From our other sites
The story
A thread went up on 5ch’s Newsspeed VIP board started by a poster claiming to receive welfare benefits, complaining that “¥120,000 a month is rough.” Since welfare payment amounts vary by household makeup and region, it’s hard to say flatly whether that’s a lot or a little, but the poster took issue with how little is left once housing costs are excluded. That drew a wave of pushback — “just get a job,” “plenty of people live on that” — while the thread evolved into a debate over just how “cultured” a life welfare payments can actually support. Opinions split over how to interpret the constitutional guarantee of “a minimum standard of wholesome and cultured living.”
What people said
I'd like you to work in my place.
Why would I even need to work?
Okay, give me your email address then.
Work in my place.
I genuinely don't understand what you're saying.
Good for what, exactly?
Then the government should just pay more.
Guess Japan's welfare system really doesn't work, then.
But I can't live a "cultured" life on that.
Well, just put up with it — everyone's struggling with the cost of living right now.
But the constitution and the law say a cultured standard of living is guaranteed.
Aren't you already living a cultured life? You've got internet access, don't you?
Well, since it's not spelled out specifically, it can be interpreted however you like. Just go to the library and read a book or something — that's cultured too.
I just sit in front of my PC all day, that's about it.
Then you go live on that.
The library's far away, and I don't really want to read books anyway.
Whether you want to or not is your own business. If OP chooses not to, that's OP's call — the point is the environment for a cultured life exists, so it's fine.
My idea of a cultured life is going ocean fishing off a cruiser.
Maybe for OP, but the government's interpretation is probably different. Just buy a cruiser if you win the lottery — not that you'd know how to drive one.
If ocean-fishing-by-cruiser became a nationwide culture for all Japanese citizens, you'd have a shot. But that's not becoming a culture in our lifetimes. So: no chance.
I don't want to live that low a standard of life.
Then all I can say is: get a job.
What exactly is it you want to do?
A single room with air conditioning, a bath and toilet you can use every day, a phone for emergency calls, enough food that you won't starve, and a hospital you can go to if you get sick —
that's probably what "minimum" means, so ¥120,000 ought to be plenty, no?
Where's the "cultured" part of that?
Fair point, actually. Can you really not get a decent internet setup on welfare?
Background and Key Points of the Debate
Japan’s welfare payments are split into categories like “livelihood assistance” and “housing assistance,” with the exact figures set by a tiered regional system that varies by where a recipient lives and their household composition. The wording of Article 25 of the Constitution — guaranteeing “a minimum standard of wholesome and cultured living” — is abstract, and exactly what level that refers to has been debated for decades through legislation and past court cases (such as the Asahi lawsuit). The thread’s disagreement over “where cultured living begins” is really just an extension of that long-running argument. The Public Assistance Act also requires recipients who are able to work to job-hunt, so the “just get a job” responses reflect that official premise of the system — but in practice, many recipients face health or family circumstances that make working difficult, and it’s worth noting the original post alone doesn’t reveal the poster’s actual situation.
※This article is compiled as an excerpt and summary of the 5ch (Newsspeed VIP) thread “I’m seriously struggling on welfare, please help.”
Leave a Reply