People may be shocked to hear that nearly one out of every six children in Japan live in poverty. An outline of programs to combat child poverty, which the Abe administration adopted in August, calls for building a society in which all children "can grow with dreams and hopes." The government should tackle this issue in earnest.
The government's comprehensive survey of living conditions shows that in 2012, 16.3 percent of children below 18 were members of households that earned less than half the mean income for a household, classifying them as being in a state of relative poverty. This figure, Japan's worst ever, represents a sharp increase from the 1985 level of 10.9 percent.
An Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development survey puts Japan's poverty rate at 15.7 percent — above the 13.3 percent average of the 34 OECD members, and fourth worst in the group of developed countries. A majority of single-parent households in Japan — 54.6 percent — are in relative poverty — a figure higher than that of the United States.