poverty among japanese children and youths: …poverty among japanese children and youths: issues...

Poverty among Japanese Children and Youths: Issues & Policies

Aya K. Abe

Professor, Tokyo Metropolitan University

Director, Center for Research on Child and Adolescent Poverty

The 16th ASEAN & Japan High Level Officials Meeting on Caring Societies

THE MYTH OF ”EGALITARIAN SOCIETY” : 1960S TO 1980S

▪ Rapid economic recovery and development after the WWII

▪ “The (aftermath of) the war is over” (EPA 1956)

▪ 1965 The Ministry of Health & Welfare stops measuring number of households with low standard of living.

▪ 1970s “100 million all middle-class (Ichioku So Churyu)” became the popular word.

▪ 1975 National Survey: more than 90% answered they belong to the middle class (upper, upper-middle, middle, lower-middle, lower).

▪ The notion that Japan achieved “egalitarian society” became pride and identity of Japanese people.

2

FIRST SIGNS OF “VISIBLE” POVERTY IN JAPAN: 1990S

▪ First apparent signs : Emergence of “homeless” people in 1990s

▪ 2000 Law for Measures to Assist Homeless (People to achieve ) Independence

▪ Still, homelessness was seen as “special case” caused by individual laziness, alcoholism and their “preference (they like the freedom of living on the streets!)”

3

80 yr old homeless man (photo taken in 1997)

• Denial of government to acknowledge the “poverty” as a social issue.

2008-2009LEHMAN SHOCK, GOV’T CHANGE

▪ Discovery of “poverty” as a social problem

▪ 2008-9 Lehman Shock, the “Haken” village, the Change of Government

▪ 2009 Government announces the poverty rate (officially recognized for the first time)

▪ 2011 The Great East Japan Earthquake

▪ 2013 The Law to Promote Measures against Child Poverty

4

At the end of 2008, an NPO put up a tent village in Hibiya Park to house those who have lost their jobs and housing.

“The Haken (contract-worker) Village” （2009）

CHANGES IN RELATIVE POVERTY RATE IN JAPAN : 1985-2015

6

Poverty definition: 50% National Median (OECD Equivalent Scale – square root of household size)

Source: Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare (2017) Comprehensive Survey of Living Conditions 2015

12.0

13.2 13.5

13.8

14.6

15.3 14.9

15.7

16.0 16.1

15.6

10.9

12.9 12.8 12.2

13.4

14.4

13.7 14.2

15.7

16.3

13.9

8.0

9.0

10.0

11.0

12.0

13.0

14.0

15.0

16.0

17.0

1985 1988 1991 1994 1997 2000 2003 2006 2009 2012 2015

相対的貧困率

子どもの貧困率

%

All persons

Children aged under 18

CHILD POVERTY RATE BY FAMILY TYPE2012, 2015

▪ Strikingly high poverty rate of lone parent families.

▪ Three-Generation family is no longer the most economically secure family type.

11.4%

53.1%

15.2%

32.6%

9.7%

43.6%

12.8%

43.3%

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

Couple &child(ren)

Lone parent &child(ren)

Three Generation Other

2012

2015

Source: Author’s calculation using Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare (2017) Comprehensive Survey of Living Conditions 2015

POVERTY RATE OF WORKING AGE BY FAMILY TYPE

Among working age population, lone (single-person) families and lone parents suffer from strikingly high poverty rate.

21.1%

8.9%10.2%

25.2%

8.8%

17.9%

29.0%

10.3% 10.0%

31.6%

10.8%

21.0%

0%

5%

10%

15%

20%

25%

30%

35%

Lone family Couple only Couple andunmarried

children

Lone parent& unmarried

children

ThreeGeneration

Other

Working age Men

Working age women


POVERTY RATE OF ELDERLY BY FAMILY TYPE

Even among elderly, and even among men, lone (single) families and lone parents suffer from strikingly high poverty rate.

29.1%

15.3%13.4%

21.3%

8.5%

14.7%

46.2%

15.3%12.8%

24.8%

10.6%

15.6%

0%

5%

10%

15%

20%

25%

30%

35%

40%

45%

50%

Lone family Couple only Couple andunmarried

children

Lone parent &unmarried

children

ThreeGeneration

Other

Elderly men

Elderly women


As seen from UNICEF InnocentiReport Card 14

Building the Future

CHILD & YOUTH POVERTY

Are therereally

In JAPAN?

RELATIVE POVERTY RATE

Japan

Korea

OTHERWISE EXCELLENT PERFORMANCE OF JAPAN

▪ Food security 1st in 41 countries

▪ Neonatal mortality 1st among 36 countries Teenage birth rate 6th among 41 countries

▪ Percentage of 15 yr olds achieving baseline competency 2nd

▪ NEET rate 1st among 40 countries

▪ Household where no one works 1st among Child (0-19yrs) homicide rate 6th (37)

BUT SOME MID-TO-BAD PERFORMANCES

▪ Adolescent (15-19 yr olds) suicide rates 26th (37)

▪ Relative income gap 32nd (41)

▪ Difference in Reading, Math & Science with a one-unit increase in ESCS index (SES) 26th (39)

▪ Preschool organized learning 24th (36)

▪ Palma ratio 18th among 41 countries

▪ Formal childcare from 3 yrs 26th among 32 countries

TOKYO SURVEY OF 8000 FAMILIES (2016)

FOOD SECURITY

All together, about 10% of children have experienced food shortage even in Tokyo, where the average income is the highest in Japan.

Source : Tokyo Metropolitan Government (2017)

In the past year, has your family ever experienced not being to afford food that your family needed?

Often NeverOccasionallySometimes

11 yr old

14 yr old

17 yr old

n/a

PRECARIOUS HOUSING AND LACK OF AMENITIES

▪ About 3% of all children in Tokyo live in households with problems in meeting basic housing needs.

In the past year, has your family ever experienced not being to pay following bills? (% yes )


11 yr olds 14 yr olds 17 yr olds

Telephone Electricity Gas Water Housing Housing OtherRent loans debt

LACK OF AMENITIES BY SES

30.7%29.0% 29.0%

30.8%

20.1%

6.7%

29.2%

6.6%5.7% 5.1% 4.8% 4.3% 2.5%

8.8%

0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.3%1.1%

0%

5%

10%

15%

20%

25%

30%

35%

40%

電話電気ガス水道家賃住宅ローンその他債務

困窮層周辺層一般層

11 year olds


Telephone Electricity Gas Water Housing Housing OtherRent loans debt

Blue – low Orange- Middle Dark Blue – High SES

For low SES children, about 1 in 3 child live in households with housing problems.

ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT(14 YR OLDS)

17

In general , do you understand classes at school?


All

Low

Middle

High

AlwaysOften not

MostlyMostly not

Not muchn/a

(p<.0001 )

EXPERIENCES （11 YR OLDS)

In the past year, has your child experienced following items? Percentage of those who answered “No, because of financial reasons” (p<.0001 for all items)

Ocean Museums Camping/BBQ Sports/Theatre Theme parks

Low Middle High SES


% OF PARENTS WHO HAVE NO ONE TO TALK ABOUT PROBLEMS

22.5%

8.5%5.3%

24.9%

13.9%

5.5%

20.1%

12.1%

6.2%

0%

5%

10%

15%

20%

25%

30%

困窮層

周辺層

一般層

困窮層

周辺層

一般層

困窮層

周辺層

一般層

小学5年生（***）中学2年生（***） 16-17歳

（***）


11 yr olds (***) 14 yr olds (***) 17 yr olds (***)

HIG

H

Mid

dle

Low

HIG

H

Mid

dle

Low

HIG

H

Mid

dle

Low

STATUS OF CHILD POVERTY IN JAPAN▪ While over all performance of Japanese

children are good, some indicators show bad performance.

▪ Especially, there are significant inequality among Japanese children.

▪ Latest survey results of children show that there are some children who are lacking basic amenities, difficulties in understanding classes, have health problems and there is a sharp differential according to the SES of families.

EXPERIENCES OF POVERTY

▪ “I live day-to-day and can’t think of future with only 100,000 yen monthly income. Can’t get in to public housing and have to pay high rent. My-ex says he has no intention of paying child support. Children are getting bigger and I can’t bear this anymore” (single mother age 35, 2 children)

▪ “After summer holidays, there are sometimes children who look thinner than before the summer holidays.” (school teacher)

▪ “Please lower the rent. Have no money” (17 yr old)

▪ “I became 16 and have to pay my medical fees. Please make medical cost free until 22.” (17 yr old)

▪ “University is too expensive and I have only limited choices.” (17 yr old))

CHARACTERISTICS OFPOVERTY IN JAPAN

1)More than anything, family structure determines the living standard of individual (especially women).

▪ Family is the biggest provider of safety-net. Public social protection schemes are based on the assumption that everyone is supported by family first.

▪ More than that, not following traditional life course indicates higher poverty risk (even though the causal relationship could be reverse).

CONT.2.Unemployment not a problem, but

“working-poor” is.

▪ 2-tier structure of labour market

▪ Hiseiki (non-regular) workers have no labourmarket protection

No social insurance coverage

No labour union

No unemployment insurance

No equal pay for equal value of work

Minimum wage fairly low

CONT.

3. Government plays very little role in alleviating poverty.

▪ Social protection is very strict and places very stringent means test (asset test, family support test and work test)

▪ Unemployment insurance is limited in its duration (only 20% of unemployed receive unemployment benefit).

▪ No minimum guarantee of public pension

▪ Not much income support for the poor and lone parents (no housing assistance, no utility assistance, etc.)

▪ The reason that labour market participation of single mothers is very high is that they cannot survive without working (with just public assistance – they cannot be dependent on welfare (unless ).

▪ Extremely regressive social insurance premiums (tax).

THE PRIMARY SAFETY-NET: FAMILY

▪ 1979 Prime Minister Ohira “Welfare State Japanese Style”

▪ 2010～ Liberal Democratic Party “Self-Help, Mutual-Help, Public Help”

▪ Public only comes in after “self (one’s own ability)” and “mutual (family)” fail to provide safety-net

▪ Public pension ..> not designed to support the living of the elderly on its own.

▪ Public assistance ..> Strong requirement for family obligation to support family member (even if estranged)

▪ Care for elderly ..> family (children and their spouse) cohabiting is assumed.

▪ However, “Family” as we know it has been changing rapidly.

25

CHANGING FAMILY STRUCTURE OF JAPAN : ALL PERSONS

▪ Japan’s biggest safety net was the family. People relied on their family for income support (by living together) and for care (in old age).

▪ Multi-generation household assures multiple earners.

▪ However, now single-person households consists second largest share of household types (26.5%).

26

Date ： Author’s calculation from Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare “Comprehensive Survey of Living Conditions 2013, 1985.

FAMILY STRUCTURE OF CHILDREN：1985, 2012

1985 2013

Two-parent families 95.0% 89.8%

2-generation 60.5% 72.0%


Single-mother families 3.9% 8.9%



Single-father families 1.1% 1.3%



Date ： Author’s calculation from Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare “Comprehensive Survey of Living Conditions 2013, 1985.

CHILD POVERTY RATE BY FAMILY TYPE2012, 2015

▪ Strikingly high poverty rate of lone parent families.

▪ Three-Generation family is no longer the most economically secure family type.

11.4%

53.1%

15.2%

32.6%

9.7%

43.6%

12.8%

43.3%

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

Couple &child(ren)

Lone parent &child(ren)

Three Generation Other

2012

2015

UNEMPLOYMENT RATE

3.1

10.1

0

5

10

15

20

25IS

L

JPN

KO

R

MEX CZE

DEU

NO

R

ISR

GB

R

USA

CH

E

NZL

HU

N

RU

S

AU

S

NLD

AU

T

PO

L

DN

K

LUX

CH

L

EST

SWE

CA

N

BEL IR

L

SVN

FIN

CO

L

LVA

SVK

FRA

TUR

PR

T

ITA

ESP

GR

C

% OF HISEIKI WORKERS ON THE INCREASE (37.4%)

30

出所：厚労省HPhttp://www.mhlw.go.jp/stf/seisakunitsuite/bunya/0000046231.html

SEIKI (regular) workers

HISEIKI (nonregular) workers

Parttimers

Temp

Contract wks

AVERAGE WAGE BY AGE CATEGORY

▪ Hiseikiworkers (1.1~1.2mi.yen)

▪ Seiki workers’wagesincrease with age

31

Source：MHLW

Seiki (fulltime) workers

HiSeiki (fulltime) workers

HiSeiki (parttime) workers

2-TIER STRUCTURE OF LABOUR MARKET

Seiki Workers Hi-Seiki Workers

Duration Life-long guarantee untilretirement age

1-2 years or shorter at a time

Wage/Hour

High and guaranteed to increase with tenure

Low and fixed

Socialinsurance

Health, pension & unemployment insurnace

None(have to pay their own)

On the job trainng

Continuous None

WHAT DOES THE GOVERNMENT DO TO ALLEVIATE CHILD POVERTY?

▪ Public Assistance (welfare)- The % of population receiving the Public Assistance is small. About 2%. Half of the recipients are elderly. Only those with disability or are sick or elderly can (in effect) receive the benefit.

▪ Child Benefit - Almost universal. 0-2 yrs old ¥15,000, 3-15 ¥10,000 (/mo).

▪ Child Rearing Allowance (Benefit for low-income single-mothers) - ¥41,000 (/mo) if income is low (income threshold is rather low).

▪ Education – compulsory education up to 9 years. High school tuition allowance since 2010. % of cost of higher education borne by parents/student is one of the highest among the OECD.

33

JAPAN’S PUBLIC ASSISTANCE RECEIPT RATE 1951-2014

▪ The public assistance receipt rate is increasing, but it only covers less than 2% of the population. The system is not equipped to handle large welfare pay-roll.

34

1951 12021995198519751965

CHILD POVERTY RATES: BEFORE AND AFTER TAX AND TRANSFERS, COMPARING OECD COUNTRIES (MID-2000S)

Only in Japan, the After-TT poverty rate is higher than the Before-TT poverty rate.

Before

After

Polan

dU

SG

erman

yIrelan

dPo

rtugal

ItalyC

anad

aN

ZJap

anLu

xemb

.A

utralia

Neth

erland

Slovan

iaK

orea

UK

Swizerlan

dIsraelFran

ceA

ustria

No

rway

Finlan

dSw

eden

Den

mark

AVERAGE HOUSEHOLD EQUIVALIZED INCOME BY AGE OF HOUSEHOLD MEMBERS

36

Market Income

Disposable Income

Disposable Income + Health & care Services

Source：Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare (2016）2004 Income Redistribution Survey

Poverty rate before and after Tax & Transfers (Men)

Government redistribution reduces poverty among elderly, but has little effect on the poverty among the working age.

For age 0-4, the after TT poverty rate is higher than before TT poverty rate.

10.7%12.6%16.6% 20.7%17.6% 13.7% 14.2%

15.1%

14.9%

16.9%12.9%

14.9%24.4%

48.4%

67.4%72.4%

69.0%

11.9%12.9%16.0%17.2%17.2%

13.4%12.6%10.9% 9.7%12.4%10.9%12.3%

15.6%14.9%14.7%16.8%19.4%

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

再分配前

再分配後

BeforeAfter

AGE


Poverty rate before and after Tax & Transfers (Women)

11.5%12.4%

16.2% 17.5% 18.2%12.9%

15.4%

16.9% 16.5%16.7%

16.6%

20.3%

36.8%

58.7%

70.8%68.7%65.8%

13.6%11.3%15.4%15.5%

18.1%

11.8%14.1%12.8%11.8%13.6%14.0%15.5%16.6%15.9%21.9%

25.2%27.0%

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80% 再分配前

再分配後

BeforeAfter

AGE


RIGID SOCIETY BASED ON OUTDATED “FAMILY & GENDERED NORMS”

▪ The social security system is based on “Hyojun Setai (Standard family)” in which:

▪ The husband has a Seiki job assuring social insurance coverage for the entire family. He is guaranteed life-long job with increasing pay as children grow up, but he is required to “devote” his day to his work.

▪ The wife has no job or works as a “Hiseiki” worker whose pay is low and does not provide much social security, yet it is fine because she is covered by her husband’s security and income. Yet, she would have to bear entire “care” responsibility.

▪ Children’s cost are borne by the family mostly, it is assumed all families can afford to do so. At the same time, children when they grow up, are expected to care for his/her parents.

▪ Anyone who does not follow this life course faces high risk of poverty and social exclusion.

▪ Yet, the labour market and family structure does not assure “hyojun setai” for everybody anymore.

THANK YOU& I LOOK FORWARD TO HAVE DISCUSSIONS WITH YOU!

poverty among japanese children and youths: …poverty among japanese children and youths: issues...

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