Photo/Illutration People line up to receive free food and medicine from a nonprofit organization in Tokyo's Sumida Ward. (Asahi Shimbun file photo)

The surge in consumer prices along with the lingering effects of COVID-19 have led to more public assistance applications for the fourth consecutive year, the welfare ministry announced.

There were 255,079 applications, an increase of 7.6 percent from the previous year, according to preliminary figures for 2023 released by the ministry on March 6. 

The ministry also released figures for the past decade. The most applications previously was 245,664 in 2014.

The number of applications then dropped for five straight years before again rising in 2020, when the pandemic started.

December also marked the 12th consecutive month in which applications increased year-on-year.

That is the longest streak since monthly figures were first released in fiscal 2012.

As of December, a record 1,653,778 households were receiving public assistance.

Applicants are asked why they need the assistance.

The most common response was that the applicant is running out of or has run out of savings, according to ministry officials.

But while 38.8 percent of households gave that reason in fiscal 2018, the numbers have been increasing yearly, with 44.1 percent in fiscal 2021 and 46.1 percent in fiscal 2022.

A ministry official said the recent rise in consumer prices was a likely factor behind there being more applications, along with the COVID-19 health scare.

NOT KEEPING UP

The Shinjuku Gohan Plus group provides support to those in need, including distributing food every Saturday in front of the Tokyo metropolitan government building.

Before COVID-19, only about 100 people showed up, but over the past year that number has increased to between 600 and 700.

“More people coming is clearly due to the rise in consumer prices,” said Ren Ohnishi, a co-leader of the group. “There are many cases in which not only those on public assistance and the elderly, but also working people and comparatively younger people are also showing up to make ends meet.”

On Feb. 24, there were 688 people lining up at the food distribution area, including a woman in her 50s who walked 30 minutes from her home.

She lost her job as a company employee about six months ago and has no income. She said she would be going to another location in Ikebukuro, where a different group was handing out prepared food.

The effects from the health scare are also lingering.

The central government implemented a program of providing interest-free loans without the need for a guarantor to those who fell on hard times due to COVID-19.

But repayments on those loans started in January 2023.

“Many of the households who applied for the loans were barely getting by even before COVID-19, so the surge in consumer prices is just pouring on more problems,” said an official at the Japan National Council of Social Welfare, which provides support to those trying to rebuild their lives.

Structural factors with public assistance also cannot be ignored.

Of the households receiving public assistance, 55 percent were senior citizens as of the end of fiscal 2023.

That was an increase of about 10 percentage points from two decades ago.

Increases in pension payments are also being restrained to secure funds for future generations.

But that means some of the elderly are now receiving less pension benefits in real terms as increases in the amounts are not keeping up with the rise in consumer prices.

That may mean more of the older generations will apply for public assistance in the future because they cannot get by on only their pensions.

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