On a recent Saturday in Tokyo's Shinjuku district more than 100 people, many of them elderly men, stood close together in a long queue waiting for food handouts.
One of them, Tomoaki Kobayashi, said he was fearing the day he would lose his home as his pension alone was not enough to pay the rent. Still spry, the 72-year-old said he lost his job cleaning pachinko parlors after many of the gambling halls were shut in a state of emergency imposed because of the coronavirus.
"This is the final month. I can't pay any longer," Kobayashi said of his rent, clutching a small sack of groceries — snacks, instant curry and hashed-beef rice that would feed him for the next few days. He said he had paid pension premiums for just 15 years, unlike the 33 years for most pensioners, meaning he is eligible for only ¥54,000 ($500) every two months.