Japan Press Weekly

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2012 May 30 - June 5 [WELFARE]

Poverty is cause of more people seeking welfare

The livelihood protection program has attracted public attention since a famous comedian’s mother was found to have received the program benefits. The government is attempting to take advantage of this case, disclosed by media and a Liberal Democratic Party parliamentarian, to carry out its long-term aim of drastically reducing the amount of the welfare payments.

“This is a very rare case and not an illegal case. Media imply that the increase in the number of ‘illegal’ cases like this is the cause of the increase in the number of those who receive livelihood protection benefits, but it is not true,” said Yoshinaga Jun, professor at Hanazono University.

Japan’s poverty rate reached 16% in 2009. “This indicates that in this country, there are more than 20 million people who are living with three other family members on less than 186,000 yen a month,” said Yoshinaga. Meanwhile, livelihood protection payments are provided for only 10% of them, he added.

Yoshinaga stressed that considering the ongoing increase in poverty, the government’s welfare programs must be improved.

Fujita Takanori, representing the NPO “Hot Plus” which supports struggling people, stressed the need to raise the low rate of taxes on the wealthy in order to improve social welfare programs.

He warned of a possible acceleration of a move, triggered by the latest case, to go back to the “structural reform” policies that annually slashed social welfare budgets by 220 billion yen.