URBAN
POOR
In
present-day Japan, 80% of the 126 million population is urban. The
urban and rural poor whose income and assets cannot enable them to
sustain the minimum standard of living, are expected to be covered by
the government assistance measures to offset their earnings. Only
less than 1% of the total population receive the assistance. The
figure misleads us to grossly underestimate the magnitude of poverty.
In fact, the government has strictly controlled the local authorities
to apply the measures less and less, particularly since the 1980s.
Yet the
public assistance recipients may include some portions of the
following groups: aged singles, daily labourers, woman-headed
households, handicapped people, and those who have been living in socially discriminated settlements. Furthermore there are
emerging poor groups particularly
in urban areas who are largely excluded from
public assistance programmes institutionally or practically. They
are migrant workers said to number
one million, and homeless people in major
city centres. The homelessness perhaps represents currently the
most acute urban poverty in Japan.
THE
HOMELESS BACKGROUND
There
has been a fundamental change in human settlement situations
over last twenty years. Tokyo emerged as a core metropolis in the
globalized market during the 1980s, and this process entailed the
creation of a vast number of marginalized groups and settlements in
and outside the country. One of the first settlement impacts of the
investment concentration in major Japanese cities was jiage, or
violent uprooting, of old-timer residents from inner town areas by real estate companies which found speculative opportunities
for office space development in the
latter 1980s. Yakuza-related jiage agents harassed
and intimidated people into vacating their legally-occupied
properties. Government was by and large inactive in those
practices. "Efficient"
urban land use was thus promoted replacing low-income
housing units by high-rise buildings. Meanwhile, the cities
received an unprecedented number of immigrant workers from other Asian
and South American countries. While
a majority of "new comer" workers are
deprived of protection and welfare measures, left-over small,
dilapidated apartments in towns have been occupied by these incoming
workers.
The
bubble economy created by the excess liquidity in the financial
market blasted in the 1990s. Under the recession, many companies have
taken a decision to lay off their workers or switched to hiring more part-time workers and reduced full-timers. The worst-ever
unemployment ratio of 4.6% (over 3
million laid off workers) does not seem to
improve in a short run. According to a recent report, half of those
unemployed are 20-30 years old. On the other hand, the labour
market for construction works that traditionally absorbed the
majority of middle-aged daily
labourers have sharply shrunk.
In the
wake of this economic trend, the number of homeless people has
rapidly increased. According to a government document in early 1999,
its number is 8,660 in Osaka, 4,300 in Tokyo, 758 in Nagoya, making the total 16 thousand homeless population in 14 major
Japanese cities; the figures
apparently underestimated or already outdated, coming to
almost half of the current assessment made by NGO activists. (For
example, even Yokohama City's official statistics says the number of
its homeless residents as of August 1999 has grown 1.8 times over last
12 months). They live in tents, shacks, cardboard houses, or sleep
just on benches, in public parks, on river banks or along roads. It is
already a part of landscape of almost every major city in Japan. A
majority of them are single, male, daily-wage labourers who once contributed to the economic expansion as construction
workers, though more recent
homeless people include dismissed younger workers, and
according to a female journalist, 10% of the homeless in Tokyo are
women.
The
traditional and persistent attitude of the public is to view the
homeless to be idle, antipathetic to living with others, dirty and
dangerous. They are often harassed, and sometimes killed by citizen
groups particularly youngsters. Such public stigma has also prompted
many local authorities to forcibly evict homeless people from public
space. Former Tokyo Governor Aoshima, after a violent forced
eviction by his government, spoke,
"They hold a peculiar type of thinking (of
choosing a life on pavement)". However our survey of 200, out
of
estimated
1500, homeless people in Nagoya in August 1999 show that
more than 60% of them became homeless for the first time in 1998-99.
75% of the homeless quoted unemployment as the major cause of their
homelessness, while less than 10 % listed other reasons such as family
problems, human relations and financial debt.
The same
survey also indicates that, for 43% of them, the previous
residence immediately before the present homeless situation was
related to employers company dormitories, company-rented apartments,
or construction site accommodations. It suggests the vulnerability
of the poor that once employment
opportunities lost, they were alienated from
even a place to live.
SOME
APPROACHES
In
Nagoya, a daily worker Mr. K. Hayashi filed a case against the
Nagoya City Hall in 1993. Due to the prolonged recession he became
homeless, and he could not find a job because of his age and the pain
on his leg. He applied for the public assistance measures for
livelihood and housing. The City approved the medical assistance only.
The City's decision was in line with the ministerial policy that
practically denied the entitlement of the homeless to the welfare
measures just because they had no residence. Despite the fifty-year old legislation on public assistance that guarantees equal
aŠ„]~s to public life support
programmes "irrespective of reasons for poverty", it has become rather a customary practice of local
authorities not to extend such
measures unless an established residence is proved. In
Kobe, after the Great Earthquake in 1995, people staying in evacuation
centres were also refused to apply for the assistance, on account of
non-established residence. Mr. Hayashi's case provoked a movement
among supporters and social welfare activists to demand the government
to assure every citizen of the constitutional right to the minimum
standard of living. The case won the local court, but lost in the high
court.
There
are about 400 homeless people living in Shibuya ward, an inner-city spot in Tokyo. They, together with supporters,
built solidarity through common
activities such as free meals and night patrolling.
They tried to sleep collectively on the pavement. Their
organization is called Nojiren (implying Freedom Association for
Livelihood and Housing Rights of the Homeless). By early 1999, they became aware that the administration was not serious in
helping them get job and shelter.
It was also felt difficult to keep alive the
community efforts only by confronting the authorities. The Nojiren
then started self-managed activities, the movement of a new type at
least in the Japanese context. Some younger homeless fellows built four temporary structures in a less visible place in a
near-by park, with tacit
recognition from the authorities. These are easily
dismantled in case of eviction, but used temporarily by colleagues who
luckily get a regular job but still cannot afford to rent a room. The
Nojiren has also created a community reserve fund. It lends money to
fellow colleagues in need of transportation expenses while looking for
jobs. They in turn contribute to this fund by sharing a portion of
their first wages.
Some
Nojiren members are formerly professional cooks. They prepare
lunches and cakes to be brought jointly to various public gatherings
for sale, and contribute partly to the community fund. Other members
collect recycle materials, exchange job information. The homeless are
thus beginning to manage their own funds. Up till now the magnitude of
the fund is insignificant, but people find meaning in this. While
homeless people were made to feel themselves useless, they are now
recovering the human dignity by working together and enjoying the
common experience. Furthermore some go to rural farms and work during harvest seasons. They have found a piece of idle land, and
are negotiating with the owner so
that the Nojiren could rent it as a community
farm.
GOVERNMENT
RESPONSE
The
central government, finally made aware of the seriousness of the
rapid increase in the homeless population, convened an inter-agency
working group on the issue with participation of representatives of five major cities, and discussed several immediate measures.
It is reported that in that process
most of the city representatives requested
for new legislation enabling them to "smoothly evict"
homeless people from public places. While the working group is likely
to propose intensifying some control measures, it has also identified
measures promoting employment, establishing local support centres for
self-reliance, and preventing communicable diseases. However the
wording is very vague without legal and financial reference, and final
configurations of new measures are yet to be seen.
The government, central and local, did and perhaps still does neither admit nor recognize the existence of homeless population. They have simply claimed that public land must be cleared for public use and resorted to forced eviction, and they have refused to extend welfare measures to homeless people, making strange remarks that required examination and follow-up are not possible for those without residence. The change of government attitude depends largely on heightened awareness by the general public on the human rights standards, an aspect on which Japanese society is seriously retarded. And the effectiveness of anticipated new measures will have to be implemented with activated civic society organizations, an approach for which Japanese have much to learn from other Asian societies.