved welfare will be promoted. Growing needs of the population, changes occurring in the society influenced by economic, social and political system, poverty, instability and neglect of social services led to the appearance of private insurance systems to protect the persons in need or those who wish to choose an additional or alternative income. Most countries have coped with the pension system through pay-as-you-go' mechanism but in time, lot of adverse trends has been noticed worldwide in the functioning of pension systems. The recent developments indicate that the employment systems are becoming informal and face shrinking, number of employees being gradually reduced. Romanian or Japan's pay-as-you-go' scheme was finding it difficult to sustain itself. We will analyze in this study the evolution of Romanian and Japan's public and corporate pension system. A new strategy who moved away from a fully state supported pension and financial benefits system towards private sector solutions.