A Young Man Took a Part-Time Job. It Cost His Grandparents Their Welfare.
On
June 12
, Japan's Supreme Court issued an unanimous ruling that sparked a perhaps unexpectedly huge reaction: It upheld the decision to cut off welfare benefits for an elderly couple in Kumamoto Prefecture. This wasn't because the pair's financial situation had improved, but rather because their cohabiting grandson — a vocational nursing student — had begun earning more from a part-time job he'd taken on to pay his tuition.
Never mind that this grandson wasn't using a yen of it for family support. Never mind that existing law explicitly allowed for 'household separation,' a provision protecting the income of students from being lumped into the family's welfare calculation. In the eyes of the court, because the grandson's income had risen past a certain level, the prefectural government was right to treat the household as a single unit — and cut off the grandparents' access to much-needed aid.
Though it came down earlier this month, the ruling has gone viral and garnered blistering reactions in recent days. To many in the Japanese public, the ruling feels cold and unforgiving, a cruelly rigid interpretation of the law that sends a bleak message to low-income families trying to break the cycle of poverty.
One viral tweet with over 60,000 likes
reads
: 'The message from the ivory tower is clear: Poor people have no business dreaming.' Another
rages
: 'Why the hell are young people being forced to bankroll their entire families? The grandson has his own damn life. What kind of broken system punishes the ones actually trying to get out?'
List of Contents:
The Case: Bureaucratic Logic Meets Lived Reality
A System Designed to Break the Poor
The Backlash
Related Posts
The Case: Bureaucratic Logic Meets Lived Reality
The case began in 2014, when a man living in Nagasu Town, Kumamoto Prefecture, began receiving welfare with his wife. At the time, their grandson, who lived with them, was studying at a vocational nursing school and working part-time to cover his tuition. Under
Article 10
of the Public Assistance Act and related Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare (MHLW) guidance, such students are eligible for
setai bunri
, or household separation, a legal mechanism meant to prevent a student's income from affecting the eligibility of their cohabiting relatives.
Initially, the family qualified for this protection. But then the prefectural government abruptly changed course, citing an increase in the grandson's income and reclassifying the family as a single household. The elderly couple's welfare benefits were terminated.
The grandfather sued; according to Yahoo News, he said that his grandson's income was being used for his own tuition, with no money left over for living expenses. In 2022, the Kumamoto District Court ruled in his favor, warning that 'terminating welfare would cause financial hardship for the couple and likely interfere with the grandson's efforts to become self-reliant.' But in 2024, the Fukuoka High Court overturned the decision, declaring the move 'not illegal.' The Supreme Court unanimously upheld that logic.
A System Designed to Break the Poor
Japan's welfare system has always been grudging at best, and openly punitive at worst. While Article 25 of Japan's Constitution guarantees all citizens 'the right to maintain the minimum standards of wholesome and cultured living,' in practice the system is riddled with stigma and bureaucratic thresholds. Only about
1.6 percent
of the population receives welfare because applying for assistance often triggers social ostracism, surveillance and even coercive family contact.
Under a policy known as
fuyo shokai
, caseworkers routinely contact an applicant's relatives — parents, siblings, even grandchildren — to ask if they can provide financial support. In theory, it's about upholding family responsibility. In reality, it functions as a deterrent. Some survivors of domestic violence have had their safety compromised after being exposed to abusers. In 2021, over 35,000 people
petitioned
to abolish the practice altogether. That same year, the government admitted that out of 460,000 inquiries, only 1.45 percent led to actual familial aid.
The household separation system was one of the rare progressive compromises within this landscape. Introduced in the 1970s, the policy allowed children from welfare households to attend high school or vocational school without penalizing their families. It acknowledged that education is not indulgence — it is lifeline. But this ruling shows just how difficult it is to forge a path forward in Japan, given its harsh, uncompromising bureaucratic landscape.
The Backlash
The ruling is a particularly cruel irony in Japan, where demographic collapse and caregiving crises have turned multigenerational households into an economic necessity. The government needs young people to stay home, take care of aging relatives and fill in the gaps left by a crumbling welfare state. But it offers them no meaningful support to do so.
There's an extra layer of irony in the fact that this young man wanted to become a nurse — exactly the kind of profession Japan desperately needs amid a ballooning healthcare crisis. He studied, he worked, he paid his way. And for that, the state punished his grandparents.
After the ruling, Kumamoto Prefecture
commented
: 'Under the current system, we believe this ruling is correct and validates the prefecture's position. However, if future reforms are made to support young people who are working hard, we would support that.'
The ruling may technically be correct under the current system. But that doesn't make it just.
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Higher Education and Economic Inequality in Japan: Why Boosting Financial Aid Won't Work
Hoping to combat growing socioeconomic inequality, the Japanese government is working to lower financial hurdles to secondary and tertiary education. But what is the efficacy of such measures in the context of labor immobility and major companies' rigidly hierarchical recruiting systems? Neoliberalism and Education Since government policy fell under the global sway of neoliberalism, economic inequality has emerged as an increasingly worrying issue worldwide. Japan today is no exception, notwithstanding its erstwhile image as a uniformly middle-class society. Emphasizing the importance of competition in a free market, personal choice, and individual responsibility, neoliberals have rejected the welfare state's pursuit of 'equality of outcomes' through the redistribution of resources and shifted the focus to 'equal opportunity,' particularly in the area of education. The idea is to root out entrenched social inequities by promoting fair competition in the arena of education. In terms of government policy, this has generally meant expanding the supply of educational opportunities and providing students with scholarships and other forms of financial assistance. Yet empirical studies conducted in various countries have found that the quantitative expansion of secondary and tertiary education does not contribute substantially to social and economic equality. These findings call into question Japan's own belated bid to expand educational opportunity and individuals' choices in education through tuition waivers and financial aid. Japan's High Household Burden Japan differs from most other developed countries in that the government has not actively pursued a policy of expanding access to higher education in order to promote socioeconomic equality. The growth of higher education in Japan has relied primarily on household expenditure. Two out of three university slots in Japan are at private institutions, which depend almost exclusively on tuition to cover their operating expenses. In addition, even the national universities charge tuition, and that has been rising since 1971. In 1975, the tuition at national universities was about one-fifth that of private institutions on average. By 2008, it was approximately one-third. Instead of using the national universities to promote equal educational opportunities, the government has increased universities' reliance on household expenditure by holding down fiscal outlays. This stands in sharp contrast to Europe, where most public universities offer tuition-free education for students from within the European Union. The Japanese government also stands out for the meager financial aid it provides to households faced with these rising tuition levels. In his 2016 book The Political Economy of Higher Education Finance, the German political scientist Julian Garritzmann groups countries into four broad categories based on tuition levels and the proportion of students benefitting from public financial aid. In the first group, both tuition and public financial aid are low (low burden, low support), which is the model adopted in most of continental Europe. The second group is characterized by very low fees and generous public support for students (low burden, high support), as seen in the Nordic countries. The third, represented by the United States and Britain, features a combination of high tuition and generous public support (high burden, high support, but mostly loans). Lastly, we have the East Asian model, represented by Japan, in which tuition is high, and public financial aid to students is low. From the Japanese government's perspective, this is a successful model of higher education in that it keeps public expenditures to a minimum. Despite the lack of government support, higher education has definitely expanded in Japan, at least quantitatively. According to the latest statistics, about 60% of the country's 18-year-olds are enrolled in a four-year university, a level comparable to that of Britain and the United States (even allowing for differences in the way such statistics are collected). But there are distinguishing features of the Japanese system that limit educational opportunity in other ways. One issue is the narrow window for getting a college education. In Japan, almost everyone enters a college or university as a recent high school graduate. Those who leave school after graduating from high school are very unlikely to go back to earn an undergraduate degree. In other words, the opportunity to 'go back to school' at the tertiary level is quite limited. Much the same can be said of graduate school, primarily because in Japan, unlike other developed countries, an advanced degree earned midcareer holds no particular value, or premium. In sum, Japan's higher education pathway does not allow for detours or second chances. A Shift in Policy There are signs that Japan is finally shifting away from the high-burden, low-support model. In 2010, the government instituted a policy of universal tuition-free high school education, although an income threshold was subsequently imposed. Steps were also taken to ease the burden of private-school tuition on lower-income families. After Osaka Prefecture and Tokyo Metropolis introduced tuition waivers for private high schools (with an income ceiling in Tokyo's case), the national government came under pressure to provide similar benefits nationwide. In 2025, it instituted a policy to make public and private high schools alike tuition free for all families, regardless of income (effective April 2026). Moreover, this approach seems poised to spread to higher education. In April 2020, the government instituted a new program of expanded financial aid in the form of tuition reductions and grant-type scholarships based on household income. The purpose is to expand lower-income youths' access to higher education, including universities, two-year colleges, and vocational schools. There is no doubt that these policies will increase educational opportunities quantitatively by making it possible for more low-income students to attend private high schools and enroll in institutions of higher education. However, as mentioned above, simply removing or lowering financial obstacles to education will not lead to social and economic equality. In the following, I explain why, drawing on the concept of 'positional goods.' Linked Hierarchy of Universities and Employers Positional goods are material and nonmaterial assets whose value derives from their perceived ranking relative to those held by others, and which are linked to socioeconomic status in various forms. Graduation from a prestigious university or employment at a prestigious firm can be viewed as positional goods. If a university has more applicants than available slots, then admission necessarily becomes a zero-sum game. Furthermore, if a university's value to its graduates derives primarily from the relative status it confers—as opposed to the intrinsic value of the education it provides—then the issue is not just whether one is able to go to college, but which university one can get into. In Japan, this generates intense zero-sum competition for a limited number of places in a prestigious school, which is to say, a selective school (as measured by the minimum score for admission). Employment opportunities in Japan can also be understood in terms of positional goods. In Japan, a permanent, or regular, position at a large company offers the prospect of steady employment and rising wages, and such positions are customarily filled through the mass-hiring of new graduates once a year. Students begin submitting job applications the year before they are scheduled to graduate. Since the desirable job openings are limited, this, too, is a zero-sum game. Japan's employment system has been characterized as 'membership based.' What this means is that once one is hired as a regular employee, one is entitled to job security and regular promotions, which bring with them new skills as well as progressively better pay and higher status. Unlike in the West, where people are hired from outside for specific jobs, full-time workers in Japan tend to remain with the same employer from graduation to retirement, with promotions usually being made internally. As a result, the external labor market is much less developed in Japan, except for those in nonregular employment, and the opportunities for bettering one's situation by switching employers are limited. The outcome of the zero-sum race to land a good job upon graduation is therefore crucial. Opportunities for good, stable employment are unlikely to open up substantially as long as this system persists. Competition for regular positions at major firms is all the more intense today, as they are now the only jobs that promise reliable salary increases. Since economic stagnation set in three decades ago, companies have tended to hoard their profits instead of distributing them to their employees. As a result, nonregular workers and employees at smaller firms are lucky if their wages keep pace with the cost of living. Yet only graduates from high-ranking universities can compete for regular positions at high-ranking corporations. In Japan, the outcome of the zero-sum competition for college admissions (a positional good) and the opportunity for 'good' steady employment (another positional good) are so closely linked that they are essentially fused as the ultimate positional good. The hierarchy of universities and that of employers have become inextricably intertwined in a system in which the rank of the university to which one gains admission essentially determines one's subsequent career prospects. Socioeconomic Status and High School Achievement Another important point to keep in mind is that in Japan, as in other developed countries, a child's family background, including such factors as their parents' educational backgrounds and professional careers, tends to have a pronounced impact on their academic achievement from elementary school onward. Moreover, this correlation has not weakened. What this means is that, amid the current zero-sum competition for admission to a top-ranked university—which is closely linked to employment at a top-ranked firm—inequality will remain firmly entrenched unless we can find a way to reduce class-tied disparities in academic achievement prior to university admissions. The Japanese systems I have described above negate the efficacy of tuition waivers, scholarships, and other policies aimed at lowering financial barriers to equal opportunity. The membership-style employment system of Japan's major corporations, which offers the promise of stable lifetime employment, has survived stubbornly even amid sweeping changes in the nature of this country's industry and economy. Similarly, the ranking of universities on the basis of selectivity seems unlikely to change substantially despite government policies aimed at quantitatively expanding opportunities for higher education. Nor is there any sign of a shift away from the mass-hiring of new graduates, which links the two hierarchies. Such systems contributed to the economic growth and social stabilization of postwar Japan, but they have lost their utility, and as long as they continue, social and economic inequality will persist. The dearth of second chances mentioned above exacerbates the problem. The mechanisms that long brought stability to Japanese society are now contributing to inequality. What, then, is to be done? We know that simply expanding educational opportunities quantitatively will not suffice. The resources the government is spending to make public and private high school free for all regardless of household income would be better spent on efforts to minimize the impact of family background on educational achievement, such as by improving the quality of primary and secondary education. (Originally published in Japanese. Banner photo: Students gather at the University of Tokyo's Hongō campus ahead of the school's entrance exam on February 25, 2025. © Jiji.)
Tokyo Weekender
5 hours ago
- Tokyo Weekender
A Young Man Took a Part-Time Job. It Cost His Grandparents Their Welfare.
On June 12 , Japan's Supreme Court issued an unanimous ruling that sparked a perhaps unexpectedly huge reaction: It upheld the decision to cut off welfare benefits for an elderly couple in Kumamoto Prefecture. This wasn't because the pair's financial situation had improved, but rather because their cohabiting grandson — a vocational nursing student — had begun earning more from a part-time job he'd taken on to pay his tuition. Never mind that this grandson wasn't using a yen of it for family support. Never mind that existing law explicitly allowed for 'household separation,' a provision protecting the income of students from being lumped into the family's welfare calculation. In the eyes of the court, because the grandson's income had risen past a certain level, the prefectural government was right to treat the household as a single unit — and cut off the grandparents' access to much-needed aid. Though it came down earlier this month, the ruling has gone viral and garnered blistering reactions in recent days. To many in the Japanese public, the ruling feels cold and unforgiving, a cruelly rigid interpretation of the law that sends a bleak message to low-income families trying to break the cycle of poverty. One viral tweet with over 60,000 likes reads : 'The message from the ivory tower is clear: Poor people have no business dreaming.' Another rages : 'Why the hell are young people being forced to bankroll their entire families? The grandson has his own damn life. What kind of broken system punishes the ones actually trying to get out?' List of Contents: The Case: Bureaucratic Logic Meets Lived Reality A System Designed to Break the Poor The Backlash Related Posts The Case: Bureaucratic Logic Meets Lived Reality The case began in 2014, when a man living in Nagasu Town, Kumamoto Prefecture, began receiving welfare with his wife. At the time, their grandson, who lived with them, was studying at a vocational nursing school and working part-time to cover his tuition. Under Article 10 of the Public Assistance Act and related Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare (MHLW) guidance, such students are eligible for setai bunri , or household separation, a legal mechanism meant to prevent a student's income from affecting the eligibility of their cohabiting relatives. Initially, the family qualified for this protection. But then the prefectural government abruptly changed course, citing an increase in the grandson's income and reclassifying the family as a single household. The elderly couple's welfare benefits were terminated. The grandfather sued; according to Yahoo News, he said that his grandson's income was being used for his own tuition, with no money left over for living expenses. In 2022, the Kumamoto District Court ruled in his favor, warning that 'terminating welfare would cause financial hardship for the couple and likely interfere with the grandson's efforts to become self-reliant.' But in 2024, the Fukuoka High Court overturned the decision, declaring the move 'not illegal.' The Supreme Court unanimously upheld that logic. A System Designed to Break the Poor Japan's welfare system has always been grudging at best, and openly punitive at worst. While Article 25 of Japan's Constitution guarantees all citizens 'the right to maintain the minimum standards of wholesome and cultured living,' in practice the system is riddled with stigma and bureaucratic thresholds. Only about 1.6 percent of the population receives welfare because applying for assistance often triggers social ostracism, surveillance and even coercive family contact. Under a policy known as fuyo shokai , caseworkers routinely contact an applicant's relatives — parents, siblings, even grandchildren — to ask if they can provide financial support. In theory, it's about upholding family responsibility. In reality, it functions as a deterrent. Some survivors of domestic violence have had their safety compromised after being exposed to abusers. In 2021, over 35,000 people petitioned to abolish the practice altogether. That same year, the government admitted that out of 460,000 inquiries, only 1.45 percent led to actual familial aid. The household separation system was one of the rare progressive compromises within this landscape. Introduced in the 1970s, the policy allowed children from welfare households to attend high school or vocational school without penalizing their families. It acknowledged that education is not indulgence — it is lifeline. But this ruling shows just how difficult it is to forge a path forward in Japan, given its harsh, uncompromising bureaucratic landscape. The Backlash The ruling is a particularly cruel irony in Japan, where demographic collapse and caregiving crises have turned multigenerational households into an economic necessity. The government needs young people to stay home, take care of aging relatives and fill in the gaps left by a crumbling welfare state. But it offers them no meaningful support to do so. There's an extra layer of irony in the fact that this young man wanted to become a nurse — exactly the kind of profession Japan desperately needs amid a ballooning healthcare crisis. He studied, he worked, he paid his way. And for that, the state punished his grandparents. After the ruling, Kumamoto Prefecture commented : 'Under the current system, we believe this ruling is correct and validates the prefecture's position. However, if future reforms are made to support young people who are working hard, we would support that.' The ruling may technically be correct under the current system. But that doesn't make it just. Related Posts Drunk American Tourist Damages Kyoto Temple Tied to Samurai Legend 'What Do You Mean It's Not Free?' The Otoshi Trap Confusing Tokyo's Tourists Inside Japan's Kurdish Refugee Crisis
Tokyo Weekender
5 hours ago
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New US Visa Rule Requires Applicants To Set Social Media Accounts to ‘Public'
On Monday, the United States Embassy in Japan announced via X that applicants for F, M, and J nonimmigrant visas must make their social media accounts 'public.' According to the US Department of State (DOS), those who keep their social media accounts private may be deemed as trying to hide their activities. Officers have reportedly been told to reject visa applications in cases where the applicant has expressed 'hostile attitudes' toward the US, advocated for or supported 'designated foreign terrorists and other threats to US national security,' or supported an tis emitism. 'Effective immediately, all individuals applying for an F, M, or J nonimmigrant visa are requested to adjust the privacy settings on all of their personal social media accounts to 'public' to facilitate vetting necessary to establish their identity and admissibility to the United States,' read t he post . The F, M and J visas are all student visas. F-1 is for academic studies, M-1 is for vocational or non-academic studies and J-1 is for exchange visitor programs. List of Contents: Reaction to the US Embassy Post Social Media Checks Becoming Stricter in the US Related Posts Reaction to the US Embassy Post The post by the United States Embassy in Japan has garnered more than 2 million views. Some raised concerns about their visas potentially being rejected because their social media pages are not pro-US enough. Others vented their frustration at the kind of country the US is becoming, suggesting freedom of speech is being stifled. 'What happens if I criticize Trump? Isn't that against freedom of speech? Well, thanks to your president, your country has become quite an unappealing place, so I doubt anyone would want to go there anyway,' posted one user. Not everyone was against the ruling, though, with some posting their support. 'I'm amazed at people quoting 1984 ,' wrote one X user. 'This isn't about the US targeting their own citizens. It's about verifying the identities of newcomers to protect their people. Checking whether newcomers are Trojan horses for homeland defense. To prevent large-scale civil unrest or infiltration of key national institutions, this kind of vetting is essential, isn't it? It's a normal procedure.' Social Media Checks Becoming Stricter in the US The US has been checking the social media accounts of visa applicants and immigrants since at least 2019. However, in the past few months, these checks have allegedly become a lot stricter. Speaking to USA Today in April, Susanne Heubel, senior counsel at the New York-based immigration law firm Harter Secrest & Emery LLP, said that up until January 2025, the searches had been 'almost negligible.' She added, 'I travel a lot, I have clients who travel a lot, of all sorts of nationalities and visa statuses, and nobody has ever complained about these searches until now.' Related Posts US Visa Applicants From Japan Now Require Disclosing 5 Years of Social Media History Japanese PhD Student Has Visa Revoked in the US Due to Alleged Criminal History Renewing a Japanese Visa, More Fun Every Year
