Comprehensive Research OrganizationWaseda University

With the rapid declining birth rate of the population, the refugee problem has been getting worse in Europe and the United States that have accepted immigrants as labor force. Also, in most OECD countries, the poverty rate of children is higher than the poverty rate of society as a whole and it is increasing．Since the latter half of the 20th century, the slowdown in economic growth in developed regions has spurred the dramatic change in demographic dynamics, and furthermore the sustainability of public assistance and cooperation functions that have been enriched under the pattern of nationalism It is being compromised. Currently, these various factors cause poverty and inequality that impede the accumulation process of HC, as well as causing conflicts among people, causing negative chains beyond ‘individual’ and ‘generation’. Such social unrest is probably a common problem on a global scale in the 21st century.
Therefore, at the Waseda Institute of Social and Human Capital Studies (WISH), how human capital (HC) represented by education and health is accumulated as “individuals” and ” Socio-economic status (socio-economic status) “through the utilization of quantitative and qualitative big data and field surveys and experiments on how essential the mechanism is inherited beyond” individual “and” generation ” We conduct verification from both aspects of demonstration and theory against various hypotheses focusing on the relevance between SES and social capital (SC) and HC． The theme of WISH is an urgent policy issue that the international community must face, and it is also a medium- and long-term task indispensable for seeking a way of sustainable social system for human society. Concerning about the fact that there is a significant correlation with education · health and SES representing HC, as a result of research through modern times, consensus is generally obtained among researchers. However, a firm conclusion on the question as to what kind of various factors correlate with our HC through what kind of mechanism, and what is the significance and magnitude of the influence , Neither theoretically nor empirical results have been obtained. In addition, while conventional human capital theory clarifies the accumulation process of HC closed to individuals, HC accumulated in “individual” exceeds “individual” and “generation” , and community and human society It is not said that it gives sufficient answers to the problem consciousness whether it is inherited to SC and contributes to accumulation of SC. There is a high possibility that HC has an external effect and it is likely to be accumulated too small. As long as the accumulation of HC is regulated by individuals, the disparity between those that can efficiently accumulate HC and those that cannot accumulate HC is expanded , Is not it one of the major causes of social unrest and conflict in the present age?
Based on the above-mentioned problem awareness, WISH has been working on concrete subjects such as “medical care / nursing care” , “education” , “environment”, “development” etc. from accumulation of SC to accumulation of HC, It aims to find the key of a two-way door from the accumulation of HC to the accumulation of SC.