• by Suvendrini Kakuchi (tokyo)
• Tuesday, September 21, 2010
• Inter Press Service

The son had cared for his sick father, and when the old man died, he buried the body in his garden. But the son did not tell the authorities about his father’s death, as required by law. Instead, he continued to act as if his father was still alive, and collected the old man’s pension.

This story was broadcast just in August on Japan’s public television, which also announced the arrest of the 39-year- old son, by authorities. The case left many Japanese aghast, not only because they were shocked by the son’s gall. It was also because it was the second such story in a span of a few weeks.

In July, Japan had been rocked by the news that the man believed to be Tokyo’s oldest resident had actually been dead for several years. Authorities had come knocking at his door to greet him on his 111th birthday — only to discover his mummified corpse. It turned out that since his wife died in 2004, his daughter, now 81, had been withdrawing the pension due him.

Until now, these stories remain the topic of many conversations throughout Japan, with fingers pointed at various supposed culprits, including bureaucrats for careless record keeping or selfish children for not looking after their ageing parents.

But Itsuko Teruoka, a respected sociologist affiliated with Saitama University, says the ongoing discussions seem to have skirted a crucial point: Japan’s increasing poverty rate, which she says is the prime reason for the breakdown of Japan’s once proud traditions.

'The good old days when Japan had an egalitarian and secure society based on jobs for everyone, affordable medical services, and education, are gone,' she says. 'And the worst part is Japan is too broke to change the situation.'

Other sociologists echo her in saying that the recent cases of adult children collecting their dead parents’ pensions only show just how desperate some of Japan’s poor have become.

Remarks Sophia University professor Ishisaburo Tochimoto: 'The fact that some of the poor resort to not giving their parents a decent burial in order to get their pensions paints a very disturbing picture of poverty in Japan.'

The Japanese government defines people living below the poverty line as those with an annual income of less than 20,000 dollars.

The bursting of Japan’s economic bubble in the early 1990s had led to early retirement and tightening recruitment policies among companies forced to adopt survival strategies. By 2007, Japan’s poverty rate was 15.7 percent, which meant one in six Japanese was considered poor.

Sociologists say Japan can only expect its lot to worsen. They point to the rapidly ageing population and the growth of part-time jobs as critical signs of a gloomy future for the country.

Those 65 years old and above make up almost 23 percent of the country’s 127 million people, putting immense pressure on the pension system. Sixty percent of the country’s 66 million-strong labour force, meanwhile, are part-time workers. Unemployment — nonexistent three decades ago — is now at 5.7 percent.

'Japan once boasted of a secure middle class when life- time employment based on seniority was the norm,' says Tochimoto. 'But statistics today show just one-third of the current labour force under this system.'

Japan also has a hefty national debt. Now at over 10 trillion dollars, or 200 percent of the Gross National Product, it has dimmed prospects for immediate relief for the economy.

Efforts to boost job numbers and wages have been piecemeal. For example, government-led efforts last year saw a rise of just 10 cents in the hourly minimum wage, which became eight dollars.

'The government, despite its socialist leaning, has its hands tied when it comes to supporting new measures for poverty,' says Teruoka.

Japan spends 24 percent of its national budget on welfare, but the majority of funds are aimed at providing social benefits and pensions to the aged. This is largely why the impact of poverty has been deep on the Japanese youth.

Today almost 40 percent of Japanese youths depend on some form of aid for their higher education because their parents cannot afford to pay for university.

Those who cannot enroll in universities get mostly lower- paid and part-time jobs. Labour statistics show that while a university graduate employed in a company earns almost three million dollars during three decades of employment, a high school graduate would earn just a third of that amount. And that is assuming he or she would land a steady job even with just a secondary school diploma.

In Japan, though, tradition dictates that whether one is rich or poor, one must care for one’s elderly parents. For some of those whose parents fall seriously ill, this may mean being pushed into circumstances that are worse than the one they are in.

Hiroshi, a 44-year-old man who prefers that his surname not be used, says that to care for his very sick mother, he had to give up his job at steel-cupboard factory.

He and his mother now rely solely on her pension of almost 2,000 dollars a month. With no income of his own and the prospects bleak that he would be employed again, Hiroshi knows that his own future is far from promising. He says, 'I worry a lot (about) how I can manage when she dies.'

© Inter Press Service (2010) — All Rights Reserved. Original source: Inter Press Service