Japan Press Weekly

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2011 November 9 - 15 [WELFARE]

Record-high 2 million people receive welfare benefits

The number of livelihood protection recipients reached 2,050,495 in July, a record high since 1951 when such a survey began, announced the Welfare Ministry on November 9.

As the major causes behind this, Akahata pointed out that regular employment has been replaced with non-regular jobs, more and more non-regular workers have become jobless, and the aging population has increased.

Between 1951 and 1995, the number of livelihood protection program users decreased from 2.04 million to 880,000. However, this trend was reversed as the Liberal Democratic Party government promoted “structural reform” policies.

Later on the same day, a civic group struggling to improve the livelihood protection system released a statement, saying, “The problem is not the growing number of people receiving livelihood protection assistance, but the widening gap between the rich and the poor.”

As causal factors in the increase in livelihood protection recipients, a representative of the group at a press conference mentioned that wages and pensions are low and that workers eligible to receive unemployment benefits are also few. The representative said, “It is impossible to stop the increase unless the government implements measures to raise wages and pensions, lengthen the reach of the unemployment insurance system, and improve welfare programs for children.”

The Japan Federation of Bar Associations also published a similar statement signed by its President Utsunomiya Kenji.