Poverty in Japan

Japan Times editorial today talks about Japan's poverty rates. It reports that Japan's relative poverty rate as of 2007 stood at 15.7 percent; up from 14.9 percent in the 2004 making Japan the fourth-highest among OECD's 30 member nations.

This means that nearly one in every six, or 19 million Japanese are living below the poverty line - defined as half the median income for all income earners.

Japan may imagine itself as middle class and, compared with other OECD countries, the distribution of income before redistribution has remained better than many, but Japanese society is increasingly becoming pear-shaped. The elderly, older workers, recent unemployed graduates and especially single mothers and their children make up an ever-larger portion of those in poverty. According to the OECD survey, some 59 percent of those below the poverty line are single parents. This figure was one of the worst of all OECD countries in 2004.

http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/ed20100125a2.html