Monday, March 5, 2012

Poverty in Japan: Shadowy Figures


This article describes the grim reality of Japan’s poverty level and a couple of the reasons why it has been hard to deal with. Japan ranked sixth on a list comparing the percentage of people living in poverty that included 33 other countries. One reason it is hard to accurately tell how many poor people there are is because they are not around during the day. In some apartments, the only way to tell how many people inside is from the dozens of pairs of slippers at the entrance. During the day many of the poor are not on the street begging, but rather have their things neatly tucked away someplace until night falls. Another reason that Japan has trouble measuring poverty is due to an obsolete poverty index. The welfare ministry is working to fix this though. I believe it is important to get a clearer image of what poverty is like in Japan because the poverty level of a country can tell us a great deal about that country from the general lifestyle to economic and political policy.

3 March 2012

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