The Chikuho region has the highest per capita welfare recipience rate in Japan, and in response to this statistic, the authorities have made strenuous efforts over the years to reduce this to levels more in line with the rest of Japan. Nationally, welfare statistics show that Japan has one of the lowest per capita dependence rates in the world, less than two per cent in 1989. The extremely high dependence rate in Chikuho has become anathema for the authorities, for it contradicts the prevailing image of Japanese industriousness and efficiency.

Tagawa-gun informants blame the coal industry for the extent of poverty and welfare dependence in the area. The withdrawal of the coal industry from the area left the local people with few directions to move economically or socially. It was tantamount to an economic death sentence, particularly within the smaller towns and cities whose socioeconomic infrastructures were undeveloped. Tertiary or service sectors were poorly developed and poorly funded, locals being dependent on the coal companies for economic, political, social and religious direction. This dependence on the coal companies for most of the basics of daily life was an integral part of the management techniques employed by the companies to keep workers complacent and malleable. However, as the small monopolies folded, or withdrew in line with the so-called Energy Revolution policies introduced at the macro-economic level, Chikuho people transferred their dependence from the coal companies to the government, and especially to the welfare agencies.

That welfare dependence in Chikuho is endemic is unarguable: there are masses of statistics that support this position.