During the period of high postwar economic growth, most people in Japan came to consider themselves part of a middle class.
With the burst of the economic bubble in the early 1990s and increasing globalization, however, that belief has been shaken as an increasing number of people sense Japanese society is becoming more two-tiered -- and a handful of rich are being favored at the expense of everyone else.
Former Democratic Party of Japan leader Naoto Kan recently accused Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi of accelerating the trend toward "liberalism for the strong," which he said is turning more people into either "Horiemon (referring to the young Internet mogul Takafumi Horie) or homeless."