A host with depression reveals why 20-somethings on welfare have increased sevenfold in 25 years.
The episode opens with Mikuri, the host, sharing her daily routine and choosing to discuss a news topic. She introduces an NHK report, likely from 'Close-up Gendai,' highlighting a sevenfold rise in welfare recipients aged 20-29 compared to 25 years ago, despite overall numbers plateauing since 2014 at around 2.2 million people. Mikuri explores potential causes, starting with intergenerational poverty where parents are too poor to support their adult children. She notes that welfare is available not just for illness but also for unemployment when family help is absent, drawing from her own experience as someone on welfare due to depression. The host compares age groups, explaining that elderly recipients often rely on welfare to supplement inadequate pensions. She then delves into a personal argument: receiving welfare in one's 20s or 30s allows for easier social reintegration than in one's 40s, like her, where job prospects are slim. Mikuri mentions that even with disability employment, low wages might keep people on welfare. She expands on reasons beyond illness, such as borderline intelligence or developmental disorders that hinder workplace integration, suggesting welfare is preferable to risky jobs like sex work. The host emphasizes that welfare serves those without economic support from family, as in her case where she was told not to return home. She concludes that the increase is a societal problem requiring political solutions, not just individual responsibility, and encourages young recipients to use welfare as a restart tool.
