Japan Press Weekly

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2013 June 5 - 11 [WELFARE]

Anti-poverty demonstrators call for public aid law to not be revised

In the run-up to Upper House debates on a bill to adversely revise the Public Assistance Act, more than 200 anti-poverty activists on June 5 marched in demonstration towards the Diet Building, calling for the scrapping of the bill and an easing in the eligibility requirements to obtain public livelihood assistance.

Kawazoe Makoto of the Tokyo Young Contingent Workers’ Union, in stressing the need to kill the bill, stated that mal-revision of the Act will “threaten the people’s right to existence which Article 25 of the Constitution guarantees”.

Onoue Koji, secretary general of the Japan National Assembly of Disabled Peoples’ International (DPI), pointed out that the requirement of support obligations placed on a welfare applicant’s family will end up forcing persons with disabilities to be dependent on his/her family. “From the viewpoint of the need for disabled persons’ self-support, I’m really worried about the adverse revision of the state aid program,” said Onoue.

A male welfare recipient living in Tokyo said, “I can’t stand the requirement to submit detailed application documents. It is a blatant attempt to diminish the welfare caseload.”