Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi called on Japan yesterday to stop dividing itself into "winners" and "losers" as a new poll showed that the number of Japanese who consider themselves middle-class has plunged.
"There must be people among the `winners' who feel somewhat empty while some `losers' are burning with hope," Koizumi said, denouncing the terms that have grown into the Japanese lexicon since the economy crashed in the early 1990s.
"Life is not about choosing between the two," Koizumi told parliament. "`Winners' may eventually become `losers' while `losers' may become `winners' if they get another chance," he said.
Koizumi said it was "important to build a society in which you can make use of your own characteristics at the level of an individual, a company and a community."
Koizumi has pledged to liberalize the world's second largest economy. Official figures showed last week that there was a job available for every Japanese who wanted one for the first time in 13 years.
But critics charge that the gap between rich and poor has widened under Koizumi, with part-time and temporary jobs sharply rising -- far from the post-World War II "Japanese dream" of lifelong employment at a company.
A survey by the Nihon Keizai Shimbun found that 54 percent of Japanese believe they belong to the middle-class.
RSS