Child indigence has doubled since the country’s economic bubble burst a quarter-century ago.
OSAKA, Japan — The country suffered a “lost decade, ” and then another one, after its bubble burst some 25 years ago. To this day, despite Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s efforts to reinvigorate it, Japan’s economy remains in the doldrums.
Now, experts are warning of a “lost generation” — a whole tier of Japanese children who are growing up in families where the parents — or, often, a single parent — work but do not earn enough to break through the poverty line.
“The Japanese economy has been getting worse and worse, and that’s hurting poor people, especially single mothers, ” said Yukiko Tokumaru, who runs Child Poverty Action Osaka, a nongovernmental organizational that helps families in need.
The judgment and stigma that single mothers face in many countries are taken to another level in Japan, a homogeneous society where those who do not conform often try to hide their situations — even from their friends and wider family.
But Japan also has a culture that makes it difficult for women to work after having children — changing this is a key part of Abe’s solution to the country’s economic problems — and that makes life exponentially harder for single mothers.
“We have this culture of shame, ” Tokumaru said. “Women’s position is still so much lower than men’s in this country, and that affects how we are treated. Women tend to have irregular jobs, so they need several jobs to make ends meet.”
Japan does have a welfare system, and it provides benefits according to different situations. A 35-year-old mother in Osaka with two elementary school-aged children and no job can expect to receive $2,300 a month.
But the number of families living on an income lower than the public welfare assistance level more than doubled in the 20 years after the asset price bubble popped in 1992, according to a study by Kensaku Tomuro of Yamagata University.
Now 16 percent of Japanese children live below the poverty line, according to Health Ministry statistics, but among single-parent families, the rate hits 55 percent. Poverty rates in Osaka are among the worst.
“If parents are working poor, their children are poor as well, and the cycle of poverty is handed down to the next generation, ” Tomuro said.
“Poor children can’ t get higher education, so they end up with a bad job, ” he said. The prolonged recession created a layer of second-tier jobs, in which workers do not get the security or benefits that had long been standard — damaging their prospects. “They can’ t start a family as they can’ t get married or have a child with a low income.”
This situation is all the more surprising given that Japan does not have anywhere enough children.
