JAPAN: Economic Reforms Breed Young Underclass

By Suvendrini Kakuchi Reprint | | Print |

Suvendrini Kakuchi

TOKYO, Oct 19 2006 (IPS) - Japan’s much acclaimed economic recovery means little to Masami, 24, who has been hopping jobs for the past five years after giving up plans to attend university because his father was ailing.

”I work 12 hours a day as a parking attendant and now have a monthly income of around Yen 100,000 (841 US dollars) based on an hourly pay scheme. That is barely enough to get by on,” explained the young man who shyly refused to reveal his surname at a recent conference on welfare issues in Japan.

Masami falls into a new and growing category in Japan -the working poor-who earn less than Yen 3 million or 28,000 dollars annually compared to the national average of 50,000 dollars, despite working two or even three jobs.

Activists point out that people with such low incomes can barely pay for food, shelter and other basic needs in a country that is the second richest in the world. People like Masami are often forced to live in public parks when they run out of money and cannot pay the daily rent for a small room.

Japan does not have an official poverty line.

According to experts, this growing young underclass is the product of new economic reforms in Japan, launched five years ago, to reduce the national budget deficit, by cutting down on public spending and the squeezing of costs on personnel by private companies.

In 2005, Japan’s annual welfare budget was around 18 billion dollars, or 17 percent of its Gross National Product (GNP) – the lowest in the industrialised world. In comparison, Europe spends 26 percent of its GNP on welfare.

”The working poor symbolises a society in which the gap between the rich and poor has been growing,” says social activist Makoto Yuasa. ”The erosion of public social spending has also caused great distress in small towns and rural areas where businesses have had to close as people move to big cities seeking jobs.”

While official statistics are not available, figures compiled by Japan’s Asahi TV, last month, showed that in the 1980s the top 20 percent of the population made 10 times more than the 20 percent in the low-income bracket. By 2000, the rich were making 168 times more than poor workers.

”The lack of a proper safety net in Japan represents a human rights violation issue in Japan,” said lawyer Kyoshi Morikawa, who supports activists. ”The Japanese constitution guarantees its citizens the right to a secure life but the government shuns its responsibility,” said Morikawa, who was himself engaged in helping the homeless before he became a lawyer.

But, Morikawa explained, the official perception of economically vulnerable people in Japan is that they are lazy and must be pushed to work harder.

”Welfare officials have earned a reputation for always rejecting people from their right to public funds. They insult them so much that many Japanese simply do not want to apply for help,” Morikawa said, pointing to a tragic case in September where a mother and her handicapped son died of starvation for sheer lack of money.

The high number of suicides – more than 30,000 annually in a population 128 million – are committed mostly by people who are desperate about their future, according to various studies.

Currently, government statistics indicate there are 1.2 million households that depend on welfare, up from 600,000 a decade ago. But activists contend that the number could be twice that figure since many people are either turned away by officials or simply do not apply for welfare because they are not aware of their right to support.

An immediate concern for activists is a plan, now being considered by the government, to tighten regulations that will make it tougher to apply for social welfare after April 2008.

”We are totally against such a discriminatory plan in a country where welfare is still way below global standards and citizens continue to be denied access to help,” points out Iwase, who is the director of ‘Moyai’, a non-profit organisation that is spearheading the campaign to protect Japan’s fledgling safety net.

For example, out of a national welfare budget of 12 million dollars reserved for single mothers in 2005, the government disbursed only 20,000 dollars, citing lack of information from local government offices.

”It’s a shame,” said Yoriko Madoka, a member of the Democratic Socialist Party that opposes welfare cuts. ‘’It shows the utter disregard on the part of officials for the right of women to a safety net to rear their children.”

Aware of rising criticism, newly elected Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has developed a catch slogan called ‘Second Chance’ that promises to find jobs for 200,000 young people and reduce the numbers of the working poor.

But Yuasa does not consider this the right approach. ”For a start, the numbers promoted by the government is way too small compared to the rising number of vulnerable society. More than finding jobs, Abe should make sure Japan will develop a secure national safety net based on ensuring a secure life for citizens.”