**1.3 Fields of social workers in Japan**

Major employees of social workers in Japan are hospitals or clinics and private medical or welfare companies who contract with local governments to support the management of their long-term care welfare services as subsidiaries.

Social workers, with or without the public qualification, play roles in the delivery processes of long-term care welfare services provided in the community. Although the data is limited to those with the public qualification, about 40% of social workers work for the eldercare facilities, and 14% work for medical care facilities [6]. The data suggests that many social workers play important roles as life counselors in the more general term in Japan.
