Joblessness Spurs Shift in Japan's Views on Poverty

By JOHN MURPHY

TOKYO -- For more than a decade, Makoto Yuasa's efforts to end poverty in Japan were ignored by many as the quixotic campaign of a left-wing radical.

But Japanese including Prime Minister Taro Aso are paying attention to the 40-year-old activist as the world's second-largest economy sinks into its worst recession since World War II, leaving an increasing number of people without work.

On Friday, Japan announced its jobless rate rose by 0.4 percentage point to 4.8% in March, marking the fastest increase since 1967.

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Activist Makoto Yuasa is gaining traction in his campaign to improve Japan's safety net for the poor and unemployed.

While Japan's unemployment rate is well below the U.S.'s 8.5% and Spain's 17.3%, today's data are a blow for a country where workers grew accustomed to the guarantee of lifetime employment -- often with the same company.

That system is foundering amid the global slowdown, which has forced layoffs and spurred some companies to implement work-sharing programs to keep as many people as possible employed.

Mr. Yuasa's rise to fame symbolizes the sea change in Japanese attitudes toward poverty. Since the country emerged as an industrial power in the 1960s and 1970s, it has been proud of its image as a nation of middle-class people.

Many Japanese had little sympathy for the jobless and homeless, regarding their plight as stemming from laziness -- and an embarrassment to the country's profile as an industrial power.

With manufacturers such as Toyota Motor Corp. and Sony Corp. continuing to slash jobs, many Japanese for the first time are seeing poverty as a real possibility. Most job cuts hit temporary laborers, whose numbers rapidly expanded in the past several years as Japan embraced a more open style of capitalism.

With few benefits or protections, hundreds of thousands of temporary workers -- who generally don't get unemployment insurance from their employers -- had to leave company-sponsored housing when they were laid off, leaving many homeless.

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A homeless man reads while sitting in a cardboard box along a street in Osaka.

The poor can turn to Japan's Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare, which is responsible for providing help with housing and assistance. However, the country historically has been very reluctant to offer aid, often turning needy people away.

Mr. Yuasa's calls for the government to improve the safety net -- and be more forthcoming with assistance that citizens are entitled to -- have stirred the public and politicians.

When Prime Minister Aso was crafting Japan's biggest stimulus package, he summoned Mr. Yuasa for help.

Even as Japan's poverty level has risen to the fourth-highest among Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development countries in 2005 -- the latest data available -- the government has given little assistance.

Media images of homelessness and stories of unemployment also have struck a chord. Concerned about their own job security, many Japanese are seeing the homeless not as troubled individuals seeking handouts, but as victims of a failing economy and a government system that offered no safety nets.

"Something that was unimaginable is happening now," Mr. Yuasa says of the shift in public opinion. "This is the first time Japan has really been facing the problem of poverty and realizing how thin the glass is that we've been walking on."

In January, Mr. Yuasa orchestrated a publicity stunt to underscore Japan's poverty problem. He set up more than 500 recently laid-off workers in tents in Tokyo's Hibiya Park, directly across from the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare.

The demonstration drew thousands of volunteers eager to assist the homeless -- and helped galvanize government officials into cobbling together temporary shelter.

"He is a genius at making a demonstration," says Nobuyuki Idei, former head of Sony Corp who shared the stage with him during a televised debate on temporary workers and poverty in Japan.

Hideki Makihara, a member of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, says initially, like many government officials, he thought the poor should take care of themselves. But a chat with some temp workers who were left homeless changed his thinking.

"I never met people who had lost their homes, and had no money or food and maybe had not taken a shower for a long time," says Mr. Makihara, who now sits on a party committee to assist the poor.

The tent city also was important for the homeless. For several months, Kenichi Aoki, 49, lived in a 24-hour McDonald's in Tokyo after he lost his temporary construction job but was too ashamed to ask for help until he heard about the tent city.

"There is no point in hiding anymore," said Mr. Aoki, who now receives government aid for housing and is looking for work.

Mr. Yuasa is an unusual advocate for the poor. He was raised in a middle-class family in Tokyo, where his father was a copy editor at Japan's biggest business newspaper and his mother was a school teacher.

He attended the elite Tokyo University, a breeding ground for Japan's business leaders, top politicians and government bureaucrats. After graduating in 1995, he did volunteer work for the homeless.

Having a physically disabled older brother who was confined to a wheelchair made him aware of discrimination, which may have influenced his decision, he says.

Mr. Yuasa doesn't observe Japan's strict social rules: When meeting with the prime minister in March, Mr. Yuasa wore a pair of tired-looking jeans, battered hiking boots and a gray-hooded sweatshirt.

"I would like to meet everyone with the same fashion I meet with the homeless," he says.

Critics say Mr. Yuasa's shopworn socialist ideas won't help revive Japan's economy. Others say he is profiting from people he claims to help. Mr. Yuasa says he lives off speaking fees and sales of his bestseller -- titled "Anti-Poverty" -- published last year.

From his nonprofit group's tiny office in Tokyo, Mr. Yuasa is hammering his antipoverty message in rallies and speeches.

With a national parliamentary election this year and the ruling LDP behind in polls, politicians have been eager to support Mr. Yuasa's campaign, though he is careful not to align himself with any group.

On a recent afternoon, Mr. Yuasa and other activists arrived to press the vice minister of Japan's Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare to do a better job informing the jobless of their rights to assistance.

In April, he opened a drop-in center in Tokyo to assist the homeless and offer health check-ups. Volunteers at the center accompany the needy to government offices to apply for government assistance with housing and unemployment benefits -- an effort to ensure that officials don't try to turn them away.

One 38-year-old at the center said after being laid off recently from a temp job, he had been obliged to leave a dorm and wander the streets of Tokyo.

"I was penniless when I left the dorm. I want to live in decent housing," he said. "Without an address, it is hard to get employed."

Write to John Murphy at john.murphy@wsj.com