08-05-2025
Banned from using own car for shopping: Woman's plight highlights Japan welfare flaws
What exactly are the "minimum standards of wholesome and cultured living" guaranteed by Japan's Constitution? Such questions repeatedly came to my mind as I reported on a case where a city cut off public assistance payments to an elderly woman and her son over the use of their car.
The woman, aged in her 80s, lives in the city of Suzuka in western Japan's Mie Prefecture, where I worked until the end of March. She has an artificial bladder due to cancer and so is unable to work. Her son, with whom she lived before he passed away, suffered from an intractable disease and required canes to walk. Both had disability certificates. The woman had been receiving welfare since August 2019, but in September 2022, the payments abruptly stopped.
City's 'unique rule' halts payments
The suspension was due to a "unique rule" established by the city. Under Japan's public assistance system, recipients are generally not permitted to own cars, but exceptions are made for those who find it difficult to use public transportation for commuting or hospital visits. Suzuka was the only municipality in the prefecture that required recipients who were allowed to own cars to submit detailed driving records, including dates, distances, routes, passengers and purposes.
From the woman's apartment, it took over an hour by foot, bus and train to reach her son's hospital. Thus, the city conditionally allowed car ownership and use "solely for the son's medical visits."
In reality, however, the car was used for more than just medical visits. For the elderly, disabled woman, the 2-kilometer journey to the nearest supermarket was long. She also needed to make regular hospital visits herself, making life without a car untenable.
Submitting driving records became a significant burden for the woman, making her feel constantly monitored and that her privacy was being invaded. Eventually, she stopped submitting the records. The city deemed this malicious and halted welfare payments. In October 2022, mother and son filed a lawsuit with the Tsu District Court demanding that the decision be revoked.
Subsequent district and high court rulings accepted the mother and son's claims, and ordered the city to rescind its decision. The verdict by the Nagoya High Court in October 2024 recognized that the submission of driving records "was of considerably low necessity." It also acknowledged that using the car for purposes other than medical visits "contributed to a self-sufficient life," rejecting the need for strict usage limitations.
The ruling further criticized the city's decision to suspend payments without considering the severe impact on the family's life and survival, stating it "grossly lacked in reasonableness and constituted an illegal overreach of administrative discretion."
Both the car and welfare payments were essential for the family's survival, a fact obvious to anyone. In spite of this, the city appealed the high court ruling.
Nat'l gov't accepts use of cars for daily life
In justifying its stance, the city underscored a notification from the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare. In June 2022, the ministry informed municipalities nationwide that "if a car is used solely for convenience in daily life, it does not warrant approval for ownership." The city suspended the family's welfare payments about three months after this notification. The city maintains, "We acted in accordance with the national view and don't believe we were wrong."
Besides this case, there have been others across Japan where car ownership and use have been unreasonably restricted by municipalities, or where welfare payments have been unduly suspended.
Professor Atsushi Yoshinaga, an expert in public assistance at Hanazono University, acknowledges the weight of national directives, however irrational they may be. Nevertheless, he points out, "Municipalities need to respond flexibly, such as allowing shopping during medical trips as permitted by the administrative notification, based on the real-life conditions of disabled individuals. Halting welfare payments is a punishment that has an impact on recipients' very existence and should not be done."
About two months after the Nagoya High Court ruling, the ministry revised its stance, issuing a new notification allowing disabled individuals to use cars for shopping and other essential daily activities. Consequently, the city of Suzuka revealed in January this year that in principle, it had abolished the rule requiring welfare recipients to submit driving records. However, the city has not withdrawn its appeal against the mother and son's lawsuit, saying the case emerged prior to the ministry's follow-up notification.
What happened to the family afterward? In mid-March, I visited the woman's home.
The woman disclosed that she had disposed of the car at the end of last year. "Just seeing it brings back painful memories," she explained. She now relies on supporters to drive her around. Her son, who had fought alongside her, passed away from illness about a month after the high court ruling. "I just want to forget it ..." Seeing her repeat those words choked me up inside.
Ways to maintain the "minimum standards of wholesome and cultured living" vary according to disabilities, illnesses, living conditions and other circumstances, and cannot be uniformly defined. I believe they can only be guaranteed by first looking at each individual's circumstances and exploring the lifestyle that suits them. A system serving as a lifeline should not be one that harms citizens.
