Who Protects Our Lives?: Managing Crises and Social Security in Socialist Laos and Japan

This chapter examines ongoing debates related to the provision of social security in Laos and Japan. It demonstrates that, despite different labels (i.e., Laos is officially under socialist management and Japan is believed to be pursuing capitalist development), issues related to social security are significant concerns for the people who live in these respective countries. In each state, individuals attempt to answer the same question: “Who will provide security in everyday life?” In their efforts to answer this question, individuals have traveled varied social paths. As a result, the focal points of related debates are also varied. In Japan, the public doubts the government’s ability to serve as the sole provider of social security. Related debates have accelerated because of recent social and natural disasters, including the Great East Japan Earthquake. In contrast, in Laos, the people have developed grass-roots security nets because of changes that have occurred in governments, as well as due to the absence of fundamental debates related to national welfare. Based on anthropological fieldwork as well as my personal experience as both an anthropologist and an informant, in this chapter, I examine the ways social security-related arguments have developed in both countries. In conclusion, I demonstrate that citizens in both countries have used older, traditional methods in strategic ways to manage crises based on their search for breakthrough methods to reconstruct their societies.