a day ago
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
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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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