Economic Analysis of the Development of the Nursing Care Industry in China and Japan

A super-aged society that Japan has been rushing toward with unprecedented speed is facing a new challenge. Under these circumstances, improving the productivity of the nursing care industry has been an extremely important political issue. China, Japan's neighbor and with a huge potential demand for nursing care, has shared the dual problems of rapid aging. It is a golden opportunity to export know-how on nursing care which has been accumulated up to now to China. By constructing a database of both nations, this project presents several empirical analyses with the objective of devising possible solutions on top of clarifying the actual status. First, by constructing a comprehensive database of Japan's nursing facility, we conduct efficiency analyses including an estimation on the output function by considering the quality and the charges of care service. Then, based on the results of the above analyses, we compare with that of the other industries and clarify the differences among them, which can set policy recommendations for the future shape of the growth industry and for the employment generation. Second, this project sheds light on the type of nursing care service preferred by China, how to set the charges and the care worker's payment, and the economic conditions facing the assisted-living residents by conducting an online survey on the demands for nursing care via a conjoint method in Japan and China. All of these are very important and helpful to Japanese companies in entering the Chinese nursing care industry.

July 24, 2017 - June 30, 2019