The Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare released a report July 17, entitled as ‘Outline of Investigations on People’s Basic Life in 2019’. According to it, the relative poverty rate has declined a little from the previous survey, but it remains high. This current study was a record as of the year 2018, and therefore, reality today is worse due to the pandemic.

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The Ministry conducts a survey every three years on the basic living conditions of people, announcing a relative poverty rate. A poverty line is calculated as a half of the median value of disposable incomes, which is \1.27 million Yen in the recent study. A ratio of people who live below the poverty line (a relative poverty rate) is 15.4%, which is lower than the previous figure by minus 0.3 point (if applied is the new OECD norm, it is 15.8%). Nineteen million Japanese, or one of every 6.5 people, live in poverty.

Single-parent families have a hard life

A children’s poverty rate is 13.5%, which is lower than the result of 2015 survey by minus 0.4 point (according to the new OECD norms, it is 14.0%). If the figure is reflected in a real number of the child population, it counts approximately 2.60 million. The highest was recorded in the 2012 survey, in which the rate was 16.3%. If the 2020 figure is compared with that of eight years ago, it is lower by a little under 3%. If it is compared with figures of foreign countries, it ranks high among the developed nations, following the United States.

Children’s poverty comes from parents’ poverty. Due to lack of labor force, employment has grown for years, which has decreased a poverty rate. Nonetheless, one child of every seven children lives below the poverty line.

Single-parent families have, as usual, a hard life. The poverty rate is 48.1%, which is lower than the 2015 survey figure by minus 2.7 point (if applied is the new OECD norms, it is 48.2%). That means one single-parent family per two faces poverty. As of the year 2016, the number of households with a mother and child/children counts 1.232 family units and those with a father and child/children, 187 thousand.

Government’s policy is poor

Amid the pandemic the government grants an emergency special benefit to families with small children; an allowance of \10 thousand per child to a family which is covered by the Child Benefits program. For single-parent families, the government pays an emergency special benefit amounting \50 thousand for the eldest child, and \30 thousand for subsequent children of a family which is a recipient of the Child Care Allowance program, a scheme for single-parent families.

As some local governments grant some additional benefits, the state government pays only once.

As for the Child Care Allowance scheme, it provides a harsh income limit and the standard amount is not big. Its rules are as follows: an applicant presents an income record of the previous year in August and after examinations, he/she will be paid in January of the following year.

If a family is not covered by the Child Care Allowance program and has decreased its income due to the pandemic, it is eligible to receive an emergency special benefit, but it is not always entitled to receive a child care allowance.

Due to a spread of the disease schools were closed down across the country: under these conditions boys and girls could not enjoy school lunches. Many parents decrease incomes due to day-offs or closure of workplaces. Tragic child abuses do not end. Drastic changes are needed urgently in the child benefit and child care allowance programs.

September 8, 2020