Photo/Illutration An elderly woman in Kurashiki, Okayama Prefecture, uses her TV screen instead of a room light, and divides one bento into two, to save money. (Shinichi Sekine)

KURASHIKI, Okayama Prefecture--It’s hot and humid even at night but a 78-year-old woman on welfare uses an electric fan instead of an air conditioner.

She’s trying to save on electricity.

She also keeps the lights off and relies on the glare from the TV screen to see things.

“I have no money to spend on frills,” she said.

The woman lives alone. A social worker who takes care of her submitted a petition to the Lower House in June for summer payments to help people on welfare cover the costs of running air conditioners.

There is a well-defined precedent for this. Welfare recipients already receive payouts to cover heating bills in winter.

The amount and the period over which these are paid varies from one region to another.

A single-person household in Hokkaido, for example, receives 12,780 yen ($89.75) a month between October and April.

The social worker, 58, said many of the welfare recipients and other elderly people she helps do not use air conditioners because of the cost.

Her petition carried the signatures of about 3,000 supporters.

However, it was not adopted during the Lower House session and the proposal was scrapped.

“It was extremely regrettable and frustrating,” the social worker said. “Measures to establish safety nets are important, and I want our country to provide solid support to those who are socially disadvantaged.”

Some lawmakers have separately called for summer payments for welfare recipients to run air conditioners.

But the welfare ministry is unconvinced.

“We could not confirm that expenditures in summer were higher than the annual average last year,” Takashi Hanyuda, state minister of welfare, told an Upper House Environment Committee session in April. “We will carefully consider a summertime additional payout.”

Environment Ministry data point to a deadly risk from summer heat that is increasing. They show that an average of 1,145 people died of heatstroke annually between 2017 and 2021, sharply up from 179 between 1996 and 2000.

Last summer, 206 people died of heatstroke in Tokyo's 23 wards, of whom 87 percent were aged 65 or older. The figures are notable for showing a clear correlation with lack of air conditioner use: Of the 194 people who died indoors, 85 percent either did not own an air conditioner or were not using it.

The 78-year-old woman in Kurashiki receives about 64,000 yen a month in public pension benefits and a livelihood assistance of a little more than 1,000 yen.

Her monthly electricity bill, which was about 2,000 yen, shot up to 7,000 yen in spring.

She has eaten only twice a day since spring. Actually, she eats only one portion per day. She buys a single 480-yen bento lunch box at a nearby welfare service office before noon and divides it into two.

She spends almost all the day at home. But her monthly income is all spent on food, utility bills and other expenses.

“You can never imagine the misery of life without money,” she told the social worker in spring.

In October the government will begin providing an additional 1,000 yen for each person in households on welfare, as a measure to help at a time of rising prices.

Kuriko Watanabe, an associate professor of social security at Kanagawa University, said the amount is insufficient given the rise in the cost of living.

Watanabe added that the payment will come too late to help cushion the impact of the summer heat.

She said the welfare payment itself should be increased nationwide to cover air conditioning and heating expenses rather than making complicated ad-hoc payouts.

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