Series: Japan and Workaholics

Alright. Since I realized that I stepped into a rather grave social issue but don’t want to turn my eyes from it, I decided to go little by little taking up the entire week. Well... maybe longer, who knows?

As I went on with my research and learning about workaholics and Japanese youth, I found myself facing a larger social issue in the background of workaholicism which is “disparity” – in all aspects of the society – a huge, serious, and a next-generation kind of issue for the entire country to face.

Do keep in mind that I am only expressing my personal view, but to some people outside of Japan “disparity” may not be a familiar term to associate Japan with, and for those Japanese people living in Japan – at least for those who claim to belong to the “middle class” as is the case with the majority of the population – a word rather unacceptable. –- Even more so, the term “working poor”.

WORKING POOR

People who cannot become wealthy no matter how much and how hard they work. In another word, those people in the labor force except for the so-called (in Japan) salarymen who work full time as much as regular workers (salarymen) do but cannot earn enough living and have to be heavily dependent on welfare benefits. Even in a country that is said to have escaped poverty and economic stagnation, the number of working poor households is estimated to be around seven million. I’m pretty sure the term working poor and the problem is not unique to Japan, but as much as I observe the problem I feel the problem close to me and as not something just going on out there. I’ll start going into the details tomorrow.