The coronavirus had barely begun its surge across the globe when Ayako Sato was told that the nursery where she worked would temporarily close as part of Japan’s efforts to curb the outbreak.
The mother of two teenage daughters expected a few weeks of belt tightening, believing it wouldn’t be long before she was working again.
Month after she was laid off in March, Sato was skipping meals so that her children could eat regularly, wracked with guilt that she was unable to provide for them, let alone put a little cash aside each month for their university education.
“I love children, and really wanted to carry on working at the nursery, but lots of parents continued to keep their children at home, so there was no job to go back to,” Sato told the Guardian. “And the employment agency said there was nothing else for me.”
She made the best of modest welfare payments and a ¥100,000 universal cash handout the government hoped would help see households through the first wave of…