On the 15th, the Japanese government released survey results showing that more than half of households nationwide in Japan feel life is difficult, with single-parent families facing particularly tough circumstances.
One of the main reasons for this situation is the continuous rise in food prices, which has increased the burden on people's lives.
The “National Livelihood Survey” results released by the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare on that day show that as of last July, 55.4% of households in Japan felt that life was hard. Among them, 23.2% said they felt life was “very hard,” while 32.2% said life was “quite hard.”
Japanese media pointed out that for the past 25 years, the proportion of households feeling life is not easy has remained at a high level above 50%.
The survey also found that among households with children, 61.5% said life was difficult; in single-parent households consisting of mothers and children, this proportion was 82.1%, an increase of 6.9 percentage points from the previous survey in 2022.
The Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare believes that the continued rise in food prices in recent years is one of the main reasons for the situation described above.
A survey by Teikoku Databank showed that it is expected that more than 10,000 types of food products in Japan will see price increases this year, with nearly 2,300 types rising in July alone. Data released by the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications in June showed that after excluding fresh foods, Japan's core Consumer Price Index (CPI) for May was 113.0, marking year-on-year increases for 57 consecutive months.