TOKYO -- The Japanese government is set to hold discussions through the end of the year on reviewing welfare payments, which had been postponed for two years amid soaring prices. Meanwhile, welfare recipients are struggling to make ends meet, and one of them told the Mainichi Shimbun how she is being pushed into a corner.

The woman, a Tokyo resident in her 50s, has been on welfare for about four years. The recent price hikes have cast a shadow over the lives of those in vulnerable positions like her. She goes to a nearby supermarket at 8 p.m. three days a week to look for groceries with half-price stickers on them. To reduce her power bill this summer, she refrained from using the air conditioner even though the room temperature reached 36 degrees Celsius, and used only an electric fan to beat the heat. With a monthly benefit of just under 70,000 yen (roughly $450), no matter how much she saves, she is left with only 2,000 yen (about $13).

In 2018, when she was an office worker, she was diagnosed with fibromyalgia, a condition that makes daily life difficult due to severe pain throughout the body. She was diagnosed with a different disease a few years earlier and had been covering medical expenses that reached 100,000 yen (some $645) per month with savings and other assets, but her savings ran out and she even had to quit her job in 2019 due to side effects of the medication.

The caseworker at her hospital applied for welfare assistance on her behalf, and she no longer has to pay out-of-pocket for medical expenses. However, the current high cost of living is putting a squeeze on her lifestyle, and she is barely able to afford to buy food. When an acquaintance who provided her with support passed away, she was not even able to prepare enough money to pay the funeral offering.

At a supermarket last August, she got acquainted with a woman in her 70s who was also receiving welfare benefits. The woman had told her that she came to the store every day until closing time to cool off as she couldn't get the air conditioner in her home fixed.

In August this year, she stopped seeing the elderly woman, who was supposed to be there every day. She later learned that the woman had died of heatstroke at home.

She had also experienced a collapse from heatstroke while at home. She told the Mainichi, "If I don't speak up, I'll die like her. I want people to know that, unlike when you are working, these circumstances make it difficult to live a normal life as a human being or even socialize with others at the minimum level."

(Japanese original by Naohiro Koenuma, Lifestyle, Science & Environment News Department)