Aging Society and Economic Slump Push Welfare Families Over 1 Million

About 1,002,000 households in Japan were receiving welfare as of October 2004, according to a report released by the Japanese Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare in February 2005. The number exceeded one million for the first time since Japan¡Çs welfare system was launched in 1950. About half consist of elderly households. The numbers of single-mother households and singles in their fifties living alone have also increased.

About 1.428 million people were on welfare as of October 2004, equivalent to 11.2 per 1,000 people (1.12%). Both the numbers of households and people on welfare had been decreasing since 1985, but with the aging of society and sluggishness of the economy, the number of households on welfare started to increase since 1992 and the number of persons on welfare has been on the rise since 1995.

In response to an increase in the number of households on welfare, the ministry appropriated 1,936.6 billion yen (about U.S.$18.8 billion) for welfare-related expenditures in the proposed budget for fiscal 2005, 187.7 billion yen (U.S.$1.82 billion) more for that purpose than the previous year. The ministry implements job assistance projects, such as enhancing cooperation between welfare offices and "Hello Work" job-placement offices, and providing more opportunities of free vocational trainings for people on welfare as part of self-support programs.



Posted: 2005/05/29 08:08:36 AM
Japanese version