Evacuees lose welfare benefits...(JAPAN)

Evacuees lose welfare benefits / Cash from TEPCO, donations puts 150 households over income limit

The Yomiuri Shimbun

About 150 households in two Fukushima Prefecture cities have had their welfare benefits terminated because they received compensation payments from Tokyo Electric Power Co. for damage related to the crisis at its Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant.

Minami-Soma and Iwaki stopped paying the cash benefits based on Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry guidelines. There are an estimated 620 households that receive welfare benefits and are eligible for nuclear compensation, and as more applications for compensation come in, more families are likely to see their benefits ended for the same reason.

People involved said the welfare system needs to be revised to take these special circumstances into account.

All households within 30 kilometers of the nuclear plant and in planned evacuation areas are eligible for preliminary payments from TEPCO, as well as a share of donations received by the Japanese Red Cross Society and other organizations.

http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/national/T110616005064.htm

When Americans hear "welfare payment", I think the first thing that comes to mind is probably a single mother who is receiving money from the government to support her family. In Japan, it has a broader meaning and includes such things as unemployment and disability payments.

that things are worse off in Japan or that Japan is being "bad" to its people.

I studied Anthropology in college and it is hard for me to avoid the conclusion that there is a process at work here in which people see what they want to see.

The question then becomes 'what is it that people want to see and why".

The what is clearly that they want to see bad news.

The why, I suspect, has to do with how Americans actually see themselves.

The "Orient" (as it used to be called) has always been used as a mirror to hold up to see what we were but what we were not.

Perhaps it is the case that, in seeing Japan as a (newly found) bad guy, it fulfills some need in Americans to either see themselves in a better light or in a worse light.

But I suspect it has a lot more to do with Americans' concern for themselves (unconsciously) than it actually has to do with Japan.

That most Americans grow up with the idea that despite other cultures, and religions, we all feel, think, and do the same things.. Clearly those who have never traveled out of the country, have never experienced the wonder or awe at being in a different place, with different view points, or different customs.

Those of use who have been fortunate to have traveled outside our borders, know that in other lands, people there have different customs and feelings about events, and often look at us as the strange ones.

One would think with different kinds of people in America (The melting pot) that culture shock would not be so common place, but if you have never experienced things in other places, how would you know what people think about when they wake up in the morning and have their first sip of, tea, coffee, goats milk, or what have you.

I think thats why I appreciate San Francisco so much, because the entire world is just outside my door.. meaning we have so many different kinds of faces here. From the Mission district, to China town, to Nihonmachi.