This study presents a secondary qualitative analysis of data from a participatory poverty research project conducted in Japan. Building on the seven-aspect framework of poverty meanings identified in the original project, this study examines how these meanings were emphasized and expressed differently across nationality, social status, and gender. The original project involved participants with diverse experiences of poverty, organized by nationality, social status, and gender. Each group participated in three discussion sessions that focused on the meaning of poverty, daily concerns and problems, and checking and commenting on the research results. This study focuses on the first session, which addressed the meaning of poverty. Participants’ narratives were reorganized within the seven-aspect framework and comparatively analyzed across participant attributes using NVivo 15. The analysis showed that participants’ understanding of poverty shared common elements but their emphasis and expression differed depending on their individual attributes. Japanese participants tended to understand poverty in more relational terms, including discrimination, social conformity pressure, and fear of being seen as poor, whereas foreign residents in Japan emphasized labor, time pressure, and class-based exploitation more often. Working adults expressed stronger concerns about immediate economic pressures, whereas students highlighted constraints on future choices. Women referred more frequently to emotional, psychological, and mental burdens than men did. The secondary analysis in this study presented more comprehensive lived-experience data from the original participatory poverty research project, thereby contributing to a deeper and more nuanced understanding of poverty in Japan.
Publication Date: 2026-06-30