21 COE Nihon Fukushi University Project - The 21st Century Center of Excellence Program  Asian COE towards a New Policy Science for Social Well-Being and Development
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Opening Positions

[5th Domain] Research concerning an Integrated Health, Medical, and Welfare System

As Professor Ryu Niki, research leader of the Fifth Domain, also has a responsibility as the COE Program Leader, his co-researcher, Professor Hidekazu Nomura, is in practice leading the research of the Fifth Domain. The research field of Professor Nomura and his group is “Cooperative Welfare.” The focus is on creating a model of a “Welfare Community,” where members of cooperative organizations develop community welfare through alliances and support, participating in a bottom-up manner. There are nine research members, including four NFU lecturers, two mature graduate school students, and three members from other universities. There are also three participating researchers from other groups.


1
Research Aim

The aim of this research is to identify the future role of cooperative organizations as community medical and welfare service providers by clarifying the current status of community care integration systems run by different cooperative organizations, and to clarify the problems that these organizations are facing. Cooperative organizations operate in varying ways according to the purpose of their foundation, and develop characteristics according to their specialist areas. Within the concerns of nation-wide aging, some cooperative organizations that are well-established and have developed social trust, have extended their original business to include mutual support welfare activities, and are now extending these activities into commercial welfare services. For example, Japan Agricultural Co-operatives (JA) has an organization called the Federation of Agricultural Co-operatives for Health and Welfare, which operates hospitals, and the Japanese Consumers’ Co-operative Union (JCCU) has the Health Co-operative Association (HCA for JCCU), which is engaged in medical services–including hospitals and clinics. Thus, medical services offered by cooperative organizations are already in operation.


2
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Data concerning the medical and welfare services operated by nation-wide cooperative associations, prefectural associations, and major independent cooperative organizations, such as JA, JCCU, HCA for JCCU, and Roukyou (Workerfs Co-op) will be collected via direct contacts. The data gathered will then be analyzed from the viewpoint of business features, efficiency, and management method, utilizing the skills of our research members, the majority of whom are accounting specialists.


3
Research Features

Geographical characteristics must be considered in order to respond appropriately to the specific medical and welfare needs of the local community. A cooperative organization is a suitable body to meet such needs because it already has a strong bond with the community through the varied activities of the members. Further, such an organization has the expertise to build up mutual support activities, which can also be utilized to organize a mutual support system between people in need. Government and medical organizations tend to pursue medical and welfare services from the viewpoint of the supplier, while a cooperative organizationfs viewpoint is founded on the requirements and opinions of the service users, and their families and neighbors, who voluntarily participate in the organization. Their role in establishing a welfare society is important, especially when we need to discuss such establishment in the light of “community activity.”
Further, newly implemented changes in the medical insurance and long-term care insurance system has increased the financial burden on clients, which in turn discourages people from using such services. A decline in service usage causes a decline in the income of the medical and welfare service providers, and thus service providers are now facing serious financial difficulties. In this sense, our analysis on the business management of such services based on the collected data will be important in order to determine future business directions for medical and welfare services.
In March 2003, we held the first Cooperative Organization Welfare Forum in Nagoya, and we are currently organizing a second forum in Chiba. Although this project had commenced before the COE program was introduced, it is now an indispensable part of cooperative organization welfare research under the COE program structure as this forum covers nationwide cooperative organizations, such as JA and Roukyou.


4
Asian Center of Excellence for Cooperative Organizations
Among the cooperative organizations, HCA for JCCU functions as the head office for international exchanges in the Asian region, and directors’ meetings and seminars are regularly held by the Asia-Pacific Health Co-operative Organization (APHCO). We are considering making a contribution to the organization of an Asian Center for cooperative organization international exchanges through such activities.


Professor
Graduate School of Management Development and Information System

Hidekazu Nomura


Dean, Faculty of Social Welfare; Professor, Graduate School of Social Welfare
Ryu Niki
(writing : Hidekazu Nomura)

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