Random Japan

Stats
¥4,800 Price of a one-way ticket from Tokyo to Bangkok offered by travel agency H.I.S. from March 15 to May 8

¥68 billion Estimated sales of e-books in Japan during fiscal 2010, according to the Tokyo-based Yano Research Institute

216.8 million Number of appliances and electronics disposed of in Japan last year, according to the environment ministry

840 Students at an elementary school in Iwamizawa, Hokkaido, stricken with food poisoning after eating a school lunch of “potato-miso soup, salad… and radish

Government By Tweet

Yea, That Will Work

These Tests May Seem Important

Truthfully They’re Pointless

Eels He Imported Fake Eels

Fake Eels?

How-to books on living comfortably on welfare selling well


TOKYO
A healthy economy affords almost everyone a livelihood. For those who fall through the cracks, there’s welfare relief. An unhealthy economy swells the welfare rolls. Japan’s current economy is extremely unhealthy. The welfare system is strained to the breaking point. “Strange world,” muses Shukan Shincho (March 3), referring to a recent spate of briskly-selling how-to books offering advice on milking welfare for all it’s worth and more. Why struggle? is the implied message. You can live pretty comfortably on welfare, if you know the ropes.
By 2005, the nation was some 15 years into its ongoing “lost decade,” and 1 million households were on welfare. By last November 1.42 million households were – 1.97 million individuals. Welfare payments in 2009 came to 3 trillion yen.