Survey finds 1 in 7 Japanese living in poverty

Wednesday 21st October, 05:17 AM JST

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bdiego at 04:38 AM JST - 22nd October

I can't tell from the article how they defined poverty. It may well be a coincidence that the poverty line happens to be half the median income (as opposed to be defined as half). If someone makes less than half the median income as a rule, you might call them poor people relative to that country's standards. But poverty has a different meaning. That said, 1 in 7 Japanese may well be in poverty. I've seen lots of people barely getting by working overtime and giving up a lot just to stay afloat.
acuteandchronic at 07:16 AM JST - 22nd October

As has been pointed out by others, this method of calculating so-called "poverty" is dishonest. This formula is so ridiculous that you could actually reduce "poverty" to zero by reducing everyone's income to zero. According to the Marxist way of thinking that came up with this stupid formula, that would probably be deemed a good thing.
kirakira25 at 08:30 AM JST - 22nd October

It explains why Japanese are not too ready to implement the marriage and family plans. Maybe the excessive immigration of foreigners contributes to the cause

What on earth???!
Klein2 at 10:35 AM JST - 22nd October

Kirakira

Maybe that person was trying to say that for many Japanese, choosing to have a family makes it more likely that they will be poor. Or maybe less likely to keep their standard of living. I think that is debatable.

Maybe letting in foreigners, many of whom would view Japan's median disposable income to be GREAT, would be a way to increase population growth. Supporting four kids on 400 man a year would be hard, but it would be easy if you were used to a ... I don't know... a Chinese? standard of living.

The message seems to be that Japanese women should get over it and start having babies, or that the government should give more money to mothers, or something like that.
Klein2 at 10:41 AM JST - 22nd October

bdiego and acutechronic

I agree that it is set up to fit the system and goals. The goal seems to be to reduce income inequality. That seems freaky to Americans. It seems freaky to me all of a sudden because it makes sense in extreme circumstances, but if the system were ever to reach its "goal," it would be an economy where everybody is poor, but with very high disposable incomes. Uh. Which is rich, I guess. In other words, the poverty level would keep rising until the median, maximum and minimum would all be the same.

That is never going to happen, but when you realize that the system puts rich people right in the crosshairs, it is an eye-opener.
kirakira25 at 11:15 AM JST - 22nd October

@klein2 - ah, I see! Thanks for the translation. I thought it meant that Japan had an immigration problem in that there were too many immigrants - hardly! And as for implementing marriage plans - I dont know of any Japanese who live together and are not married (although Im sure they do exist) and family plans - again, the ones who seem to be richer seem to be the ones who DON`T have children! Aha!!! I think I spy a pattern there!
cleo at 11:37 AM JST - 22nd October

I dont know of any Japanese who live together and are not married (although Im sure they do exist)

Actually it seems to be coming more and more the norm. My kids' friends, and friends' kids, are just at that age, and a lot of them seem to be going the route of live together - register the marriage - have a wedding, with months and sometimes years in between each step (and sometimes of course one step not leading to the next). It's also telling that dog adoption societies find it necessary to state on their websites that couples living together without the benefit of matrimony are not eligible to adopt a dog. A few years ago that demographic would have been too tiny to register.
Richard_III at 03:22 PM JST - 22nd October

Maybe the excessive immigration of foreigners contributes to the cause.

I very much doubt it. Given that most foreigners earn far more than the natives, my guess would be that overall they are net contributors.
Mayura at 04:37 PM JST - 22nd October

No matter how much a person earns, if he has no concept of financial management, he'll still live in poverty.
kirakira25 at 04:48 PM JST - 22nd October

a lot of them seem to be going the route of live together

Really? Well, I stand corrected then. I am surprised. Here in Tokyo it still seems to be that "nice girls don`t". Which basically shoots me in the foot because we absolutely did - what better way to find out if this guy was eligible marriage material?! But all our friends were SO shocked that we were living together - they asked me what my parents said!!! I was 30 for Gods sake and had left home at 18!!!
womanforwomen at 05:03 PM JST - 22nd October

Klein, calculations in stats are nice but in reality there is something i will never understand about poverty. I think it is created by the powerful people, maybe intentionally. I could be absolutely wrong though.

Thanks to the medical system here, the poor would be able to manage the flu. Thanks for your updates on it.
whatsgoinon at 06:25 PM JST - 22nd October

Richard III

I have no knowledge for certain that your stat is incorrect, but I do question it. By foreigners living in Japan and earning far more than the natives, do you include non-English speaking foreigners and do you also include English teachers? Because, while English teachers do quite well, they don't usually earn more than Japanese people of equal job status or above.
zurcronium at 10:00 AM JST - 23rd October

wow, these numbers are shocking. The mythical japanese middle class is shrinking while the top 1 percent of course is concentrating its financial wealth. Just like the USA. Koizumi addopted the real bush doctrine to pay attention only to the top 1 percent cause that is where the donations come from, about 70% or the bush funds came from the top 1% in wealth in the USA.

Yes, the DJP has a lot a work to undo from Koizume and his winner dog/loser dog strategy he used while in power. Although he was popular cause of his hair zumi will go down as one of the worse PMs in the history of Japan. At least the others who followed were so bad they could not do too much damage.
RandomTask at 12:26 PM JST - 25th October

Its a shame the article doesnt state what the poverty level comes to, I'm sure some of us will be included.
evaganda at 10:15 PM JST - 25th October

Poverty in Japan? the writer should come to the Philippines and see what poverty means and write the article again.