Photo/Illutration A thank-you postcard sent from a family supported by the nonprofit organization Kidsdoor says, “They put three hamburger steaks in my school lunch box, and I was so happy.” (Kenjiro Takahashi)

Nearly half of single-parent households in Japan are living in a state of poverty, according to the 2021 Comprehensive Survey of Living Conditions released by the welfare ministry on July 4.

The poverty rate for single-parent households surveyed in 2021 decreased by 3.8 percentage points from the previous survey in 2018 to 44.5 percent, but it remains high.

The ministry releases the relative poverty rate for children--the percentage of those under 18 living in households that earn less than half the median income--every three years.

Japan’s rate is significantly higher than the recent average of 31.9 percent for the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development member states. Japan is ranked the eighth highest among 43 nations.

Brazil has the highest poverty rate for such households at 54.8 percent, followed by South Africa at 49.8 percent.

“Price surges are putting the lives of parents and children at risk,” said Yumiko Watanabe, head of the certified nonprofit organization Kidsdoor in Tokyo, at a news conference in late June.

The NPO conducted an online survey of households it supports from May 30 to June 6 and received 1,538 responses. Ninety percent of respondents were single-mother households.

Of all respondents, 60 percent said their expected household income in 2023 would be up to 2 million yen ($14,000), and 40 percent spent 110 yen or less per meal for one person.

In the free-response section of the online survey, one respondent wrote, “We had no choice but to lower the quality of our food, and I was warned about my child being underweight during a school health check.”

Others wrote, “Even when we were hungry, we had to drink water to fill our stomachs” and “I rely on school lunches for my child’s meals.”

On the other hand, the poverty rate for all children in Japan has been decreasing since 2015, although simple comparisons between the surveys is impossible due to revisions of the standards.

The poverty rate in the 2021 survey was 11.5 percent, down 2.5 percentage points from the 2018 survey. Japan’s rate is also now below the OECD average of 12.8 percent.

The overall poverty rate for all generations is 15.4 percent, down 0.3 percentage point from the previous survey.

The welfare ministry attributed the improvement to the economic support measures given out during the COVID-19 pandemic, along with a boost in income driven by a greater number of women entering the workforce.

The survey also highlighted the increasing severity of caregiving due to the declining birthrate and aging population.

Of the households caring for a family member at home, 63.5 percent have elderly members caring for the elderly, meaning both the caregiver and the recipient are 65 or older. This is the first time the proportion has exceeded 60 percent since the survey began in 2001.

Among all households, the rate of elderly households is 31.2 percent and that of single-person households is 32.9 percent, both all-time highs.

Households with children account for 18.3 percent of the total, the lowest ever.

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