MIAMI — Many Americans were shocked last month when the U.S. Census Bureau announced that poverty was at a 15-year high in this country, with 44 million people lacking income to sufficiently secure basic resources. Some would probably be even more surprised to learn that Japan, with its image of equality and social order, is experiencing similar trends. While Japan does not publish official data on poverty, the take-up rate for Seikatsu Hogo, the country's main welfare program for the poor, is often used as a poverty indicator. Japan's Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare recently announced that this figure reached a historical high in June of 2010.