Counting the Cost

Can Japan’s new prime minister tackle income inequality?

Japan has acknowledged its economic policy of the last 10 years has increased inequality.

For the first time in 40 years, aid organisation Save the Children has been handing out food parcels to the poorest people in Japan. But the Japanese are not alone. Rich countries have seen a rise in the use of food banks due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Japan’s new Prime Minister Fumio Kishida has acknowledged the failure of trickle-down economics that has widened the gap between the rich and the poor. At the same time, he is taking aim at his predecessor’s economic plan.

And Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, the director-general of the World Trade Organization, tells us how poor countries can have more access to COVID-19 vaccines.