A weekly magazine in April reported that the mother of an entertainer earning an annual income of ¥50 million has been receiving public livelihood assistance known as seikatsu hogo (literally livelihood protection). Through a blog of a Diet member and other media, the entertainer was identified as TV personality Junichi Komoto. The matter was even taken up in the Diet. After a series of mass media reports, the mother applied to have the welfare benefits terminated.
Mr. Komoto apologized in a May 25 news conference for the fact that his mother continued to receive welfare benefits even after his income became large enough to support her. There has emerged a sort of Komoto-bashing, but it is difficult to pinpoint a clear legal violation on the part of Mr. Komoto and his mother.
Utmost care should be taken so that the episode will not lead to public disdain of people living on welfare as well as people applying for welfare. Any political move that results in making it psychologically difficult for people to apply for welfare must be prevented. In the wake of the Komoto affair, the Liberal Democratic Party's panel on livelihood protection has made it clear that the party will submit to the Diet a bill to revise the livelihood protection law so that it strictly enforces the duty to support needy relatives.