After being discussed and passed by the Upper House, a bill to revise the Livelihood Protection Law has reached the floor of the Lower House. The bill will make it difficult for the needy to receive livelihood assistance, known as seikatsu hogo. Since the revised law would have a great impact on many people's lives, the Lower House should conduct careful discussions on the bill and either should greatly revise it or kill it.
Poverty is becoming a big social problem in Japan. Statistics released Nov. 13 by the health and welfare ministry show that a record 1,590,249 households with 2,159,877 people were receiving assistance in August, increases of 1,728 households and 931 people from July. In August, the Abe administration already started cutting back on core welfare benefits for people. It plans to reduce benefits by an average 6.5 percent over the coming three years, with the maximum cut reaching 10 percent.
Under the revision bill, welfare applicants would be required to submit a document to their municipal government that states their assets and income. The bill is written in a way that can be interpreted as allowing applicants who are having difficulties in gathering the necessary information to delay submission of the document until the time a decision is made on whether they qualify for livelihood assistance. But this is not clearly stated. Critics of the bill say that if the law revision goes into effect, it will become more likely that municipal governments will reject welfare applications that do not include documentation of assets and income.