Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's vision for a "beautiful country" stresses self-reliance. The media usually translates this aim in national defense terms: a stronger military that doesn't have to duck behind the United States. To the average person it simply means you're on your own. That buzz word of several years ago, jiko sekinin, which translates as "self-responsibility," is the mantra of this philosophy. Some of the revisions that Abe and his supporters propose for the Constitution involve spelling out the responsibilities of citizens rather than their rights, a curious notion given that the purpose of a national charter is to define the limits of government.

But the people have always been on their own, and the rights guaranteed in the current Constitution have not been consistently recognized in practice. A group of lawyers recently filed a criminal complaint against the head of the Kokura-Kita ward branch of the Kita Kyushu city office for violating Article 25, which states: "All people shall have the right to maintain the minimum standards of wholesome and cultured living." The case involves a 52-year-old man whose body was found on July 10 in one of the city's public housing units. Police determined that he starved to death and had been receiving public assistance until April, when the city stopped his benefits.

The tragedy of the case was encapsulated in an entry the man wrote in his diary: "I just want to eat one onigiri (rice ball)." The story was covered extensively by the media, and proved particularly attractive to the scandal-obsessed wide shows, which provided some of the most robust reporting. The dead man was once a taxi driver, but due to illness he had to quit working last year. He applied for welfare and started receiving benefits last December. The office kept asking him whether or not he was well enough to go back to work. He wasn't, but browbeaten into feeling guilty, the man eventually put his seal on a jitai todoke, or waiver of further benefits. He returned to his public apartment, which one TV reporter described as "inhospitable to humans," and shriveled up.