Not political, genuine question.
I’ve heard that being homeless in Japan is much more “Taboo” and the government actively hides that from the public as much as possible, but of course that’s just what I’ve heard, I know nothing.
https://www.reddit.com/r/japan/comments/vhw3af/if_japans_cost_of_living_is_so_high_why_dont_you/
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Lots of youtube videos on the subject, it’s just not in the mainstream media.
Not hearing about poverty in Japan? Poverty is not only being homeless but it can manifest itself in different ways:
https://mainichi.jp/english/articles/20211225/p2g/00m/0bu/004000c
Not to mention that Japan’s child poverty rate is also relatively high.
I think it is a counting problem. Japan has peculiar ways of hiding things. The unemployment rate captures only ‘salaryman’ type positions. So even losing contract jobs or part-time jobs it is not counted, and thus no unemployment support.
I have not been able to corroborate this, but since addresses are required for benefits ‘homeless’ persons register their residence in random places whether friends/relatives or even internet cafes so they cant be homeless. So its a catch-22. It also does not even require full time residence. The definition of homeless means roughing it on the streets and this was decided only in 2003. I read that surveys of Tokyo streets at night show that the homeless rate might be higher than official figures show. There is rising period poverty in Japan, but this shows up in various forms. It is almost a topic of daily conversation these days.
I mean, no news does not mean the world stopped. The feed over at r/newsokur seems to have something related to economic or social conditions of Japan everyday. So consider it a reach problem, but its not for a lack of trying.
It’s high?
It’s waaaay cheaper than my cost of living vs salary in Canada.
I can finally save money.
Something like 50% of single mother families are in poverty. Very high numbers of elderly women, too.
I had no idea at all until last week.
Japan’s poverty rate is actually one of the higher ones in the developed world (or something like that).
Part of it is hidden by people maintaining a good front.
“The smell of poverty” carries a bit of a stigma in Japan, so the Japanese are not loud about it and try to hide it as well as they can. When I’d walk my late dog around the city, he would find all the spots, where they were and go begging for a treat – successfully most of the time 🙂 So I got to know a lot of the friendly and polite people, who were living under bridges and in parks. They would even greet me with a merry “hello” when they met me in other parts of the city, riding their bicycles loaded high with aluminium cans that they collected.
The same reason you don’t see garbage everywhere. People will go great lengths to hide it.
There was a recent well-researched post about how Japan’s cost of living isn’t that high anymore, relative to other developed countries.
Japan actually has one of the lowest costs of living in the developed world, though it also has one of the lowest average incomes. People in Korea and Thailand have a higher standard of living than people in Japan now. It’s actually being talked about a lot by Japanese politicians and on TV if you watch Japanese news.
There’s a lot more gradation to housing costs, and there’s more public housing, both of which help a lot. In most of the US, finding any kind of housing for $400/month can be impossible in most cities–it’s reasonable in Japan, as long as you don’t mind a closet in the middle of nowhere.
Here, read this. It’s a pretty comprehensive macro-economic/socio-political overview of the reasons why Japan has a lot of poverty but you don’t hear much about it.
https://noahpinion.substack.com/p/japans-living-standards-are-too-low
You are starting from a common misconception. The cost of living isn’t that high. On top of that, there are robust social safety nets. The government doesn’t have to hide what by and large doesn’t exist.
Edit: to clarify, there are many people living on modest incomes that are technically poverty level, but the actual level of homelessness is very low. And poverty here isn’t a death sentence like it is in the U.S. because there are numerous social programs that aid those in poverty.
Is the cost of living in Japan that high? It seems pretty reasonable to me compared to something like California.
I think in North America homelessness is also really interlinked with issues around drug addiction. I read a study in Canada from a few years ago that said something like 50% of of homeless people lost their home because of addiction. And the vast majority end up with some kind of addiction once they are homeless.
I don’t know if this has changed, but from my impression it seemed like drugs are a lot harder to get your hands on in Japan, so it’s likely why the population of homeless people in Japan is lower, though perhaps there are a lot more people in poverty than publicly people would want to discuss.
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Another big issue I haven’t seen addressed yet is the ability that landlords have to kick people out. It’s very difficult to evict someone in Japan.
Rent can be very expensive if you want to live in the densely populated areas like Tokyo. Other expenses are comparably lower though and if you don’t mind long commute times aka living where rent is cheap and working where salary is high it’s relatively affordable. The average commute time per day was 1h 19min in a 2015 survey. That doesn’t mean Japan doesn’t have homelessness or poverty. They are just very good at hiding it to the unsuspecting eye.
Japan’s cost of living is not high at all anymore. I’ve been here for 15 years and its the lowest now it has ever been. I can live comfortably off of take home equivalent to 1400 USD a month. I also am married with children. Japan is surprisingly cheap nowadays.
Cost of living isn’t that high… local food is fairly cheap, and out of big cities renting a small apartment costs nothing.
I don’t know. When I first came to Japan, I thought transport was expensive, and some types of food. Other than that, it’s no more expensive than North America. I think now Japan is a lot easier on the wallet. Sometimes I can’t believe the price of food in North America – not only at restaurants, but in grocery stores.
Is Cost of Living high? I guess in big cities. Salaries are just meh, but I never thought the overall cost of living was that high.
American poverty is down to its broken working conditions and safety nets, not the cost of living. Many other OECD countries have higher costs of living but much lower poverty – the most extreme example is Switzerland which is incredibly expensive to live in but pretty low poverty.
The US is a pretty extreme example about how to be really rich but have such extreme poles in that wealth. That being said, poverty does exist in Japan too for sure.
part-time job around 1000 yen per hour. no tipping.
and 1000 yen can get you grocery for 2 meals. (I even managed to cut my meal cost down to 15k per month)
if you look hard enough, you can get housing for 50k yen. that is 50 hours work or around 1 week works.
smartphone internet 2000~3000 yen.
transportation usually covered.
no limit of part-time for residents, so working 160 hours a month get you 160k yen, which you might need to take out 20 percent for health insurance and other obligation.
from personal experience, I can still live decently with minimum wage in Japan
not sure about US though.
ITT people who don’t understand that the cost of living is dependent on your salary and individual situation.
Single bachelor working for a big tech company and making more than 5 million yen per year? Cost of living in Japan is cheap!
Single mother doing part-time work, or freelancer with unsteady income? Not so much.
Other people are in debt for various reasons.
Being good at thrift shopping can only go so far. At some point, nutrition will suffer.
Not everyone in Japan is as smart, lucky, or resourceful as you are, and they shouldn’t have to arbitrarily suffer due to the rising price of commodities relative to consumer buying power.
It’s very hard to be completely financially screwed over in Japan.
Public transportation guarantees enough stability, cleanliness and safety. Even in subrubs and rural areas, there are options.
Whereas in the US most people must commute by car. Outside of major cities there are no reliable choices. Gas prices can take away a big chunk of people’s incomes.
It’s easy to be employed in a minimum wage job in Japan.
In the US you jump through hoops and loops (drug tests, criminal record, background check, even personality tests, many rounds of interviews) just to become a waiter, janitor or cashier. In bad times (like when covid hit) these jobs become incredibly competitive let alone other jobs. On top of that a lot of states do not set minimum wage for many job categories. Employers can pay very little hourly wage for sales or waiter jobs, for example, because they are commission or tip based. Most states are at-will.
The healthcare system is leaps and bounds different than US model. In Japan by default everyone can be easily insured, and very few people get massive bills.
Whereas in the US a 5-figure bill is not unheard of. Even 6 to 7-figures. Any sort of period time without insurance can put people in dire financial danger. Privatized health insurance companies have far more rules, fees, and relatively high premiums.
i’ve never really understood the cost of living thing bc it’s certainly WAY more affordable to be in the most popular neighborhoods in tokyo vs some shitty gentrifying neighborhood in nyc, it’s not even a comparison. i’m not even going to get into how much cheaper the food is vs the US. also, you’re just better taken care of by gov even on min wage. not saying those are the best standards to live in but wtf do you get in the US? lol