07w43:3 The Cruelty of Kitakyushu's bureaucrats Posted October 24th, 2007 by timothy. 0 Comments Goodreads | 2007 week 42 number 3 (The Cruelty of Kitakyushu’s bureaucrats) Death Reveals Harsh Side of a ‘Model’ in Japan | Norimitsu Onishi http://goodreads.timothycomeau.com/shorty/nytimes/welfarejapan/ “In a thin notebook discovered along with a man’s partly mummified corpse this summer was a detailed account of his last days, recording his hunger pangs, his drop in weight and, above all, his dream of eating a rice ball, a snack sold for about $1 in convenience stores across the country. ‘3 a.m. This human being hasn’t eaten in 10 days but is still alive,’ he wrote. ‘I want to eat rice. I want to eat a rice ball.’ These were not the last words of a hiker lost in the wilderness, but those of a 52-year-old urban welfare recipient whose benefits had been cut off. And his case was not the first here.”
