POLS1503 UNIT8 Discussion : Poverty and Inequality

Poverty

Japan currently has the third-largest economy in the world. The government provides a national insurance system, other support systems, and an infrastructure and education system; it is the opposite of poverty. However, it is also a fact that the poverty of single-parent families and persons with disabilities has become a social problem. Japan had "a relative poverty rate of 15.6 percent in 2015, significantly higher than other wealthy countries" (Stout, 2019, para.1). The poverty rate of single-parent families in which the parent is working is more than 50 percent in Japan; parents in 15 percent of households in Tokyo said they could not afford to buy clothes for their children (Stout, 2019). Although it is related to income inequality described later, the poverty of vulnerable people is an irresolvable problem no matter how much the government builds a support system.


For comparison, I chose Brazil. In Brazil, 8.5% of the population (16.2 million) lives on less than $45/month (Merchant, 2020). The communities of favelas do not have any organization or sanitation systems, and rates of disease and infant mortality are high in favelas, and poor nutrition is common (Merchant, 2020). Brazil has one of the most unequal wealth distributions in the world, poverty disproportionately affects the young and those in the northeast, and this point is the same with Japan (Merchant, 2020).



Income Inequality

 "life-time employment system" has been around for decades and was established during the country's high growth period in the 1950s and 60s in Japan, and it refers to the "implicit guarantee" to take care of employees until retirement, wages that are dictated by seniority, company-based labor unions (Huang, 2020). However, Japanese companies recently convert regular workers who could previously enjoy the comparatively privileged lifetime-employment system to part-time workers, trying to survive the competition with rising emerging-market economies such as China, where labor costs are lower (Huang, 2020). This change leads to a large income gap between regular employees and part-time workers. Mothers who cannot work for a long time due to the care of their children mostly have no choice but to work as part-time workers, and even if they can work as regular employees, they work with feeling ashamed. This leads to the poverty rate of single-parent families in which the parent is working is more than 50 percent, as I mentioned before.

"Brazil's six richest men have the same wealth as the poorest 50 percent of the population; around 100 million people; and the country's richest 5 percent have the same income as the remaining 95 percent" (OXFAM International, 2019, para.4). In this way, Brazil has a big Income Inequality. This is caused by the structural causes of inequality in Brazil, such as an unfair tax system or insufficient investments in social policies (OXFAM International, 2019).



Furthermore, explain how globalization has either helped increase or decrease the poverty and inequality in each country.

Globalization increased poverty in Japan. As I mentioned, Japanese companies increased part-time workers to survive the competition with rising emerging-market economies such as China, and it is bringing high poverty rates. Wealthy parents try to educate their children to keep up with the changes in society that accompany rapid globalization, but single-parent families cannot do like that. This leads to further disparities.


References

 Huang, E. (2020). Japan's middle class is 'disappearing' as poverty rises, warns economist. CNBC. Retrieved from https://www.cnbc.com/2020/07/03/japans-middle-class-is-disappearing-as-poverty-rises-warns-economist.html

Merchant, A. (2020). Poverty In Brazil. Retrieved from https://borgenproject.org/tag/poverty-in-brazil/

OXFAM International. (2019). Brazil: Extreme inequality in numbers. Retrieved from https://www.oxfam.org/en/brazil-extreme-inequality-numbers

Stout, N. (2019). Poverty in Japan. Retrieved from https://borgenproject.org/tag/poverty-in-japan/