When Riku Omori's pay at his regular job was slashed by a third, he found temporary work delivering fried chicken and Thai food on his bike on the streets of Kawasaki as a way to supplement his reduced earnings.
The extra ¥100,000 ($722) 26-year-old Omori gets a month helps support his wife and newborn son, which would have been difficult on the ¥160,000 he takes home each month from his main job at a moving services company.
But it adds a level of financial uncertainty that makes week-to-week living hard in Japan, an affluent nation otherwise well regarded for its egalitarianism.