Abstract
Poverty has existed throughout history and in all nations. Poverty in Japan came to public attention most notably during the turbulent years after the end of World War II. Since then, because of the rapid economic growth that Japan achieved, poverty was deemed to have been overcome and was no longer considered an issue. However, in the late 1990s, after the burst of the economic bubble in Japan, the issue of people on low income reared its head again in the face of the apparent increase in the number of people living in poverty and the widening gap between high and low income earners. Poverty and low income are relative conditions. This means that they have neither definitive concepts nor agreed definitions. In view of this, the Japanese Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare defines people on low income using taxation criteria, as" persons exempt from municipal taxes." This is the criteria used in the application of various measures relating to government welfare administration, and as such, de facto determines government actions affecting low-income earners in Japan today.
