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Week 8: Class – “middle class Japan”, wealth and poverty
Statistical Handbook of Japan:
Read Chapter 10, “Commerce” and Chapter 11, “Trade, International Balance of Payments, and International Cooperation”
Other Materials:
Access this page in the OECD website. It shows Japan’s “Poverty rate” in international comparison. It also gives the internationally recognized definitions of poverty. Note where “rich country” Japan sits in the rankings of international poverty!
Visit NHK’s blog about the imperial enthronement in 2019 to see the splendour of the imperial household. For more details about the Imperial Family, see the website of the Imperial Household Agency.
Video Materials: “Working Poor in Japan”
Watch these news clips about the “working poor” or homeless.
YouTube Documentary: “Homelessness in Japan” (Parts 1-5)
Consider this five-part video series to be a complete “guest lecture” for our course, with much of the analysis by Professor Tom Gill of Meiji Gakuin University.
Academic Articles (for the Active Learning Hours Portfolio):
Yoshio Sugimoto, “Class and Work in Cultural Capitalism”
Tom Gill, “Failed manhood on the streets of urban Japan”
M Kawazoe, “Action Against Poverty: Japan’s Working Poor Under Attack”
Links:
Washington Post, “The last retreat of Japan’s nobility”
Yuriko Koike, “Why inequality is different in Japan”
Reuters, “Japan’s working poor left behind by Abenomics”
Guardian, “The three degree world”