The leader of Japan’s largest opposition party, the Centrist Reform Alliance has proposed a “Competitive Welfare State”

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The July 2026 policy initiative called "Competitive Welfare State"

・States the opposite contention of growth-vs-welfare and open-vs-protectionist in "inclusion over conflict" terms

・From welfare that provides support to welfare that expands possibilities, Puts welfare in the context of an investment rather than a cost, as it employs Giddens’ idea of "Positive Welfare"

・Prefers active over passive labor market policies

・Characterizes its attitude toward globalization as "ordered openness," remaining neither unmanaged nor protectionist

Contrary to this, it is more centered on the issue of demographic collapse than the 1990s growth phenomenon, emphasizing food and energy independence.