“On February 20, 2012, the death of a family of three people was reported from Saitama due to starvation – an elderly couple and their 39-year-old son. The family could not afford to pay the rent, and electricity had been cut off. Unable to pay for heating, hypothermia is also suspected to be the cause of their death”. This was a newsline in 2012 and one can ask how is this possible in such a wealthy country? How many people suffer from poverty in and how is it measured? Is the covid-19 pandemic worthening the situation, and if so how, for whom in what way and what are approaches to tackle the issues? What can 2020 teach us to improve the situation?
Some of the questions are answered in my recent chapter entitled “Poverty in a wealthy megacity: stories from Tokyo’s alleys after the bubble burst”, which appeared in the book “Handbook of Megacities and Megacity-Regions, Research Handbooks in Urban Studies series, edited by Danielle Labbé and André Sorensen.
https://www.elgaronline.com/view/edcoll/9781788972697/9781788972697.00025.xml
Currently working on extended research reflecting on the worthening of poverty levels in 2020 and beyond, the topic will be updated continuously here, thanks for visiting:
https://www.researchgate.net/project/Poverty-in-Tokyo-and-the-Covid-19-Pandemic