Abstract
Not very much is known about poverty in Japan. Until recently, official figures on the diffusion of income poverty among the population did not exist. The Japanese income poverty rate was first announced in October 2009, almost 40 years after the United States did so. Even less is known about multidimensional poverty and material deprivation. A new multidimensional poverty index, including food, clothing and other living conditions, has been in the making since 2012 but, to the best of our knowledge, no official measure exists as of today. What is the share of the population in non-income poverty? How many Japanese are unable to enjoy the minimum standards of living? And who are they according to demographic and social characteristics? These are some of the questions we answer in this paper. We base our analysis on aspects of material living conditions collected in the Quality of Life Survey in 2012 and 2013 conducted by the Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI), Cabinet Office of Japan.
