Tag - poverty

 
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October 07, 2025
 

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POVERTY

Remittance inflows to low-income countries have boosted welfare, reduced poverty and strengthened economic resilience, but the Trump administration’s 1% tax on the transactions threatens to undermine these critical benefits.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 6, 2025
Trump’s beggar-the-poor remittance tax
America is now the world’s top remittance-sending country, with at least 134 recipient countries in 2021, the most recent year with reliable bilateral data.
Moroccan youths from a collective calling itself GenZ 212 chant slogans, as they rally for a seventh straight day to demand reforms to public health care and education.
WORLD
Oct 5, 2025
Gen Z anger at ruling elites is erupting across the world
There has been a surge in Gen Z demonstrations in Africa and Asia against aging leaders and corruption.
Students suffering from food poisoning after eating a meal from the government's free meal program receive treatment at the Kadungora Public Health Center in Garut, West Java on Wednesday.
ASIA PACIFIC
Oct 3, 2025
Indonesia free meals program under fire after thousands sickened
More than 1,300 children were rushed to health clinics last week after suffering from breathing difficulties, nausea and diarrhea.
Bipinkumar Padaya (center) sits with his wife and son at home in Dharavi, a slum settlement in Mumbai.
ASIA PACIFIC / Society
Sep 27, 2025
In India's Mumbai, the largest slum in Asia is for sale
The plan to redevelop Dharavi, led by Mumbai authorities and billionaire tycoon Gautam Adani, reflects modern India — excessive, ambitious, and brutal.
Some 91% scholarship recipients say their livelihoods are worsening due to rising prices, with nearly 20% describing their situation as dire, according to a nonprofit organization survey.
JAPAN
Sep 24, 2025
Most scholarship recipients in Japan are struggling with inflation
Over 90% of scholarship recipients are facing financial strain, with nearly 20% describing their situation as dire, a recent survey has found.
A displaced Palestinian boy carries a tent on his head as he moves south in the central Gaza Strip on Saturday.
WORLD
Sep 21, 2025
'Shocked and devastated': Gaza City assault leaves Palestinians traumatized
Israel has pummeled Gaza City with air strikes and tank fire in its bid to seize what it describes as one of Hamas' last strongholds.
Save the Children Japan domestic program chief Sonoko Kawakami speaks at a news conference in Tokyo in July. A survey conducted by the group in June has found that over 90% of low-income households with children face food insecurity.
JAPAN / Society
Sep 17, 2025
Over 90% of low-income families in Japan struggling to feed children
A survey conducted by Save the Children Japan has found that single-parent households were among those facing the most dire food insecurity.
Kinga Skiers (left) co-founded the Tokyo chapter of Food Not Bombs in 2023. The organization aims to provide the capital’s homeless population with food and other essentials.
COMMUNITY / Issues / The Foreign Element
Aug 18, 2025
Solidarity with Tokyo’s homeless residents, one day at a time
Since 2023, the Tokyo chapter of Food Not Bombs has been supplying vegetarian meals and everyday goods to homeless people across the city.
Beneficiaries line up to receive support at a WFP distribution center in Damboa, Borno State, Nigeria, on Sunday.
WORLD
Jul 24, 2025
Millions go hungry in Nigeria as aid dries up and jihadists surge
The limited food will soon run out by the end of July as Western aid cuts — including the dismantling of USAID — send humanitarian programs into a tailspin.
A nurse takes a blood sample from a child for an HIV test at a clinic in Diepsloot, north of Johannesburg, South Africa, on March 12.
WORLD / Politics
Jul 21, 2025
Tighter borders bar poor nations from summits — on poor nations
Sudanese climate activist Roaa should have been leading meetings with other youth advocates at a United Nations climate conference in Germany in June.
Food banks are struggling to secure rice and other food items to distribute to people in need as inflation has put a dent in donations.
JAPAN / Politics
Jul 18, 2025
As rice shortage hits donations, food banks urge politicians to tackle poverty
Food banks are struggling to secure rice and other food items to distribute to people in need as inflation has put a dent in donations.
A survey by Tokyo-based nonprofit Good Neighbors Japan showed that the number of respondents saying that their children eat two meals or fewer a day during holidays was about 2.5 times higher than during the school term, at 32.2%.
JAPAN
Jul 16, 2025
More kids going hungry during school holidays as food costs soar, survey finds
Rising food and utility prices are placing additional pressures on families already struggling to make ends meet.
Yumiko Watanabe (left), head of nonprofit group Kidsdoor, announces in Tokyo last month the results of a survey conducted on struggling families.
JAPAN / Society
Jul 4, 2025
80% of lower-income families in Japan say financial situation getting worse
Many respondents cited the price of rice as a key factor, with some saying they are struggling to put enough food on the table.
Plaintiffs of lawsuits on welfare benefit reductions hold up signs celebrating their victory in Tokyo on Friday following the Supreme Court's ruling in favor of them.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Jun 27, 2025
Japan's Supreme Court finds welfare benefit cuts unlawful
The top court revoked the welfare cuts but dismissed plaintiffs' damages claims.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi steps off the plane upon his arrival at OFranjo Tudjmano airport in Zagreb, Croatia, on Wednesday.
ASIA PACIFIC / Science & Health / FOCUS
Jun 21, 2025
Modi's ambitious water plan fails to quench India's thirst
On paper, the water initiative is a success. But unconnected water tanks and broken taps point to a very different reality on the ground.
The Children and Families Agency will conduct a survey in an effort to offer better assistance measures for expectant mothers in trouble.
JAPAN / Society
Jun 9, 2025
Japan to study ways to help more pregnant women in danger
As of January, 23 prefectural and municipal governments have taken part in a program to offer temporary housing, meals and medical services to struggling women and their babies.
The basic framework adopted by the government calls for measures to improve the employment situation of those in their 40s and 50s, and for steps to assist them in their later years.
JAPAN / Politics
Jun 3, 2025
Japan government to boost support for job 'Ice Age' generation
The framework calls for measures to improve the employment situation of those in their 40s and 50s, and for steps to assist them in their later years.
Save the Children Japan in May 2022 began its Hello! Baby Box initiative to provide essential items for newborns, with the aim of reducing the burden of child care costs for women in dire situations.
JAPAN
Jun 3, 2025
Most expecting and new mothers in poverty lack funds for basic necessities: survey
State support is often diverted to cover essential day-to-day costs and consumables needed for child-rearing, a survey found.
According to a survey, some 70% of children from Japanese households with an annual income of less than ¥3 million take no after-school private lessons.
JAPAN / Society
May 15, 2025
Children from low-income families take fewer after-school private lessons
The proportion of children who take after-school private lessons and the frequency of doing so are higher as household income increases, a survey shows.
Dr. Raquel Gomez flips a tortilla at the Industrial Microbiology laboratory of the National Autonomous University of Mexico in Mexico City.
WORLD / Science & Health
May 13, 2025
Scientists in Mexico develop tortilla for people with no fridge
The wheat flour version developed by Raquel Gomez and her team contains probiotics — live microorganisms found in yogurt and other fermented foods.
How Takaichi won the LDP’s leadership race
Sanae Takaichi, the newly elected leader of Japan's ruling Liberal Democratic Party, poses in the party leader's office after the LDP leadership election in Tokyo on Saturday.
Asahi ships beer using paper and fax after ransomware attack
Drinks produced by Asahi at a liquor store in Tokyo. Retailers in Japan are warning customers of possible Asahi Super Dry beer shortages after a cyberattack paralyzed production and distribution at the major brewer.
Retro-wrapped trains mark 100th anniversary of Tokyo's Yamanote Line
Trains decorated to resemble the 103 (left) and 205 series of trains that formerly ran on the Yamanote Line, in Tokyo on Saturday.
Den-en-toshi Line trains collide, halting service
A not-in-service train is seen derailed early Monday morning after colliding with a passenger train late Sunday at Kajigaya Station on Tokyu Railways' Den-en-toshi Line in Kawasaki.
North Korea says 'special assets' deployed against South
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un speaks during the Defense Development 2025 military exhibition event ahead of the 80th founding anniversary of the ruling Workers' Party of Korea, in Pyongyang in this picture released Sunday.
Takaichi, the LDP’s first female president, is far from an ‘overnight success’
Newly-elected Liberal Democratic Party chief Sanae Takaichi greets her fellow LDP members on Saturday at party headquarters.
How a family-run landscaper turned the Osaka Expo green
The team at Ryokukou Garden consists primarily of a single family, including Toshiki Tanisaki (second from right), who led the company's efforts at the Osaka Expo, Chikako Tanisaki (fifth from right), who performs daily maintanence at the expo, and Takeshi Tanisaki (fourth from right), who added a nursery to the family farm more than 50 years ago.
Eat your balloons: The culinary theater of Grant Achatz comes to Tokyo
Avant-garde chef Grant Achatz and his team from Alinea are in Tokyo for a three-week residency.
Japan’s first foreign wine investor plants its roots in Hokkaido
Intrigued by Japanese wines, Burgundy winemaker Etienne de Montille decided to explore Hokkaido's wine scene, eventually setting up his outpost in Hakodate in 2017.
Tea ceremony experts see matcha boom as a big opportunity
Atsuko Mori, founder and director of Kyoto-based tea salon Camellia Tea Ceremony, prepares matcha during a tea ceremony in Kyoto.

Podcast

One of the many entrances to the Kabukicho neighborhood in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward.
Kabukicho: Tokyo’s ‘stadium of desire’

Longform

Growing families are being priced out of Tokyo’s condo market, forced to choose between downtown convenience and suburban space.
Is living in central Tokyo still affordable?
By Alex K.T. Martin

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

We are pleased to announce the winners of the 6th annual Sustainable Japan Award.
We are pleased to announce the winners of the 6th annual Sustainable Japan Award.

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