At the time of the first oil price shock in 1974, the former unemployment insurance law was replaced by the Employment Insurance Law. From 1975 measures under the heading “Services, etc. In addition to traditional public works which aim to absorb unemployment, which are financed outside the 1974 Law, from the 1980s measures under the Employment Stabilization heading of the Law included lump-sum wage subsidies for firms newly hiring middle-aged and elderly workers and subsidies for SMEs that require human resources for business conversions and expansion (Genda and Rebick, 2000; Ohtake, 2000 and 2004). In the early 2000s, younger workers were recognised as another group facing significant difficulties in the labour market, and a range of youth measures were introduced.