"Marginal Workers" Akitoshi Masuda Price: ¥1540 (tax included) The reality of workers suffering from poverty! The latest work by the author of the best-selling series "I Became Homeless Today," with a cumulative total of 400,000 copies! In this book, the author interviewed 24 workers struggling to make ends meet, asking about their work and financial worries. Regardless of age, gender, or educational background, they live on a monthly income of around ¥200,000 to ¥250,000, or an annual income of around ¥3 million. According to a survey by the National Tax Agency, 50.7% of people have an annual income of less than ¥4 million, and the median annual income is around ¥3.5 million. What emerged through the interviews was the harsh reality of wage disparities, layoffs, business closures, and black labor. The theme of this book is to hear these real voices. They are not so poor that they cannot make a living, but they have no luxuries or enjoyment and only endure. Even if the work is hard, they cannot quit to survive. Do they have any hope? A non-fiction work that confronts the reality of a divided society! Table of Contents Chapter 1: The Price of Black Labor (A Marginal Life Insurance Lady Nearing Retirement; The Harsh Reality of the Caregiving Profession; Understaffing, Low Wages, and Overwork; A Job Where an Accident Means the End; Wanting to Escape the Game Industry) Chapter 2: A Turbulent Working Life (Dreams and Reality in the Sex Industry; Can You Make a Living with Art?; One-Third of the Income, the Downfall of a Former President; The Desperate Life of a Law School Dropout) Chapter 3: When a Job Search Fails, Life Fails (A Parasite with Depression; Unable to Escape the Working Poor; High Education, Poverty from Job Hopping; High Education as a Shackles) Chapter 4: Wanting to Earn Money Even if It Means Overdoing It (Side Business as a Scalper; W-Work, but Less Than ¥4 Million Annually; Side Effects of Overtime Reduction; Earning Tuition Fees in the Sex Industry) Chapter 5: What About the Future? (Killed by Taxes; Closing a Business in Their 50s, Their First Time Working for a Company; Surviving on Discarded Food; A Ramen Shop with No Future; Having to Repay Scholarships Even with Low Wages) Akitoshi Masuda Born in 1961. Graduated from Tokyo Metropolitan Nakano Technical High School in 1980. While continuing his reporting activities as a report writer, he currently works for a real estate management company. Since 2003, he has been interacting with homeless support workers and NPO members, learning about the reality of the prolonged recession and the serious disparities in society, and conducting interviews to be a spokesperson for those who have no voice."