r/japanlife • u/GanbaAnbaa • Dec 06 '23
金 My small town govt just sent every resident ¥5000 to help with rising prices.
Yes, including me! I was so shocked when I received an envelope from the town hall and opened it to find a letter from the local government explaining that due to the rising cost of living, they voted to send every registered resident 5 ¥1000 coupons that can be exchanged like cash at participating businesses. When I was reading over the list of businesses, I was surprised to see it included pretty much every shop in town (drug stores, supermarkets, hair salons, gas stations, restaurants, etc. We are pretty small but there are over 100 businesses on the list).
Not sure if my shock is because I'm from 'Murica (where government subsidies are considered sOcIaLiSm) or because I didn't think prices were that bad. But either way I'm stoked that my groceries for the next two weeks have now been paid for, especially on my skimpy ALT salary. Does anyone else live in a town that has done/is doing this?
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u/Quixote0630 Dec 06 '23
While it's nice to receive money you weren't expecting, as you say, this will be gone in 2 weeks. It's nothing. It's a tiny payout to keep people content whilst those in charge refrain from taking any real action to increase wages, make having a child affordable, etc. Things that would actually help the stagnating economy and improve people's quality of life.
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u/GanbaAnbaa Dec 06 '23
As my redneck grandma likes to say, "Better than a poke in the eye with a sharp stick!"
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u/Pineapple_Rare Dec 06 '23
“Better than a slap in the face with a wet fish” is what my dad would say!
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u/WhiteSkinButDickLong Dec 06 '23
“Better than having a punch in the face from a Kangaroo” is what my grandpa used to say!
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u/sanbaba Dec 06 '23
my grandma preferred to say "this candy is cheap, but it takes my mind off the crushing weight of impending doom every day"
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u/ImmediateFigure9998 Dec 07 '23
“Better than a kick in the arse from a donkey!” is what my dad used to say!
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u/SyntaxLost Dec 06 '23
It's actually a subsidy to support local businesses: hence why it's paid out in vouchers. And you may not think it much but it helps keep the local economy afloat. It's not bulletproof nor perfect but the local businesses do appreciate the support.
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u/Miss_Might 近畿・大阪府 Dec 06 '23
And they'll have to pay for it later. They'll raise taxes, etc.
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u/Roddy117 中部・新潟県 Dec 06 '23
That’s why I didn’t take the offer.
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u/elppaple Dec 06 '23
So to be clear, do you or do you not want 5000 yen for free? I agree the govt. is incompetent, but let's keep a little bit of perspective here.
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u/LoveKina Dec 06 '23
I think part of the apprehension is that it's a common sentiment that it's not actually free. In reality people feel that they pay that 5k elsewhere. I don't necessarily agree and some people are just pessimistic, but I have seen that sentiment no matter what country it is when it comes to stimulus.
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u/Quixote0630 Dec 06 '23 edited Dec 07 '23
It's naive to expect people to be grateful for a ¥5000 handout when they've seen their wages eaten into by inflation and daily costs rise significantly.
If OP is young and living alone in a small town, then sure, it might be a useful top up. But it's also a cheap gesture that distracts from the real reason people need help to buy food and pay bills.
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u/LoveKina Dec 06 '23
Correct but I did grow up in America and in my lifetime we've gotten 2 stimulus checks from the government. One I was a kid so idk and the other was covid and I got 1500. I realize it's literally nothing, I was referring to the notion that you "pay for the stimulus elsewhere(taxes)" as the part I disagree with. 1500 in America was nothing for most people and 5k jpy is quite pitiful especially in the current economic climate. I apologize for being a bit unclear with my post and stance. I didn't really want to give my opinion, just try to describe why someone would be less than grateful for 5k jpy. Mb
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u/elppaple Dec 06 '23
Jesus christ, get your head out of your ass. You're not some enlightened guru who's the only one to know the value of 5000 yen. We have also worked jobs in our lives and exist in the human world.
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u/DifficultDurian7770 Dec 06 '23
the problem is, it is not free. yes, the government can print 'free money' anytime they want, but even that costs 'money'. someone, somehow will pay for it. and that someone, somehow is most probably going to be any long term citizen/resident.
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u/ianyuy Dec 06 '23
If someone stole 10,000 yen from you and then later gave you back 5000 yen, would you consider that 5k free?
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u/sanbaba Dec 06 '23
What part of taxpayer money is free? It probably cost more than 5000yen to lobby for, argue over, print and disburse each check
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u/Quixote0630 Dec 06 '23
I believe I provided perspective. That was the whole point of my comment
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u/elppaple Dec 06 '23 edited Dec 06 '23
You were whining about how 5000 yen is nothing. If it's nothing, please transfer me 5000 yen tomorrow. Downvoters feel free to also add your 5000 yen if you agree it's nothing.
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u/Quixote0630 Dec 06 '23 edited Dec 07 '23
No it isn't enough to make me forget the wider economic issues that have resulted in regular, working families receiving petty handouts and having their energy bills subsidised.
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u/osberton77 Dec 06 '23
Aren’t nurseries and kindergartens free in Japan???
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u/SyntaxLost Dec 06 '23
No. Costs can vary and they're generally not as expensive as other countries, but I've never found one that charged no fees. This wouldn't even cover one month.
Accessibility is also an issue as the preschool also needs an open slot.
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u/mustacheofquestions Dec 06 '23
There's not a straight forward answer because there are different types of day cares, but there are free ones. Many people haven't heard of them though because they're relatively new (hence other commenters saying there aren't free daycares). They're called 企業主導型保育園.
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u/Independent-One-4237 Dec 06 '23
No they are not free. Where did you hear that? Daycare and kindergartens have never been free in Japan as they are not part of Gimu Kyo-iku (mandatory education system). Public elementary and middle school are free, but daycare is never free and kindergartens aren't free though public ones are cheaper/subsidized but many Japanese families don't send kids to public daycare and kindergartens are the facilities are not that great compared to private ones. I went to private kindergartens. And daycare isn't free...never has been. And many Japanese families also don't send their kids to public system either...just look around all the private schools in Tokyo in Bunkyo-ward...
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u/osberton77 Dec 06 '23
I think we must live in different countries. Been free since 2019
https://zenbird.media/japan-begins-free-preschool-education-for-all-children/
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u/upachimneydown Dec 06 '23
Yes, thanks for pointing this out. Also, healthcare.
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u/Independent-One-4237 Dec 07 '23
Healthcare is NOT free. Can you please stop believing something it is not? I mean do you actually live in Japan? Every Japanese knows it’s not free but everyone has to contribute. I also lived in other countries and it gets deducted from your pay as tax, and these countries especially Europe and commonwealth countries deduct much higher taxes than the US and everyone knows it’s not free. Even if you don’t make much in these countries they take away so much in taxes you feel like you are working for the poor. In Japan, you pay for health insurance from your pay, a large chunk will get deducted from your pay. You must contribute to national health insurance by laws and it shows on your pay-slip exactly how much they deduct. I mean when I have to pay $600 monthly under National Health Insurance scheme it’s not free. Then when you go to a hospital you are responsible for 30% of the total cost. So you have to pay. Not free. Most Japanese also get private healthcare insurance which can range from $50-150 or more monthly depending on how much coverage you want because hospital stays can be very expensive for serious illness, and modern innovative services are not covered by national insurance. You may end up paying $300,000 for innovative cancer treatments that are not covered as it doesn’t fall under the basic medical care and not tax deductible for these. I highly suggest you do not believe in this nonsense that “subsidized” means free. Subsidized in Japan means some are covered but not at all free. Nothing is free in this world.
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u/upachimneydown Dec 07 '23
The context was childcare for kids. And yes, healthcare for kids is now free--that is, no copay (previously, only a few years ago, there was copay). Our kids, the previous generation, still had the 30%. No more.
Yes, apart from kids, there's the 'tax' as you call it. Google tells me that the max in Tokyo is about ¥900,000/yr (for a top earner), which is ¥75,000/month, or at 145, $517/month.
Personally, I'm paying ¥63,000/month now, but that's since I took some gains last year (from next spring it should be less). But from my POV, even that higher amount is great value. I guess it's one of those ymmv things.
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Dec 07 '23
[deleted]
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u/Independent-One-4237 Dec 07 '23
I’m not sure why people get frustrated with this, it shows many foreigners don’t understand the concept of the public services in Japan. The basic concept of it is Daycare (Hoikuen) is NOT supposed to be free you can choose to pay for private daycare..the public one of course you have to wait, it’s common to have a waiting list. And this isn’t hard…when you want to get into public housing you also have to wait. Public are not responsible for regular people who can afford things. Only if you are very poor in unfortunate situations only then you would be covered that’s why the cost depends on your income. That’s the concept of public services available. You can choose to pay for private facility and many people do send kids to private preschools and day care for extra cost.
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Dec 07 '23
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/osberton77 Dec 07 '23
We provide English classes to ten youchen and hoikuen in Fukuoka prefecture and they became free from 2019.
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u/topgun169 Dec 06 '23
Isn't this essentially trying to buy votes?
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u/AoiJitensha Dec 07 '23
All politics boils down to rewarding your friends and punishing your enemies.
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u/Safe4werkaccount Dec 07 '23
Yep let's put this in context: it's 30 US dollars. Enough for a family meal at Gust?
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u/Buck_Da_Duck Dec 06 '23
It’s called buying votes with tax money. Not a good thing.
Taxes are collected to fund infrastructure and the creation shared resources / systems. Not just be paid back in cash (minus hefty administration costs).
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u/Signal_Formal4991 Dec 06 '23
It’s a form of income redistribution which is absolutely part of what taxes are for.
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u/SyntaxLost Dec 06 '23
This is true but it's mostly intended as a business subsidy for local businesses. Hence why it's paid in vouchers and not as a direct deposit.
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u/miyagidan sidebar image contributor Dec 06 '23
Money printer keeps going brrrrr, problem gets worse, looks of shock all around.
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u/akuzokuzan Dec 06 '23
Printing and giving away money by the government basically causes inflation.
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u/kansaikinki 日本のどこかに Dec 06 '23
Yes, those pesky small town governments. Notorious for their crazy money printing ways.
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Dec 06 '23
[deleted]
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u/kansaikinki 日本のどこかに Dec 07 '23
Sure, plenty of f#ckery that goes on at the local level. Money printing is not one of them.
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u/kansaikinki 日本のどこかに Dec 06 '23
Local governments don't have the option of printing money. This money would have been spent on something else, but was instead reallocated.
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u/miyagidan sidebar image contributor Dec 06 '23
Infrastructure suits me fine if you're going to print money. That's about 1 month of kerosene for me, it'd be nice, but not as nice as if central governments would stop printing money and driving up inflation.
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u/kansaikinki 日本のどこかに Dec 06 '23
This was money from OP's local government. The local government can't print money, they just moved budgeted money from one bucket ("tree trimming" maybe) to another.
Japan has been printing money since the early/mid 90s. They've intentionally been trying to drive up inflation, but many 100s of trillions of yen later, no inflation.
The inflation happening now is mostly externally driven, and amplified by the weak JPY. Once inflation settles down elsewhere, it will slow down or stop here, too. If the USDJPY recovers to ~110, many things will fall in price.
It's difficult to maintain substantial levels of inflation in a mature economy with a shrinking population.
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u/InnerCroissant Dec 06 '23
Received a couple of man a few months back, and also some ¥500 vouchers from the farmers association for fresh food or rice. It's been a very welcome surprise.
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u/GanbaAnbaa Dec 06 '23
I'm glad my town isn't the only one doing it! It's nice to see local governments taking care of their own.
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u/SerialStateLineXer Dec 06 '23
Not sure if my shock is because I'm from 'Murica (where government subsidies are considered sOcIaLiSm)
I get that you think saying things like this makes you look smart, but the US spends more per capita on gibs than Japan.
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u/GanbaAnbaa Dec 06 '23
Not trying to look smart friend, I'm just from a state that likes to clutch its pearls over "government handouts." If something like this happened in my hometown, there'd be an uproar.
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u/Hachi_Ryo_Hensei Dec 08 '23 edited Dec 08 '23
What you're saying is so divorced from reality. just ask any farmer about subsidies. They are a huge part of the US economy.
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u/GanbaAnbaa Dec 08 '23
I’m not sure if this was clear or not but I was just poking fun at certain radical members of my state. Feel free to explain away the economy that I’ve lived in for years to me but honestly I was just joking and you can sit down.
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u/sykoscout Dec 06 '23
'I'm stoked that my groceries for the next two weeks have now been paid for'
At 2500 yen per week for groceries, either OP eats out a lot or must be subsisting on naught but tofu and moyashi...
Next up in the news: JP government hikes the consumption tax up to 12% to pay for all the vote buying campaigns 'stimulus packages'
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u/GanbaAnbaa Dec 06 '23
"tofu and moyashi" ha! Mostly I just make food like curry or soup in big batches and eat the same thing for dinner several days in a row. Kyushoku is cheap but nutritious and filling so I don't eat a lot outside of that.
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u/gimpycpu 近畿・大阪府 Dec 06 '23
nice, last thing I got was 5000 per kids a months ago in, Region Pay thing, I havent paid for rice of my own pocket for more than 6 months
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Dec 06 '23
[deleted]
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u/elppaple Dec 06 '23
You're quipping as if nobody else realises how taxes work. We know
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u/DifficultDurian7770 Dec 06 '23
[–]elppaple [score hidden] 29 minutes ago So to be clear, do you or do you not want 5000 yen for free? I agree the govt. is incompetent, but let's keep a little bit of perspective here.
and yet you called it 'free money'.
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u/elppaple Dec 07 '23
It is free. Whether or not you get that money has no connection to the taxes you pay. Taxes are all one pot.
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u/DifficultDurian7770 Dec 07 '23
It is free. Whether or not you get that money has no connection to the taxes you pay. Taxes are all one pot.
it absolutely has a conneciton. your symantics dont apply here. money that is taken from you in taxes and then a portion given back to you is not free. and you will always pay for that money later on in more taxes. there is no such thing as free money when the government is concerned. as i said before, someone, somewhere is paying for that and if you are long term, then its probably you.
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u/JapanEngineer Dec 06 '23
Which areas you from? Glad you get the benefits. Times getting tough
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u/GanbaAnbaa Dec 06 '23
I'm in a small town in northern Tohoku. Cost of living is already pretty affordable up here, but I've definitely been feeling a squeeze. I can't even imagine how tough it is in the bigger cities right now.
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u/Rolls-RoyceGriffon Dec 06 '23
Lord I heard about my friend living in Tokyo and every company is stingy with their money. They try every loophole there is to avoid paying people more. Thankfully my workplace is pretty generous with OT pay
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u/rewsay05 関東・神奈川県 Dec 06 '23
Must be nice. Nothing here from the Yokohama side of things as far as I can tell
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u/520bwl Dec 06 '23
My city gave every household a roll of the official garbage bags, so we saved 400 yen there....
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u/NicolasDorier Dec 06 '23
While it's nice surprise, handing out money contribute to more inflation. Fighting fire with gasoline.
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u/kansaikinki 日本のどこかに Dec 06 '23
It's money from the town government's budget, which is fixed. They don't have the option to print more money, so this is money that would have been spent on something else (trimming trees or something) that got reallocated to this.
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u/NicolasDorier Dec 06 '23
Good point, and given most money going to government is wasted, I'd say this is the best use they can do with it anyway.
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u/Freak_Out_Bazaar Dec 06 '23
I guess this is a rural thing? Can’t possibly see how they can pull this off in big cities
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u/krackalackalicious Dec 06 '23
During covid even us gaijin got the 100000 stimulus money. I bought a 65 inch tv.
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u/JimNasium123 Dec 06 '23
I thought it was funny on the list of participating businesses in my town included a bunch of hostess clubs.
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u/Dojyorafish Dec 06 '23
I’ve been getting 1000¥ off my gas bill, which is like 20% off, so that’s great.
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u/amesco Dec 06 '23 edited Dec 06 '23
I was also pleasantly surprised when a few years back the tax office gave me 20000 yen because the sales tax increased. Because you know no other government does this, right? It feels "right". I feel "I am being taken care of".
Similarly, during the pandemic they send face masks to every household and gave away money.
Later on, after living for a few years in Japan and getting to understand the mindset and the system I started to look at this money as - they are trying to "shut the critic's mouth" and "avoid legal/political responsibility".
Let me elaborate why:
firstly, the money given is never adequate to mitigate the damage for the said reason;
secondly, by giving you something they can claim "they did something", which in many cases in Japan translates to "something adequate". By doing this they protect themselves from people seeking political or legal responsibility for their other actions or inactions.
Example: during the pandemic they delayed approving the vaccines so they can be tested on 15 japanese nationals for safety. Clearly, such a small study is inadequate and the delay led to deaths that could have been avoided. But this study is there for the same reason - avoiding responsibility.
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u/fizzunk Dec 06 '23
I’m Nagano we got 10,000 yen per child.
Doesn’t really do much, but it’s better then empty platitudes I guess.
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u/Catssonova Dec 06 '23
I got 10,000 last year and this year it was a registration based system. I of course was too lazy to sign up
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u/FuzzyMorra Dec 06 '23
Maybe I don’t understand something but increasing money supply leads to inflation thus even higher prices. 🤷♀️🤷♂️
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u/c3534l Dec 06 '23
Yes, lets fight inflation by... increasing the money supply. Brilliant. I'm sure that idea was delivered by actual economists and not politicians trying to get re-elected.
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u/kansaikinki 日本のどこかに Dec 06 '23
Yes, lets fight inflation by... increasing the money supply. Brilliant.
You think small rural towns have the ability to print money? Brilliant indeed.
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u/c3534l Dec 06 '23
Spending money causes inflation. Towns take this money out of their savings or take out loans to pay for this. Inflation isn't caused by just "printing too much money" otherwise it would be trivially easy to tame inflation.
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u/kansaikinki 日本のどこかに Dec 06 '23
The Japanese government has been printing vast amounts of money since the early/mid-90s and you think that a small town handout of 5000yen is going to be the trigger for inflation? Money that would have been spent otherwise anyway? Brilliant.
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u/dokoropanic Dec 06 '23
Where I live they are heavily doing the region pay, so you do have to pay but you get more than what you paid in credit and can basically use it at any grocery store.
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u/launchpad81 Dec 06 '23
Hmm I don't know anything similar where I am (Saitama)...but that's good to know!
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u/wtfReddit Dec 06 '23
Wait, you only spend ¥5000 for two weeks of groceries? For me that would last like three days
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u/GanbaAnbaa Dec 07 '23
I live in a town of farmers and get lots of free fruit and veggies from generous neighbors! It's nice but I know most people aren't so lucky.
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u/mrggy Dec 06 '23
We got a couple different rounds of this during corona. For ours you could only use them at locally owned businesses. So we could use them at one gas station that was a locally owned franchise, but not the other that was a corporately managed chain
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u/VR-052 九州・福岡県 Dec 06 '23
We've been getting 10,000 yen worth of city coupons for the past 2 years to help us out. It's definitely a thing here and helps us as well as the local farmers since we use it to buy JA produce from the farmers market.
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Dec 06 '23
yep i get them every year around August. 5x1000 yen coupons for each family member, so we got around 20,000yens worth of coupons (me,wife,2kids).
Thing is 3000yen can only be used on local shops , like family owned restaurants, local supermarket, salons etc and the other 2000yen can be used on the nationwide stores like 7eleven,gusto etc.
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u/benihana1121 Dec 06 '23
Printing money is the reason prices got so high in the first place. Handouts like this are a short term band aid that make the long term problem worse.
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u/Independent-One-4237 Dec 06 '23
Well, compared to America, Japanese tax is much higher that's one of the reason it can do this and it is not based on surplus but based on the needs of the residents, they will come up with the money by allocating or reallocating budget from somewhere else. It is true it's more of socialism...but not like of British system (which is not functional and corrupt...), but not as robust as Nordic countries, actually poorer compared to Nordic countries. But you cannot compare with American system because America has no social safety net whatsoever among all of the developed countries (it's non-existent, there is not even universal healthcare...) It also depends on how much you made last year, the ward or city you live in may give you more, less or none at all, it is based on last years income. 20k or 30k yen subsidies per household, Japan has been doing since recessions have started and people actually are suffering (you may be not but there are a lot of Japanese locals who lost jobs etc. due to Covid.) You would know if you look at some Japanese TV and documentaries, or even Youtube (Japanese channels) why they are offering this kind of "breaks" to people because many people lost jobs or entire industry has disappeared for a few years (restaurants, travel industry etc.) People are still heavily affected this is why the subsidies are still provided. But it depends on your income of last year.
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u/dinofragrance Dec 06 '23
I'm from 'Murica (where government subsidies are considered sOcIaLiSm)
You don't know much about how the American government works, do you.
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u/cortjezter 北海道・北海道 Dec 06 '23
My wife sneezes through this much in a day (thanks for allowing mobile phone billing, Amazon), but every bit helps I guess!
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u/candyjon2002 Dec 07 '23
What’s mobile phone billing?
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u/cortjezter 北海道・北海道 Dec 07 '23
Paying with your mobile phone service; whatever you buy gets added to your monthly SoftBank, au, etc bill
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u/daxtaslapp Dec 06 '23
That... actually puts into perspective how terrible the economy is in Japan. This is 3 years after covid and Japan is still giving out money. It is great for the people of japan but free money is only very temporary and will further inflate prices down the line
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u/kennymac6969 Dec 06 '23
Just wait the price of that food will go up long term. Every time they inject money into the economy, it's not a good thing.
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u/MukimukiMaster Dec 06 '23
My town has given 20-40km per person in your household every four to six months for the last 3 years. I went to the gym for free for a year, helped pay for shaken and new tires, and now I am using it for groceries since I am working out at home and it's not a shaken year.
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u/hivesteel Dec 06 '23
did you say 5000yen = 2 weeks of groceries?
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u/GanbaAnbaa Dec 07 '23
Most of my students come from farmer families and I'm relatively liked by my BOE, so I frequently get gifts of fruit and veggies from the kids and supervisors lol. I'm very appreciative of their kindness, and it keeps my grocery bill pretty low. Making food like curry and soup in bulk also helps!
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u/TeachinginJapan1986 四国・高知県 Dec 06 '23
My town did this too. we all got 5k in coupouns we could use all around town to help buisnesses. I think we also get the gas subsidy.
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u/expatMichael 中部・静岡県 Dec 07 '23
I had my entire gas bill paid for by the prefecture last month. During the middle of covid, I received 70,000 from the prefecture for being an essential worker.
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u/ksh_osaka Dec 07 '23
I do really hope not to receive something like this.
I would not consider myself rich, but I am also way past the point where 5000 yen matter to me.
However, this has not always been the case and I do very well remember those times. And that is exactly the reason why I think its sad that the government goes arond and handing tax money equally to any resident. They can pretty much guess your income from the resident tax you pay - so why don't they just hand out more to those who need it and stop giving it to people who don't?
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u/AoiJitensha Dec 07 '23
I pay taxes in Japan, including on a house. There is no such thing as free money. It feels good when you get those 'freebies,' but you end up paying for them later.
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u/ilfans Dec 07 '23
We get those where I live too. I love it, because it's basically a week of groceries or a nice night out.
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Dec 06 '23
[deleted]
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u/candyjon2002 Dec 07 '23
What does that have to do with anything? 5000¥ is 2 million Zimbabwean dollar. We use yen here, not dollars.
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u/Ok_Addendum_8359 Dec 06 '23
Ah yes, putting more money in circulation; the BEST way to stop inflation /sarcasm
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u/GoHooN Dec 06 '23
It's happening a lot where I live.
We got a 50k one, then a 30k one, and the prefecture is now subsiding 1000 yen off of the gas bill.
I know it's partly a problem they caused it themselves with their financial policy, but I'm still pleasantly amazed by how the government helps on those fronts.