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CHILD POVERTY

Foreign visitors to Japan are impressed by its prosperity and high standard of living. People are well dressed, their homes are clean and well-equipped, and we do not see slums in the cities, or people begging for money on the streets. Yet recent statistics show that the gap between the rich and poor in Japan has been quietly growing for years. In terms of income equality, Japan now ranks 34^th out of 41 OECD countries, and 16% of all children, including around half the children of single parents, are growing up in poverty.

Single mothers often have unstable, irregular, and low-paid jobs. This means they may not have enough money to keep their children healthy or feed them adequately, let alone pay for school lunches. Neither can they afford all the extra expenses, for things like uniforms, equipment for club activities, or field trips and excursions, that might enable their children to have normal school lives. Poor children do less well at school than their classmates, and this affects their job prospects, which then perpetuates a cycle of poverty.

It is not only Japan that is experiencing a widening wealth gap. In the UK, for example, one in four children are now living in poverty. One reason is that, although people’s wages are not rising, the government is cutting welfare payments and laying off public servants, in a policy called “austerity”. But famous economists like Joseph Stiglitz say that such policies do not make economies grow. Is it not possible to have an economy which works for everyone, rather than one which makes only some people richer, while consigning so many others to poverty?

COMPOSITION TOPIC

How do you think the government could make it easier for people on low incomes to raise their children? Make some policy suggestions.

QUESTIONS　　（内容の理解にご利用ください）

1. Is the wealth gap in Japan obvious to foreign visitors?

2. Why is the poverty rate so high among single-parent

families?

3. Give some reasons why poor children may do less well at

school than their better-off classmates.

4. Is the proportion of children living in poverty higher in the

UK, or in Japan?

5. Does the writer agree, or disagree, with Joseph Stiglitz?