Japan Press Weekly

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2016 July 13 - 19 [SOCIAL ISSUES]

Financially struggling families exceed 60% in gov’t survey

In a 2015 welfare ministry survey, the percentage of families finding it hard to make ends meet exceeded 60% two years in a row.

The Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry on July 12 released the results of the 2015 National Livelihood Survey. In the survey, those who said that their household financial condition is “fairly tight” accounted for 32.9% of the respondents and “very tight” accounting for 27.4%, totaling 60.3% of the respondents.

When looking at child-rearing families, 63.5% have difficulty making ends meet.

The survey showed that 61.2% of households in Japan in 2015 earned below the average annual income of 5,419,000 yen. The percentage of households with an annual income of less than one million yen stood at 6.4%. In terms of elderly households, 40.7% lived on less than 1.99 million yen a year. Among elderly families receiving public benefits including pension benefits, 55% said that they have no additional financial resources.

Past related articles:
> More than 62% of families having difficulty making ends meet [July 3, 2015]
> 60% find difficulty in making ends meet [July 6, 2012]