The Structure of Income in Elderly Households and Relative Poverty Rates in Japan from the Viewpoint of International Comparisons

We examine the poverty rates and the income configurations among Japan and the LIS countries. The LIS countries are Germany, Italy, the UK, Denmark, the US, and Taiwan. We divide household including elderly into five types: living alone, couples only, living with their married children, living with their unmarried children, and other. There is more elderly living with their children in Asian countries than Western countries. However, elderly living with their married children are decreasing recently in Japan. In Japan and Taiwan even in households cohabiting with children, the poverty rates and income configurations differ depending on the marital status of the children. Poverty rates are higher in case of cohabiting with unmarried children. With regard to the income configuration of poor single and married couple households, the lower percentage of market income shows that those households focus on social insurance benefits regardless of the income configuration patterns of the non-poor in each country.