EDITORIAL: We must help each other

In its campaign manifesto last summer, the Democratic Party of Japan said it would strive to create a society in which everybody has a role. Now, the party under new leader Prime Minister Naoto Kan is gearing up for the Upper House election to be held July 11. What happened to the election promise?

Job hunters are forming long lines at Hello Work public job placement offices. There is no end to people staying overnight at Internet cafes because they have nowhere else to go. For 12 straight years, the number of suicides has exceeded 30,000 annually. Fifty-four percent of single-parent households are living in poverty. Serious cases of child abuse have occurred one after another, often in plain sight of people close to them.

Individuals as well as families are struggling and feeling isolated. Rifts in society have not been mended.

Makoto Yuasa, organizer of the Toshikoshi Haken Mura tent village in Tokyo's Hibiya Park for homeless and jobless people at the end of 2008 and the first few days of 2009, became a special adviser to the Cabinet Office. As a government insider, Yuasa is acutely aware of how the administration is limited in what it can do.

Government ministries have come up with various measures to combat poverty. But invariably, these steps are hampered by compartmentalized bureaucracy. There is also a limit to what Hello Work officials and case workers at welfare offices can do. Government offices have been likened to unfriendly shopping centers. While they offer numerous services, the "shop attendants" are knowledgeable only about goods in their sections. Shoppers who do not know their way around the "aisles" have such a hard time finding what they need that they eventually stop visiting.

Nonprofit organizations across the nation that assist young people looking for jobs are also up against a brick wall. Some people who come to seek advice have all sorts of problems of their own. For example, some are unable to communicate with others, have health problems and do not get along with their families. They are so helpless that they don't have a clue about where to turn for help. Assisting such people is very difficult.

Under Yuasa's initiative, care providers got together and came up with the idea of "personal supporters." A supporter who is well-informed and resourceful stays close to a troubled person on a continuous basis, offers advice and coordinates support in areas such as housing, medicine and employment. Supporters go beyond the boundaries of government offices and sometimes act on behalf of them to exercise authority. Is there no way for nonprofit organizations and the administration to get together to create such a long-term system of personal support?

Traditionally, families, relatives and neighbors have played the role of "busybodies." Tomoshi Okuda, who provides support to homeless people in Kita-Kyushu, says: "Today's poverty is characterized by poor human ties. This is an age that needs the institutionalization of ties."

Starting this fall, in Yokohama, a number of groups are jointly organizing a "personal supporter" project. The organizers are calling on the administration to deregulate job placement and welfare services and have proposed setting up a special zone for structural reform. Their ideas have also been incorporated into the government's new growth strategy.

How to train personnel and how to secure sustainable funds? While there are many problems that need to be tackled, we hope the concept of "personal supporters" will spread. Kan referred to the idea in his policy speech and stated that he would aim at creating "a society that incorporates all individuals." How can broken ties be mended? Along with the strengthening of government finance and economy, we hope the parties will debate this issue during the Upper House election.

--The Asahi Shimbun, June 25