Japan has adopted a social insurance model that provides a centralized, government-supported, comprehensive long-term care system with widespread eligibility. Reports indicate high levels of public support for the system, and costs per senior, overall, are less than current U.S. spending on nursing home/retirement home care. Of course, recent backlash in the similar public healthcare debate indicates that the U.S. public would not easily embrace the Japanese long-term care model, but social insurance provides one option to consider, perhaps as part of the broader healthcare reform debate.