In the middle of August, NHK ran a feature on its evening news show about a high school girl as part of its coverage of child poverty. The girl's name and face were revealed in the report, which described how her educational future was at risk because of her financial situation. In one scene, she was in her room practicing how to use a computer with only a keyboard, which her mother had purchased for her, because she couldn't afford a real PC.

Almost immediately, people began complaining on Twitter and other social media sites: Was this girl really poor? Behind her viewers could see anime-related products, and she seemed to watch a lot of movies, according to her own Twitter feed. Even politician Satsuki Katayama of the Liberal Democratic Party got into the act, requesting an "explanation" from NHK and saying that the girl could easily buy a used computer if she saved more, which wouldn’t be difficult if she stopped eating expensive lunches.

This "poor-bashing," as the Asahi Shimbun called it, has become common in Japan, what with greater attention being paid to the widening income gap and more press coverage of people living below the poverty line. Although it's a phenomenon evident in other countries, Japan seems to have less sympathy for those who reveal themselves as being poor. In a Pew Global Attitudes Project survey conducted in 2007, 38 percent of Japanese respondents said that the government is not responsible for helping people who fell behind financially, the highest portion of any country polled. The United States was second at 28 percent.