Is your annual salary lower than your age multiplied by $1,000? Do you eat lots of snacks and fast foods? Japanese readers who answered yes to these and other questions by Atsushi Miura in his recent best-seller "Karyu Shakai (Underclass Society)" were told what they may have suspected all along: they are members of an emerging class of the new poor. The book touched off debate about a new social divide in a country that has long seen itself as virtually classless, and now fears of growing disparity are fuelling a political attack against Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi. Seiji Maehara, leader of the main opposition Democratic Party, says Koizumi's market-based reforms have neglected society's weakest. "We stand for something completely different from Koizumi-style 'survival of the fittest' which is expanding societal gaps and failing to provide safety nets," Maehara recently told Reuters. ...
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Editor - 20:26:00 01-31-06
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Editor - 15:47:00 01-31-06
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