“A child’s future is hugely influenced by where they were born or by their families’ backgrounds, and that often is hard to change solely by their own efforts,” Lee said.
The cycle of poverty over generations is a growing issue in Japan. Children in financially strapped families tend to have low academic achievement and schooling, and hence a low lifetime income, analysts say.
According to the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry, the relative poverty rate — the percentage of children living under the poverty line — has increased from 10.9 percent in 1985 to 16.3 percent in 2012. The figure translates into roughly 1 in 6 children.
The poverty line is taken as half the median household income of the total population. In 2012, Japan’s poverty line stood at ¥1.22 million annual income per person. For a household with a single parent with two children, the line was roughly at ¥2.07 million, or about ¥170,000 a month.
,given children’s poverty is often linked to single parents.
http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2017/0 ... G0F-uR8Buk