Japanese single mothers struggle with poverty and prejudice 0
Besides financial difficulties, single mothers also face social prejudice.
In Japan, many single mothers are living with their children in poverty because society does not create conditions for women to return to work after giving birth, according to the Washington Post.
Harsh moral concepts make many Japanese women, after divorcing their husbands or breaking up with their boyfriends, not dare to share with friends or even family.
Besides, because Japanese women hardly have the opportunity to return to work after giving birth, the lives of single mothers are even more difficult.
`We have a so-called culture of shame,` Japan Times quoted Yukiko Tokumaru, executive director of an NGO that helps poor children in Osaka.
`Women’s position in society is much lower than that of men. Women are treated more unfairly. They often have to work unstable jobs and do many things at the same time to make ends meet.`
Besides financial difficulties, single mothers also face social prejudice.
Because they are afraid of society’s judgment, every time they receive benefits, many people have to use cheap makeup.
`Sometimes local government employees, usually men, say things like ‘You don’t look like someone who lives on welfare!’` said Junko Terauchi, president of the social protection council in Osaka.
In Osaka, a 35-year-old single mother with two school-aged children without a job received a subsidy of $2,300 per month.
The number of families living under government subsidies has doubled over the past 20 years, according to statistics from Yamagata University.
The Ministry of Health said 16% of Japanese children are currently living below the poverty line, of which 55% of children living with a single parent account for 55%.
Although the government provides monthly subsidies to disadvantaged families, `if parents are poor, their children will also fall into poverty, creating a vicious cycle of poverty, passed from generation to generation.`
Children born into families with difficult circumstances often face discrimination and isolation.
The local community in Osaka tries to organize meetings to help single mothers and their children.
`The children lack care because their mothers are busy working all day,` said Yasuko Kawabe, a social worker in Osaka, adding that a life of material deprivation and dependence on community charity makes many children
`The children don’t even look each other in the eye. They don’t talk or communicate,` Kawabe said.
