Coronavirus pandemic reveals Japan’s hidden poverty, with women hit especially hard
- Despite being the world’s third-largest economy with only 3 per cent unemployment, Covid-19 is taking its toll on Japan’s most vulnerable
- One in six people live in ‘relative poverty’ but stigma prevents many from seeking help, while there have been warnings of a suicide spike
“There is no work. Absolutely none,” said the 46-year-old, until recently a construction worker, while clutching a small plastic bag of essentials on a cold winter street in the capital.
“This doesn’t get reported much in the media, but many people are sleeping at train stations and in cardboard boxes. Some are dying of hunger.”
The world’s third-largest economy has seen a relatively small coronavirus outbreak so far, with around 4,500 deaths and largely without the drastic lockdowns seen in other countries.
With an unemployment rate below 3 per cent and a reputation for a strong social safety net, Japan also appears well placed to weather the pandemic’s economic fallout.
But campaigners say the most vulnerable have still been hit hard, with statistics masking the high rate of underemployment and poorly paid temporary work.
“The pandemic, rising joblessness and falling wages have directly hit the working poor, people who were barely getting by before,” said Ren Ohnishi, who heads the Moyai Support Centre for Independent Living, an anti-poverty group.
