Poverty becomes a cold reality in wealthy Japan
Tokyo (dpa) - Japan's economic growth has enjoyed the longest expansion since the World War II, but not everyone is smiling amid the economic recovery.
Kaori Murano (not her real name) may be in a minority, but others like her in Japan's emerging community of urban poor are not benefiting from the distribution of wealth and clinging onto what they can scrape together every day.
The single mother living in Tokyo juggles two jobs: administration work and ad-posting. With average of three hours of sleep a day, she receives an annual income of 2.16 million yen (about 18,570 dollars), or about one-third of the average household income in one of the world's most-expensive cities.
The government also gives her 100,000 yen for child support, but she still finds herself with the equivalent of 5 dollars a day in her wallet. She sometimes only has water and flour to feed her three daughters, 5, 10 and 18, she says.
When looking to the future, she can't help but pull her hair in trying to make ends meet. "There is only despair waiting on us," the woman in her early 30s told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa.
The Japanese government has been discussing reductions to social benefits to fix its massive deficit accumulated over the years. It has already cut child support to single-mother households, and now welfare assistance for low-income residents is at risk.
The government needs a strategy to balance the ratio of working community and retirees. When Japan's post-war baby boomers start retiring en masse next year and join more than 20 per cent of the nation's senior population, the state's finances will be strained.
To start with, it decided to reduce child support and bring single-mothers to the mainstream workforce so that they can earn a living without subsidies.
"We get the impression that the government is trying to cut us loose," Murano said. "If the government truly intends to help us become financially independent, it should provide the minimum security so that we don't have to worry about ending up on the streets with children in our arms."
More than 1.47 million people received welfare assistance from the government as of last year, up 60 per cent in 10 years, according to the ministry. And they also fear that they will lose even basic needs such as shelter, food and clothing.
The number of welfare recipients has continued to rise since 1995, shortly after Japan's bubble economy burst. As the nation's economic growth became stagnant, employment options changed and put an end to a Japan where some 90 per cent of the people had secure lifetime employment and claimed their place in the middle class.
Some economists say there will be no major cuts in social contributions soon. The cabinet of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, which was established in September, would not intentionally worsen the current situation, according to Martin Schulz, senior economist at Fujitsu Research Institute.
But he says the income gap will spread wider.
"People at the top will get richer," Schulz said. Wages for regular employees at companies will increase and personal assets will go up because of future interest-rate hikes.
The people at the bottom, which rely solely on income with no assets to build on, will not benefit from the nation's economic recovery.
To narrow the income gap, there needs to be a redistribution of opportunities, rather than, Schulz said.
"The government needs to get people into employment and education, and increase chances at the bottom," the economist said.
While the government has cut child support and put a five-year limit on the allowance, it decided to expand day-care services and assistance in job hunting to get mothers into the nation's main workforce.
Japan's estimated 640,000 young jobless are also facing a similar situation. The Abe government has decided to double the job centres by 2007 to get more young people to land regular employment.
So far companies have preferred men over women or middle-aged men over young people because fathers are traditionally regarded as heads of households and bread-winners for the entire family.
After women faced many difficulties in landing regular employment in Japan, the nation is now turning to women and youths to carry a bigger part of the load for the aging population and strained pensions' systems.
But some on the bottom rungs like Murano remain skeptical.
"There is no doubt that we have full motivation to work," the Tokyo resident said. "But we need to be sure that our financial burden is lifted and basic demand is met before we can spend time to search better-paying job." // © 2006 DPA
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