Social Exclusion and Earlier Disadvantages: An Empirical Study of Poverty and Social Exclusion in Japan

This paper is one of the first attempts in Japan to define and measure the extent of poverty and social exclusion in the country. It makes use of data from a 2006 survey of 600 households which was carefully designed to capture incidents of different dimensions of poverty and social exclusion, such as income poverty, material deprivation, exclusion from public services, lack of social relations, inadequate housing, lack of activities and subjective poverty. The paper's main findings can be summarized as follows. First, sections of the population which are most vulnerable to social exclusion are not necessarily vulnerable in terms of income poverty. Second, disadvantages at earlier stages of life seem to exert influence on some aspects of current social exclusion, even after controlling for current income, occupation and household type. One of the most interesting results of the analysis is that the variable indicating poverty at age 15 has a positive and significant effect on one's current lack of basic needs (food, clothing and medical care), even after controlling for current income, age, sex, household type and experiences of divorce and layoff. This indicates that poverty during childhood not only influences adult well-being via education and occupation (and thus, income) but there is also a path which connects childhood poverty and adult social exclusion directly.