日本上升的兒童貧困暴露了二十年經濟衰弱的真正代價

The smell of beef stew wafts from a kitchen as a brigade of volunteers put their cooking skills to use on a recent Saturday evening in Tokyo’s commuter belt.

最近一個星期六的夜晚，東京的上班族聚居區，燉牛肉的香味從廚房飄來，一羣志願者正在盡力施展他們的廚藝。

In an adjoining room children chat and make paper cutouts while they await the arrival of what for some will be their only proper meal of the day.

旁邊的房間裏，孩子們一邊聊天一邊做紙工，等着對其中一些孩子來說一天裏唯一算得上是合理膳食的美餐。

Kawaguchi children’s cafeteria is one of hundreds to have sprouted up in Japan in recent years in response to a problem few associate with the world’s third biggest economy: child poverty.

川口兒童食堂是近年來日本如同雨後春筍般涌現的幾百家食堂之一，它們的目的就是解決很少有人會和這個世界第三經濟大國聯繫起來的問題：兒童貧困。

An estimated 3.5 million Japanese children – or one in six of those aged up to 17 – are from households classed as experiencing relative poverty defined by the OECD as those with incomes at or below half the median national disposable income.

估計有350萬名日本兒童----即六分之一17歲以下的人----來自經合組織定義的相對貧困的家庭，這些家庭的收入爲小於等於國民可支配收入中位數的一半.。

Japan’s relative rate of poverty has risen over the past three decades to 16.3% while the rate in the US though higher at 17.3% has fallen.

日本的相對貧困率在過去的30年中上升到了16.3%，而在美國的比率雖然略高，但是17.3%的比率已經下降。