Overview
- Japan’s health and labor ministry, which released the data Wednesday, reported 18,058 public assistance applications in February, down 5.4% from a year earlier for a second monthly drop.
- Households that started receiving public assistance in February totaled 16,380, a year-on-year decrease of 6.5%.
- Total recipient households edged down 0.3% to 1,641,614, while recipients numbered 1,977,156 people, or about 1.6% of the population.
- An official said the decline was not large and that the ministry will keep watching the numbers before judging any longer-term shift.
- Elderly households made up 54.8% of recipient households, and a category that includes unemployed people accounted for 15.9%, underscoring how Japan’s last-resort safety net supports older and jobless residents.