JAPAN'S RISING CRIME RATE TIED TO WORKING POOR

by Suvendrini Kakuchi

(IPS) TOKYO -- Two years ago, a 34-year-old single mother in dire straits did something that had never crossed her mind before: She stole money from a friend's purse.

"After almost a year of struggling to make ends meet, I began to lose all hope. So when I saw the purse by my side, I just moved like a robot and took the money. I was desperate to survive," she told the Japanese press recently.

The woman, who requested anonymity, was released last year from jail where she spent four months after her conviction for stealing 20,000 yen ($180 U.S.). She described her current life with her eight-year-old son as a continuing struggle. Despite working two part-time jobs, her monthly income is around $780 -- barely enough to pay rent and meet other daily expenses.

"There were days before my arrest when my son had to erase the notes in his notebooks to be able to use them again because I could not afford to buy new ones," she said. Her annual income after working more than 12 hours a day was around $20,000.

Experts say the woman's story, in a country that boasts the second richest economy in the world, is now not a rare one.

"Japan has its share of poverty and it's high time the government admits this and takes necessary steps to combat it. Poverty has humbled Japan's image as a country that rose from the ashes of World War II to become rich and powerful," said Tsuyoshi Inaba, head of Moyai, a leading Tokyo-based support group for the homeless.

Indeed, while the government acknowledged the problem of the working poor, officials have yet to collect accurate data on the issue as well as its social consequences -- a stance activists attribute to official denial and arrogance.

But as the poverty issue becomes widespread and crime rates rise within the low-income sector, the Japanese media has finally started to spotlight the problem in the hope that it will prod the government to tackle the problem faster.

According to police statistics, more than 42,000 robberies were committed by persons older than 65 years in 2005, six times greater the number recorded in 1991.

The statistics also indicate that the majority of these older people were men with incomes less than $20,000 -- way below the national average poverty line of $30,000.

Surveys also showed almost all of those arrested were heavily in debt to loan companies after losing their jobs or companies.

A 78-year-old man arrested in Sapporo city, Hokkaido, Japan's northern island, for shoplifting carrots from a supermarket, told the media that his monthly pension was about $680 dollars of which he spent $280 on rent.

He also had to make debt repayments which came to $180 per month. To get by, he was forced to live in an unheated room, grow his own vegetables and avoid meeting friends.

In a related survey taken among the elderly arrested for crimes, police in the area reported that loneliness also contributed to more older people resorting to robbery or shoplifting.

One person surveyed wrote that he stole in the supermarket as a way to get his family to visit him.

Attorney Junko Ohno, who is campaigning for better welfare support for Japan's growing poor, explained that lack of public and private support in the country could worsen the situation.

She explained that her investigations showed that only about 20 percent of the people who are entitled to public welfare are receiving allowances, leading to various problems such as exploitation of the poor by unscrupulous businesses like brokers paying them to sign fake marriage papers for visas for foreigners.

Police also recently uncovered a criminal ring comprising men who were taking the homeless to local government offices to apply for welfare and then bagging most of the money, leaving the recipients with less than 10 percent of the payments.

"The poor in Japan are very vulnerable as they have no public support and are socially marginalized. They have no one to turn to, which is a major cause for crime committed by them," Ohno told IPS.

Professor Ryuichiro Matsubara, sociology expert at Tokyo University, said the rise of the working poor stems from Japan's quick march into globalization begun by former Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi.

"For instance, the Koizumi administration changed the national tax system by lowering the rate of taxable income to 40 percent from 70 percent. This has fostered a very rich class and poor (class) as well as a rapid influx of cheap products and a class society," he pointed out.

Matsubara said Japan now faces acceptance of globalization in which the rich get richer and people are forced to keep job hopping, leading to financially unstable lives.

"The situation in Japan now is such that the Japanese are forced to earn incomes that match those of workers in cheaper economies such as China and India," he explained to IPS, adding that such a situation can only increase the number of the working poor in Japan.

Activists are now calling for a closer examination of Japan's low-income populations as soon as possible, starting with the government collecting reliable data on the sector.