Visual Thinking with 'Fuda-Yose' (5) --　Thinking over the poverty in the Japanese Society: [A] Increasing poverty among the elderly (0) Introduction AND Index Page(Toru Nakagawa)

Forum: Social Problem & Visual Thinking
Visual Thinking with 'Fuda-Yose' (5)-(13) --　Thinking over the poverty in the Japanese Society: [A] Increasing poverty among the elderly (0) Introduction AND Index Page of (1)(2)(3)(4)(5)(6)(7)(8) Completed
Toru Nakagawa (Osaka Gakuin University), Sept. 11, 2015 (in Japanese), Jan. 6, 2016
Brief English translation, Posted on Nov. 29, 2015; Updated: Jan. 9, 2016
Posted on Nov. 29, 2015; Updated: Dec. 19, 2015; Jan. 9; Mar. 6; Mar. 30. 2016

For going back to Japanese pages, press buttons.

Editor's Note (Toru Nakagawa, Nov. 29, 2015)

The Japanese page was initially posted on Sept. 17, 2015, but no English page has been prepared till today because it is hard for me to translate detailed descriptions on social issues into English.

Nevertheless, I wrote the Top Page (and the Update Announcements) of this site "TRIZ Home Page in Japan" in Japanese and in English in parallel.

Thus I have decided to make this brief introduction page in English by just recording such descriptions in the Top Page, as a temporary record of the series of Japanese pages. Even though an HTML pages is posted in Japanese for every chapter, I am going to post only this parent page in English. Sorry but the visualized diagrams in Japanese are not translated into English yet.

Editor's Note (Toru Nakagawa, Jan. 9, 2016)

Visualization of all the chapters of the book is completed and is posted in the Japanese pages. Introduction to each chapter is shown here in English translation.

Editor's Note (Toru Nakagawa, Mar. 6, 2016)

Visualized documents are revised slightly and made into a pamphlet in PDF in Japanese (of 23 pages) . A new page of Executive summary is made in Japanese and in English which intends for the people coming here newly with the principal interest in social problems.

Forum: Social Problem: Thinking over the Poverty in the Japanese Society with Visualization: [A] Increasing poverty among the elderly [1] Executive summary with visualization of Takanori Fujita's "The Low-living Elderly" Book,
Toru Nakagawa, Jan. 28, 2016

Editor's Note (Toru Nakagawa, Mar. 30, 2016) : See the new page: Introduction to "The Low-living Elderly" book by Takanori Fujita (2015) (Introduced by Toru Nakagawa in English)

Brief English Introduction to the Parent Page: [A] Increasing poverty among the elderly

Forum: Visual Thinking with 'Fuda-Yose' (5) --　Thinking over the poverty in the Japanese Society: [A] Increasing poverty among the elderly (0) Introduction (Sept. 17, 2015)

Toru Nakagawa (Osaka Gakuin Univ.), Sept. 11, 2015

Source reference: "Karyuu Roujin - Ichi-oku sou rougo houkai-no shougeki" (The low-living elderly - Coming impacts by the decay of peaceful elder lives for all the 100 millions in Japan),
by Takanori Fujita, Asahi Pocket Book 520, Asahi Shimbun Press, Jun. 30, 2015, pp. 222
(Note: The book title in English is Nakagawa's temporary translation)

I am trying in this page to understand the problem of poverty in the elderly by using the recently published book written by a young social worker, Mr. Takanori Fujita, and by visualizing the texts.

I wrote down excerpts/abstracts of the original texts, made them into labels, and visualized the logic of the texts by using Katahira's Fuda-Yose tool in accordance with my understanding. Thus the resultant diagrams are a sort of my rather-detailed notes of the book. At the start of the series, I post the records of the intermediate stages of visualization for illustrating the process.

The author says: "Today in Japan the low-living elderly are produced in a large number and we have a serious risk of facing with a situation where peaceful elder lives are lost for almost all the 100 millions of Japanese population.

In this book, 'Karyuu roujin' (or 'the low-living elderly') are defined as the elderly people living at/below the national minimum welfare level or facing with such a risk in living. The real situations and their backgrounds are surprisingly unknown. Describing the real problem situations in the full perspectives, we wish to think over solutions together with you, many readers."

I have started to post a PDF file containing the final, simplified diagrams of all the chapters together. (Oct. 18, 2015)

Table of Index of the Reference Book	Brief Introduction (in English)	Pages of Visualized Diagrams (in Japanese)	Visualized Diagrams (in Japanese) in PDF	Pamphlet of Visualized Diagrams (in Japanese) in PDF
(Title, Table of contents, preface)				p. 1
Introduction		Visual Thinking (5) -- (0) Introduction 　　Sept. 17, 2015	p. １	p. 2
Chapter 1: What is 'the low-living elderly'		Visual Thinking (6) )-- (1) What is 'the low-living elderly' 　Sept. 17, 2015	p. 2-3	p. 3-4
Chapter 2:　Actual living of 'the low-living elderly': Cases and backgrounds		Visual Thinking (7)-- (2) Actual living of 'the low-living elderly':　　Sept. 30, 2015	p. 4-5	p. 5-6
Chapter 3: Anybody has the risk of falling down to the low-living		Visual Thinking (8)--(3) Anybody has the risk of falling down to the low-living -- Patterns of falling down to the low-living 　Oct. 18, 2015	p. 6-8	p. 7-11
Chapter 4:　The day when your arguments of 'Make more efforts' and 'Selfresponsibility' will kill yourself		Visual Thinking (9)--(4) The day when your arguments of 'Make more efforts' and 'Selfresponsibility' will kill yourself -- Issues of recognition and understanding　　Nov. 27, 2015	p. 9-11	p. 12-15
Chapter 5: 　 Old-built system and non-responsive policy produced the low-living elderly -- Government depending on individuals		Visual Thinking (10)--(5)Old-built system and non-responsive policy produced the low-living elderly -- Examining the system and the policy (Dec. 19, 2015)	p. 12-14	p. 16-19
Chapter 6: How to protect yourself -- For having a peaceful elder life		Visual Thinking (11)--(6) How to protect yourself -- Measures before and in a low-living elderly situation (Jan. 9, 2016)	p. 15	p. 20
Chapter 7: For avoiding the decay of peaceful elder lives for all the 100 millions in Japan		Visual Thinking (12)--(7) Proposals of policy (Jan. 9, 2016)	p. 16	p. 21
(Executive Summary)		Visual Thinking (13)--(8) Executive Summary (Mar. 6, 2016)		p. 22-23
Overall		Overall: Visualized diagrams (Abstract version) in PDF (Updated: Oct. 18; Nov. 27; Dec. 19, 2015; Jan. 9, 2016)
		Revised: A pamphlet of Visualized diagrams in PDF (Jan. 28; Mar. 6, 2016)

Brief English Introduction to the individual pages:

Forum: Visual Thinking with 'Fuda-Yose' (6) --　Thinking over the poverty in the Japanese Society: (1) Increasing poverty among the elderly (1) What is 'the low-living elderly' (Sept. 17, 2015)

Toru Nakagawa (Osaka Gakuin Univ.), Sept. 10, 2015

Source reference: "Karyuu Roujin" ("The low-living elderly") by Takanori Fujita (Jun. 2015).
Chapter 1. What is 'the low-living elderly'.

I visualized Chapter 1 with two Fuda-Yose diagrams, one showing 3 characteristics while the other 4 effects.

Characteristics 1: The income is remarkably low. The national welfare minimum (composed of living and housing supports) is about 130,000 yen/month (or about 1.5 million yen/year) for a single elder person living in the metropolitan area.
The concept of 'Relative poverty' is used internationally; In the community (e.g.,a country or region), the persons whose income is lower than the half of the median of the income of the population. This criterion gives 1.22 million yen for single persons, essentially equivalent to the national welfare minimum. At this level of living, the basic needs of housing, food, medical care, etc. are often not fulfilled.

Characteristics 2: Insufficient or no savings. Low income requires to spend down one's savings, and insufficient savings will result in the crash in living due to any troubles.

Characteristics 3: No person to ask for a help (i.e., social isolation). Due to the trend towards nuclear families, people often have no family members/relatives around.

These characteristics mean the low-living elderly have lost all the safety nets and are in the situation where they can not live the healthy and cultural life which is ensured by the Constitution. It is estimated that there exist about 6 to 7 millions of the low-living elderly at present in Japan.

The second diagram illustrates 4 effects caused by the increase in the low-living elderly:
(a) The elder and their child generations fall into poverty together.
(b) The culture of evaluating long happy life and elderly people will be lost.
(c) Decrease in the consumption by the young and middle-aged, thus resulting in stagnation of economy.
(d) Further reduction in the number of birth of children.

Forum: Visual Thinking with 'Fuda-Yose' (7) --　Thinking over the poverty in the Japanese Society: [A] Increasing poverty among the elderly (2) Actual living of 'the low-living elderly': Cases and backgrounds (Sept. 30, 2015)

Toru Nakagawa (Osaka Gakuin Univ.), Sept. 27, 2015

Source reference: "Karyuu Roujin" ("The low-living elderly") by Takanori Fujita (Jun. 2015).
Chapter 2. Actual living of 'the low-living elderly'

In Chapter 2 the Author describes 4 actual cases where ordinary people have 'unexpectedly' fallen into the status of 'the low-living elderly'.

Case (A) (Man of 76 years old, without marriage) Near the age of 40 while working regularly in a restaurant, his father was found ill of cancer. So he quitted his job to go back to his parents' home and took care of his father for 1 year and then his mother for 10 more years.
Because no jobs were found in his home town, he moved to Tokyo area and worked in welfare facilities as assistant-helper until 65.
He had the savings of 5 million yen at his retirement, and the pension of 90,000 yen/month. The cost of apartment (50,000 yen) and treatment of low back pain and diabetes reduced the savings quickly.
With no savings any more, he had to fill his hunger with native grass.

[snip for cases (B)(C)(D)]

-- Reading the description, I have drawn a graph of 'Personal history of Quality of life (especially stability)' as shown in the right for Case (A).

The Author summarizes the background:

For the elderly, the income becomes much lower than before retirement. Their desire of 'working some longer to get income for filling the shortage of pension' is often impracticable The outgo, however, usually does not reduce as supposed, because of higher risk of 'unexpected' needs of much amount of money. Many elderly people do not have enough savings.

Thus the poverty of the elderly is proceeding in Japan and a significant ratio of the elderly have already become at the low-living status.

Not only taking care of individual cases but also more importantly systematic social solutions to the widespread serious problems are necessary.

Forum: Visual Thinking with 'Fuda-Yose' (8) --　Thinking over the poverty in the Japanese Society: [A] Increasing poverty among the elderly (3) Anybody has the risk of falling down to the low-living (Oct. 18, 2015)

Toru Nakagawa (Osaka Gakuin Univ.), Oct. 10, 2015

Source reference: "Karyuu Roujin" ("The low-living elderly") by Takanori Fujita (Jun. 2015).
Chapter 3. Anybody has the risk of falling down to the low-living

In Chapter 3, the Author, Takanori Fujita, points out five typical patterns of an elderly person falling down to the low-living:

(1) Because of high medical expenses due to diseases or accidents;

(2) Because of being not accepted by care houses. Care houses for the elderly at low-cost with the support of the national care insurance are quite short in number. Businesses involved in the welfare have chosen to build luxurious private care houses for much higher profitability instead of government-regulated public care houses, the Author says.

(3) Because of their children being dependent to the elderly due to low income (working-but-poor, with less than 2 million yen/year) or social withdrawal. This is a case where the (poverty) problems of the younger generation give influences on the elderly.

(4) Due to increasing number of divorce of middle-aged or elderly couples.

(5) Having become demented but no near-by family support.

The Author writes that the current working generation have much higher risks of falling down to the low-living in their elderly years:

The average income is reducing than before, and their pension will be too small to pay for their retired life. Moreover, the income of 4 million yen/year. today is actually much lower than the income of 4 million yen/year in the old days, the Author says. Many companies have reduced their welfare/benefit program for employees.
Especially, these days, non-regular employment has increased in ratio; it is characterized with lower wage, poorer working conditions, and unstable status. The Author encourages that all the workers in any style should claim better payment to government and to companies.

The trend toward nuclear families reduces the possibility for the elderly to get support by their children. The trend of increase in the ratio of non-marriage among the younger generations may raise the risks of their falling down to the low-living in their elderly years.

-- I agree with these Author's views. It can be dangerous that most Japanese people still have the mentality of 'all Japanese are of middle class'. We should think and work hard to solve the problem of increasing poverty in the Japanese society.

Visualized diagrams of Chapter 3: HTML and PDF .

I have started to post a PDF file containing the final, simplified diagrams of all the chapters together.

  Forum: Visual Thinking with 'Fuda-Yose' (9) --　Thinking over the poverty in the Japanese Society: [A] Increasing poverty among the elderly (4) Issues of recognition and understanding (Nov. 27, 2015)

Toru Nakagawa (Osaka Gakuin Univ.), Nov. 23, 2015

Source reference: "Karyuu Roujin" ("The low-living elderly") by Takanori Fujita (Jun. 2015).
Chapter 4. The day when your arguments of 'Make more efforts' and 'Selfresponsibility' will kill yourself

In Chapter 4, the Author raises a question: "Despite the present situation of increasing number of the low-living elderly, why no serious measures have been implemented so far in Japan?".

He finds that the principal factors are poor awareness and ill-understanding by the general public. Such factors push the low-living elderly to the margins of society and the government's attitude of "providing no support without explicit request in person" makes the situation worse.

The Author is actively working with an NPO to support the low-living people. He has received encouraging messages but much more negative and opposing ones from various people.

So he is discussing here in response to such messages. The Author discusses logically, but the text seems somewhat complicated in the structure because of the involvement of multiple stakeholders.

Visualizing the discussion in the present work has made myself understood this issue much more clearly.

Visualized diagrams (in Japanese) are posted here: Abstract version: in HTML and in PDF ; Detailed version in PDF .

The Author points out that the main reasons why no serious measures have been taken for supporting the low-living elderly increasing in number recently are the unawareness and ill-understanding by the general public in Japan.

We Japanese generally have the sound moral of 'to live without depending on others' help'. As a result, when we see or hear about the people who become unable to live self-dependently, we often think "Their efforts are insufficient. They themselves are responsible for their failure. They should not dare to depend on the public support without further efforts and persistence."

Such thoughts evaluate poorly the low-living elderly and push them towards the margins of society.

However, viewing the issue in the whole scale of our society, we realize that it is inevitable to have the poor people besides the rich in the competitive society of capitalism.
In the history of the humankind, the world has found 'Basic human rights' as a fundamental moral.

Constitution of Japan guarantees the people the right to maintain the minimum standards of healthy and cultural living.  Therefore, it is not 'overreliance' but 'rights' for the poor and needy people get a support from the country. Recognition, or rather change in thoughts, in this direction is necessary for us all, i.e., the general public, the poor and needy people themselves, and the public administration.

Under the limited national financial situations, how can we support the poor and needy people, not only the elderly but of all other generations, and in various situations? We have to think over the big and complex problem with all our efforts.     (The discussion continues to the next Chapter.)

An English page is posted newly to show the outline of this series ([A] Increasing poverty among the elderly) with brief introductions in English.

Forum: Visual Thinking with 'Fuda-Yose' (10) --　Thinking over the poverty in the Japanese Society: [A] Increasing poverty among the elderly (5) Old-built system and non-responsive policy produced the low-living elderly -- Examining the system and the policy (Dec. 19, 2015)

Toru Nakagawa (Osaka Gakuin Univ.), Dec. 17, 2015

Source reference: "Karyuu Roujin" ("The low-living elderly") by Takanori Fujita (Jun. 2015).
Chapter 5. Old-built system and non-responsive policy produced the low-living elderly -- Government depending on individuals

In Chapter 5, the author examines the present system and policy related to the social welfare. He discusses in the following 8 aspects:

(1) Income: The amount of the pension is insufficient for most people. There was an underlying assertion that the elderly can be supported by their family. The trends towards nuclear families and disperse living of family members and relatives have reduced the family functions and undermined the assumptions of the pension system, thus accelerated the problems of the low-living elderly.

(2) Savings: Unstable employment, reducing salary, and increasing price in these years cause the middle and young aged not to make sufficient savings for their elderly days. This will result in even more low-living elderly people in the future.

(3) Medical care: The low-living elderly have less chances of receiving the medical care; some of them are found dead without attended. Medical treatment in the early stages of diseases is the way to reduce the total cost of medicine for the society.

(4) Elderly care insurance: Many more special elderly nursing home should be built, and nursing care and welfare should be linked in services.

(5) Housing: We should set up some policy for the elderly not to loose their home. Reducing the burden of rent is the crucial key.

(6) Human relationships: The government's negative stance of 'support only after requested' should be corrected; human-relationship safety networks should be built for taking care of the elderly in the vicinity.

(7) Welfare: The level of welfare should not be lowered. Inconvenience in the welfare system should be corrected.

(8) Working conditions: Many elderly people have to work for getting their living income. Assistance for finding work is the way, but more basically we should seek for a social system where the elderly can live without working.

(x) The 'free/cheap lodging houses' are often operated as 'poverty business' in reality, where the owner exploit the low-living elderly.

The Author, Mr. Fujita, remarks the conclusion of this chapter very clearly, saying:

(a)　The low-living elderly are　produced by the present social system, and not by the lack of ability or idleness of the individuals.
(b)　The present social system and policy of 'excessive priority in business and discarding the social weak' should be corrected; otherwise the problems of the low-living elderly and the poverty in the Japanese society will not be solved.
(c) Furthermore, we should correct our own recognition and feelings that have been tamed by alienation of humans and neglect of human rights.

Visualized diagrams are posted here (summary version) in HTML and in PDF , and (detailed version) in PDF . 　Visualized diagrams of the whole book (summary version) is posted in PDF .

Forum: Visual Thinking with 'Fuda-Yose' (11) --　Thinking over the poverty in the Japanese Society: [A] Increasing poverty among the elderly (6) How to protect yourself -- Measures before and in a low-living elderly situation (Jan. 9, 2016)

Toru Nakagawa (Osaka Gakuin Univ.), Dec. 30, 2015

Source reference: "Karyuu Roujin" ("The low-living elderly") by Takanori Fujita (Jun. 2015). Chapter 6. How to protect yourself -- For having a peaceful elder life

In Chapter 6, the Author advises first to the low-living elderly what they should learn and what they should do. Firstly, he explains the current social welfare system, e.g., how to apply for the social welfare, what are the requirements for receiving the welfare, and items and amounts of the welfare. He also explains how to receive the medical care free of charge or at low cost, and advises about the recognition and attitudes.

Secondly he advises how to prevent from falling into the situation of the low-living elderly. "Savings are important", he says first of course, but he adds that human relationships in the elderly days are more important than money. Some people can be helped smoothly but some others can not be, he says. People who come early for asking assistance and who are of positive thinking can be helped smoothly. Holding good and rich human relationships and occasions/places of mutual assistance is helpful. His concluding remarks is impressive: "There are many elderly people who live happily even in their poverty. They commonly have rich communications and connections with other people."

The visualized diagrams are posted in HTML and PDF for the abstract version and in PDF for the detailed version.

Forum: Visual Thinking with 'Fuda-Yose' (12) --　Thinking over the poverty in the Japanese Society: [A] Increasing poverty among the elderly (7) Proposals of policy (Jan. 9, 2016)

Toru Nakagawa (Osaka Gakuin Univ.), Jan. 6, 2016

Source reference: "Karyuu Roujin" ("The low-living elderly") by Takanori Fujita (Jun. 2015). Chapter 7: For avoiding the decay of peaceful elder lives for all the 100 millions in Japan

In the last chapter of the book, the Author writes his personal proposals of policy. In the Fuda-Yose diagram, I arranged the labels in a two-dimensional way: From left to right: recognition of the problem situations and of basic principles --> consideration and reasoning --> proposal. From top to bottom: along the stages and logics of the components of the proposal. Detailed version of the diagram (3 pages) was made first, then it was concentrated into the abstract version (1 page) , and finally the proposals are stated in sentences.

Please refer to the parent page and also the abstract version diagrams of the whole book .

The Author proposes as follows in this chapter:

(1) First of all, the government should realize that the poverty exists widely and growing further in the people and should address the issue of correcting the income disparity and take measures to fight against poverty.

(2) Under the principles of fundamental human rights, Fundamental Law of Fighting against Poverty should be enacted, and the measures for preventing people from getting poor and for saving people from the poverty should be made as the important strategy of Japan.

(3) The government and all the municipal governments should inform that the poor and needy people (including the low-living elderly) can be saved by the social welfare and should guide them to apply for the welfare.

(4) The current system of social welfare should be decomposed into their support categories, so that the supports can be received more smoothly. By supporting the people for some partial categories in the current welfare, the people can make their own living before entirely losing their properties.

(5) Support the people for their housing rent (partially). This releases the low-living people (including the elderly and the young) from the rather heavy burden of rent and builds a better condition for the young to have their home, thus becomes effective as the measures for increasing children.

(6) The current reduction measures of the national pension premium should be informed, so that the low-living young people apply for the reduction instead of no payment in silence.

(7) In place of the current national pension system, a new system should be built in order to guarantee all the people for their living in their elderly days at the minimum level of healthy and cultural living which is guaranteed in the Constitution.

(8) After all, it corresponds to the living support in the social welfare system. Then the current national pension system should rather be quitted and integrated as the living support in the new social welfare system, as described in (4).

(9) For building a society where people can live happily, all the people in Japan should consider and choose proper systems including the taxation system for redistributing the wealth, and should proceed for its realization.

-- I personally agree with these proposals by the Author, Mr. Takanori Fujita.

Forum: Visual Thinking with 'Fuda-Yose' (13) --　Thinking over the poverty in the Japanese Society: [A] Increasing poverty among the elderly (8)Executive summary of visualizing "The Low-living Elderly" Book (Jan. 28, 2016)

Toru Nakagawa (Osaka Gakuin Univ.), Jan. 28, 2016

The document visualizing Mr. Takanori Fujita's book "The Low-living Elderly" has been completed, and is now posted in the PDF version of a pamphlet of 23 pages in Japanese .

Table of Contents, Preface of the pamphlet, Visualized diagram of the Introduction part of the source book, and the Proposals in the last chapter of the source book (as summarized by Nakagawa) are posted in the HTML format in the Japanese page .

All the visualized diagrams are readjusted using larger fonts and portrait style.

Forum: Social Problem: Thinking over the Poverty in the Japanese Society with Visualization: [A] Increasing poverty among the elderly [1] Executive summary with visualization of Takanori Fujita's "The Low-living Elderly" Book (Jan. 28; Mar. 6, 2016)

Toru Nakagawa (Osaka Gakuin Univ.), Mar. 6, 2016

For the readers principally interested in social problems, I am going to start a new series of pages here.

The document visualizing Mr. Takanori Fujita's book "The Low-living Elderly" has been completed, and is now posted in the PDF version of a pamphlet of 23 pages in Japanese.

The Author pointed out:

"The low-living elderly are defined here as the aged people who live at or lower than the social welfare level. It is estimated that there exist about 6 to 7 million of them in Japan at moment. Recent increase in the number of non-regular employments and decrease in the average income in Japan, the poverty is spreading widely among the young and middle-aged people. Thus there is a high risk that in the near future the lives in the aged days may become miserable for most of the Japanese people."

On the basis of author's experiences of NPO welfare activities, he describes various cases of individuals, and discusses what should be done by individuals, society, government, etc. The book is written carefully, systematically, and deeply.

Nakagawa read this book closely and represented the logic of the whole book with visualizing diagrams. Such diagrams are very helpful for understanding the problem personally and for discussing in a group.

Examples of style of the visualized diagrams and references of the Visualizing software ('Fuda-Yose' Tool) are also shown in this page for new comers.

I wish many people read this Fujita's book, think over with the help of the diagrams, and proceed to real activities in Japanese society.

(8) Executive summary

Executive Summary page

Pamphlet of Visulaized diagrams (PDF) (in Japanese)

Introduction to Fujita's Book

Parent Page (Social Issues)

Japanese page

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Last updated on Mar. 30, 2016. Access point: Editor: nakagawa@ogu.ac.jp