Jan. 2003, for Asian Social Forum
The History of the Urban Lower Class and Homelessness in Japan

Nasubi* and Rayna Rusenko**
* San'ya Welfare Center for Day-Laborers' Association, e-mail: nasubi(at)jca.apc.org
** Asian People's Friendship Society: A.P.F.S., Shibuya Free Association for the Right to Housing and Well-being of the HOMELESS: NOJIREN, e-mail: raru(at)jweb.co.jp
Note: substitute "(at)" in e-mail address abovementioned with "@" to contact us.

1. A Brief History of Lower Class Laborers in Japan

1-1 Urban Lower Class Laborers in the Feudal Era
An urban underclass has been present in Japan since the Middle Ages. Of particular interest is the fact that, recently, in the Edo Period of the 17th and 18th centuries, they were restructured within the political system into a Buraku Caste. That is, they were collected into a particular region, discriminatorily classified as being of a lower social standing than the rest of the population, and also restricted in terms of gainable employment.
Persons in the Buraku Caste were forced to work in professions commonly looked down upon to make a living. These included city guards enforcing public safety from the lower ranks, supervisors of execution grounds and executioners, picking up waste paper and other janitorial positions, and handling dead horses and cows. They were also found in the production of leather goods, footwear, candle wicks, and sharpening stones for swords, as well as in the arts such as Kabuki theater and other stage performances. The work performed by these people was a staying force for bothe the political authority at the time and the "common people", and ultimately proved necessary in supporting the city as a whole.
As the cities expanded, members of the Buraku caste were repeatedly pushed into moving further into the peripheries due to the discrimination they encountered from the general population. Yet, they never failed to serve a necessary role within the greater social balance.

1-2 Modern Urban Lower Class Laborers
In the end of the nineteenth century, Japan's Feudal Era came to an end and the Modern Era began, bringing with it the elimination of a structured caste as persons were each to be granted common standing within the populace. At the same time, while the former Buraku were deprived of their special claim to certain field for making a living and suffered a loss of the bulk of their earnings, they were provided with no compensation for the lifetime of discrimination they had endured. As a result, most of the former Buraku people faced extreme hardships financially, as well as socially due to the lack of reform in popular consciousness.
In step with modernization as it was pushed forward by the government, paperwork, spinning, and other industries flourished opening up a greater need for laborer masses. This change incorporated the labor power of poor communities that had long been along the skirts of the city, and inexpensive rooming blocks to absorb these laborers accumulated in these new industrial areas. The strenuous and low-paying labor gained by these populations was not offered to embetter their struggling lives, but rather succeeded only in taking advantage of their position as cheap labor for the sake of modernization.
Laborers also contributed greatly to coal mining, steel manufacturing, ship construction and all basic industries essential to modernization. Some of such work could only be found distant from urban regions, but laborers gathered for employment nonetheless at whatever slight wages possible. Also, some polititian on Japanese government organized some brokers and companies of yakuza (Japanese mafia) to controle the cheap labor force. Owing dearly to the exploitation of cheap labor and government care for industrial interests, Japan's extensive resources became even more vast and powerful corporate economic cliques were formed.
Government policies for modernization also similarly worked to back up increased national militarization and, by the end of the Second World War, laborers had been effectively mobilized for war for 50 years.

1-3 Lower Class Laborers within a Fifty Year War Effort
From 1910, rooted in Japan's invasion and colonization of Korea, Korean civilians no longer able to make ends meet in their country went to Japan and found work in munitions plants, mine shafts, public engineering and construction. Their wages were substantially less than those of their Japanese counterparts and, as a result of discrimination, many were also eventually thrust into unemployment in the cities.
At the time of the Great Panic in 1929-1930, laborers from Korea were the first to be laid off and left with unpaid wages which, subsequently, spurred them into organizing a bold labor movement. The origins of lower class (e.g. day laborers, unemployed) labor movements in Japan are centered squarely in the movement created by immigrant laborers from Korea. Suppression of the Koreans' movement by the police and army resulted in a lot of deaths.
In 1937, as Japan advanced into its war with China, a number of Japanese citizens were hustled into the military and domestic labor power fell sharply. The Japanese government again took advantage of the day laborers, including those from Korea, and actively sent them into mine shafts and construction fields. Even so, there was still not sufficient numbers of workers so, subjecting itself to the demands of the powerful Japanese companies, the government forcefully brought in Chinese and Koreans to labor in its domestic industries. This was an apparent case of slave labor, countless persons enscripted were, in essence, murdered as a result of the severe work conditions and insufficient food rationing.
The Japanese government's greater scheme in mobilizing, using, and then abandoning lower class laborers for the sake of some national plan is easily seen in its history. It can also be said that Japan established its current methods for utilizing lower class labor during its war years. Koreans and Chinese who had been trapped into forced labor instigated a number of insurrections, which were immediately suppressed by the police and army.
After fifty years of concentrated mobilization, ending in Japan's loss of the war, most Koreans and Chinese were able to return to their country. However, those who had already lost any means by which they could resettle in their native land were forced to remain in Japan. The Japanese government took absolutely no national responsibility and additionally failed to provide them any compensation for their hardships. The number of those forcefully taken from their homes and left in Japan was approximately 600,000 in that time. They were never recognized as possessing the same political or economic rights as Japanese citizens and continually viewed as foreigners within Japan. Consequently, they made up a large proportion of lower class laborers.

1-4 Urban Lower Class Labor Forces After the War and the Establishment of the Yoseba
After the war, former soldiers, persons burned in air raid attacks, and laborers laid off from the munitions factories flooded the cities and could be found all over caught in the web of the streets and starvation. In Tokyo alone, their numbers have been estimated at between twenty and thirty thousand. The government used its resources to simply evict and detain persons living on the street. Then, exactly as had happened during the war, they sent many to work in the mine shafts of Hokkaido and Kyushu. The labor supply system remained the same after the war as it had been before.
Later, as economic growth rose with a favorable market supported by the Korean War, the cities once again focused on their need for labor power to maintain industry, construction, and public works. The government took measures to make labor more fluid and, as a result, streams of persons from agricultural centers came to the cities to earn money. Also, the shift from coal resources to oil, had coal miners rushing to the cities as well in pursuit of jobs to replace the ones they lost. The elderly were abandoned in depopulated and scrapped rural areas. Even after the war, groups of lower class laborers working for sub-standard pay continued to be held at the mercy of the political establishment, and those who were unable to move along in a run for employment were left behind.
In particular, central calling posts for day laborers sparked the creation of towns called yoseba ("drop-in spot"). Yoseba were formed where laborers gathered to find work for the day and were characterized by their concentration of simple accommodations and the presence of "brokers" who recruited individuals for work. While it served as a central ground for laborers in demand with manufacturing, chemical, transport, and construction industries, it also served as the last means of support for workers who had been laid off from each of these fields. According to the demands of capital, where the necessary labor power is invested only into the necessary places, when that need has become filled, a disposable pool becomes necessary as well. In this way, to meet the above "capital ideal", the yoseba reached a genuine peak in the 1960's.

1-5 The Movement of Day Laborers in the Yoseba
As efficiency and systematization were pursued in a variety of industries, the demand for workers from the yoseba declined. However, just as before, the construction and public works industries relied very heavily on this pooled work force. This is because overseers were able to bring in any number of people at any time where required. Within construction, the work tends to be very dangerous and, as even yakuza (mafia) shared a position within recruiting groups in the Japanese system, there were often cases of work injuries being covered up or wages left unpaid. Over time, due to injury and age, the number laborers unable to work grew, become visible in these areas as homeless. It was eventually seen as nothing uncommon that the unemployable with the population would live and die on the streets. At times, at the yoseba, violence (riot) would erupt and clashes with the police would occur. In one chief yoseba in Japan, day laborers organized a union and, in 1982, the National Day Laborers' Labor Union Council was formed.
The day laborer movement, as it arose out of the yoseba, was partly involved in battling with police and yakuza forces. Not only were many union members arrested over time, but a good number of activists were killed as well. However, within the yoseba power plays, the laborers rarely lost, to their employers, the police, or the yakuza. This resulted in an image of these districts as being extremely threatening and dangerous. When considering such an environment, the existent labor movement, specifically the industrial workers movement, was not seen as out of place. However, despite its strong history of fighting, in the late 1980's the movement was dismantled after extreme aggressive pressure from the government. Even to the present, a majority of those within the whole have phased into tendencies to lean to the right.

1-6 The Dissolution of the Yoseba
The existence of the yoseba changed dramatically along with the bursting of the bubble of Japanese economic success in 1992. At the time, public works and construction industries began hiring workers through ads in newspapers and magazines; in reality, turning their backs on the yoseba. Employers were then able to chose only the youngest and strongest of applicants. As work evaporated from yoseba pools, only those living on the streets remained and its central function as a labor post disintegrated along with its role in providing a minimal chance for income for unemployed industrial laborers. This left even more with no place to go, turning them to the streets.
On the other hand, as the once booming construction industries burst with the economic bubble and manufacturing jobs moved to plants overseas, there was an elemental transformation from an industrial structure based in manual labor to one based in service. A number of younger laborers were able to transfer early on into this field, but its characteristic instability threatened them with the knowledge that unemployment may be soon to follow. Indeed, many of the persons on the street today do come from this sector.

1-7 A Collective History of Lower Class Labor in Japan
As explained above, the lower class labor forces of Japan were born from a social system where they were wittingly used out of greater national interest and left with no choice but to continually relocate as they searched for work and filled the industrial needs of the time. They were rarely presented with any better choice than to remain socially/spacially contained or submit themselves to labor as the structure dictated. On top of it all, once they were no longer needed they were tossed aside. In other words, the Japanese government has historically been responsible for its treatment of laborers as merely subject to labor control and injust policy rendering them to an abandoned status.

2. Japanese Lower Class Labor Power in a Globalized Economy

2-1 The Dissolution of Labor Laws and Employment within the Global Economy
The movement towards a global economy, as it is centered in Amerika and spreads internationally, has intensified domestic competition between enterprises in Japan. With few remaining material resources, most collected capital is invested overseas in cheaper labor markets. As a result, manufacturing and other secondary industries have moved to foreign countries, gutting domestic production and leaving over 3,000,000 unemployed persons in Japan. When looking at the proportion in employed populations, the number of those within the unstable work conditions of the service sector continues to skyrocket. As far as industrial capital is concerned, Japan openly pursues emulation of the Amerikan model.
Industrial capital idealizes a labor system run as cheaply as possible with its priorities on the will of enterprise in hiring and firing. The government has spent the past few years chipping away at the very labor laws that supported workers' rights and security. Subsequently, the conditions of insecurity, that once only affect a marginalized section of lower class laborers, has now spread to all domestic fields of industry. Japanese laborers are now finding themselves being driven into the same circumstances that lower class laborers formerly faced alone. Homeless persons were always visible in the yoseba and busy streets, but from the 1990's they began to increasingly dot parks, river banks, and train stations at a staggering pace and could no longer be overlooked. The national suicide rate also came to stand at approximately 30,000 a year.
The global economy also similarly necessitates the growth of an immigrant work force, but, at the present time, it seems that government regulation concerning immigration has grown stricter in an effort to prevent any more influx.

2-2 Miscellaneous Labor Undertaken by the Homeless
There are now approximately 30,000 homeless present in the larger cities alone. A vast majority tend to be male and in their 50's or 60's. A great number have managed to set up their own tents or wooden rooms and reside in parks or on river banks, while others possess no "home" and may only sleep at night in areas surrounding train stations.
The most common means for gaining income among the homeless include such trades as aluminum can recycling, magazine collecting, cardboard box recycling, etc. They thus bear the brunt of the lowest reaches of the recycling industry. By collecting items through the night and selling them to a recycling agent, most employed in this manner are able to scrape by with a daily wage from a few hundred to a thousand yen($3-$9). It is also possible for some to find relatively well-paying employment as security guards or assisting transport, but since they possess no address or means for contact, only a limited number of people can manage to get successfully hired. There are also some other options for employment including receiving pay to stand in ticket lines for others, holding advertising boards in shopping streets, and handing out flyers and advertisements. However, no matter what they may choose, these all only provide a pittance of pay, and would hardly ever equal enough to support an escape from the streets. Though it should be obvious, this life is well below the standards guaranteed for all within the Japanese constitution.
Many of those living on the streets without any residence, often find a means to enter lodgings provided by industrial contractors. Many of these contractors may hire homeless persons offering wages far lower than usual, or without even intending to pay wages at all. And, indeed, some from the streets are pleased just to have a roof over their head, and accept being forced to work for little or no pay, though, in effect, this will never bring them to a position in which they can put homelessness behind them. In the midst of a bad economy, work receives little wage compensation but, such logic had come to be used as a premise by employers for paying homeless laborers extremely low (or no) wages.

2-3 Government Policies Addressing Homelessness and the Pride of the Homeless Movement
During the 1990's, the government attempted to "handle" the growing numbers of homeless persons by evicting them from public streets and/or temporarily detaining and isolating them. This is no different whatsoever from the actions taken by the government after the war as it pushed to forcefully remove and contain the lower classes with the expansion of the city. Residents and shopowners where homeless persons were most often found sided with the government and called for their expulsion.
In reaction to this, a growing number of homeless persons banded with each other, as well as groups that had been forming to support them, and collectively resisted. One example often cited is the forced eviction imposed against a corridor of cardboard houses in the west exit of Shinjuku train station in 1996. At that time, day laborers who were experienced in the union movement, young activists, artists and others came from across the country and protested against the city government. The persons who had been evicted effectively resisted later attempts by the government and police to run them out by setting up a support camp at a nearby tunnel where they cooked and provided food for each other and conducted a minimum of medical care. It was only a matter of time before successive attempts to run out homeless residents in Osaka, Nagoya, and other cities were met with resistance by the homeless themselves and their supporters. During this process, work carried out in each locale to handle homeless issues was united under the umbrella of homeless rights support, giving birth to a national network.
As unemployment and homelessness continue to grow, there has been increased popular concern for homeless issues. The population at large has begun to harbor sympathy with those facing life on the streets and voice protest over the government's lack of proper action. In the above-stated eviction from Shinjuku station, each day nearly 200,000 yen($1,800) was collected from passers-by. Homeless issues even began to be discussed in the national Diet.
As the local government began to realize that evictions would not solve the expanse of the problem, they initiated a program titled "Independence Support". This program placed homeless persons in a shelter for a fixed period of time providing minimal assistance in their search for stable work. The national government also came through with financial assistance and, unable to take responsibility for the unemployment it had itself produced, industry also backed its instatement. However, as aging laborers are essentially pushed aside and left without work, the program has yet to show any real results.

2-4 New Developments in the Homeless Movement
Now about 30 organizations of homeless people, activist/supporters, and day-lavor's unions have loose network in Japan. They provide some services of food, clothes, and flyers of some informations. They negotiate with the government or public offices in order to get the rights of homeless people. When labor problem occurs, they negotiate with the employer (mostly yakuza) of the day-laborer or homeless person. Also, there are many organizations of the Christ person supporting homeless people mainly with food service. However, they cannot have a spread to the extent that it becomes one social and political force.
As the homeless movement picked up in response to the fast encroaching need to defend and protect the lives and interests of those threatened by the insecurity of the streets, it has taken on new avenues in step with policy changes in the government.
-A number of groups have come to take their demands for social welfare and labor to the courts.
-The chorus of demands for a special bill to facilitate support for homeless persons striving for independence fueled the path to its enactment this summer.
-Homeless persons and their supporters have formed labor unions so as to reclaim work on their own.
-A group that finds persons willing to be references for homeless persons ready to move into apartments has come forward.
-Groups now collect rice and vegetables from cooperative farmers and use them in their food distributions.
In addition, based on a growing general consciousness of homeless issues as being rooted in and aggravated by globalization as well as Japan's changing industrial structure, the following activities are being carried out.
-Through support from the Asian Housing League, homeless persons from Japan travel abroad to Korea, Hong Kong, and other areas to conduct exchanges.
-International exchanges, including those with visiting activists, Palestinian freedom fighters, ATTAC from France, and the Democratic Labor Council from Korea.
-Activists travel to Amerika, Korea, France, and other countries meet with counterparts and give reports back in Japan.
-Exchanges with immigrant laborers involved in protest strikes.
-The provision of assistance to groups forming in protest of globalization.
-Participation in local and national assemblies against war and discrimination.
-Fighting alongside smaller labor unions involved in continuing strike action.
However, all of the above extend only as far as each group is individually able to take them. As a result, the overall bonds created intra-nationally and internationally concerning the labor movement remain limited.

3. Issues in the Urban Lower Class Labor Movement of Japan

The urban lower class labor movement is not limited to the homeless. In particular, laborers in the very unstable service sector face grave problems, but, as even the truth behind such labor conditions has hardly been brought to the forefront, the laborers themselves have yet to get more involved in union work. For similar reasons, no groups like Thailand's "Poor People's Alliance" have been established nor are any broad mass movements, such as France's Movement of the Unemployed seen.
This problem affects not only lower class labor movements, but the whole of Japan's labor movement as well. For example, even when international summits are held within the country, protest movements do not seem to spread to the greater part of the population, sadly reflecting the low level of citizens' general consciousness of and concern for political and social justice. That is just how thoroughly control is being exercised over laborers and the people. However, the overall situation is gradually taking a turn for the better.
Great efforts are being made to push forth and extend the movement for lower class laborers and the unemployed in Japan. The very fact that such broad movements are being organized, should make a true, strong, and genuine Japanese anti-globalization movement and a deep and lasting unity with other movements in all other lands possible.