When the country enjoyed rapid economic growth, standards of living improved across the board and class differences were obscured. With a stagnating economy, class is more visible again.
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Prof. Hiroshi Ishida of the University of Tokyo. Japan’s jobless rate, at 5.2%, is at a record high, and the number of households on welfare has risen sharply. The country’s 15.7% poverty rate is one of the highest among industrialized nations. (New York Times)
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neverknow2
It's not poverty when you still have a credit card and a cell phone. It's poverty when you don't have enough clothing or food to eat.
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kyoken
Only a pre-industrial mindset can define "standard of living" with owning three plasma TVs, a heated washlet and air-conditioned rooms, etc.
I think it is time for a rich nation like Japan to grow into a pre-industrial age and define standard of living with the absence of need to live in tiny out-of-town barracks, commute each day like sardines and work like dependent robot-like slaves.
Using an old saying for the Japanese malaise, "Japanese live statistically longer, because they never really live".
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