Tokyo (AsiaNews/Agencies) – Numbers of poor, unemployed and elderly people are on the rise in Japan as the gap between rich and poor becomes ever wider. Around 20% of Japanese people are aged 65 and over, in a state where the demographic growth has been declining for decades. Those living on social welfare complain it is not enough.

An elderly man of 72 said: "I cannot afford three meals a day. I have just about enough to survive". The government pays his rent (a one-roomed flat in Ward neighbourhood in old Tokyo) and gives him 96,000 yen (around 848 US dollars) per month. But he used to gain five million yen a year (around 44,000 dollars) when he worked. He used to fix electric equipment but a heart condition forced him to give up his job.

"There is no room equipped with a bath available at a cheap enough rent in Tokyo," said Kimiko Kimura, a 71-year-old woman who lives in a one-roomed flat without a bathroom.

Experts say the gap between the rich and the poor is growing and prices in large cities like Tokyo are sky-high. The number of homeless people – an unknown phenomenon before the economic crisis in the early nineties – is growing and many parks are dotted with blue tarpaulin tents.

In a country that has prided itself since the end of the second world war on being a classless society, people in need are often ashamed to ask for help.

"In Japan, poor people hide. Those who live on social security don't talk about it because they think they are responsible for their own misfortune," said Kazuya Hata, a charity worker at the Group to Protect Living and Health.

Although the economy is on the mend, the Ministry of Health, Welfare and Labour estimated that in March, more than one million families were on welfare, that is, 2% of the population – a 60% increase in 10 years.

The falling birth rate and rise in the number of elderly people, meanwhile, means more spending on social assistance in the future at the expense of a shrinking productive population. Unemployment has dropped to 4.1%, the lowest rate in seven years, but optimism remains muted. In March 2006, according to official data, there were "only" 628,000 people on unemployment benefits, compared to 1.1 million in 2002.

However, new jobs may be only temporary since new laws have made it easier for manufacturing companies to hire temporary workers, said Takuro Morinaga, an economics professor at Dokkyo University near Tokyo. "This means many workers who used to be protected by the law can suddenly be fired, even though they're on lower incomes." He said Koizumi's new reforms had "reduced the burden for the rich and increased it for the poor".