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The other day in Hongo, Tokyo, I spotted a street vendor selling copies of The Big Issue Japan. A glossy photo of a very glamorous looking Nicole Kidman in evening dress graced the cover.
I bought a copy for the going price, 350 yen.
Not for Nicole Kidman. For the vendor.
There are some 125 street papers across the globe, part of the International Network of Street Papers, based in Glasgow, Scotland, and with a combined circulation of more than 6 million.
Street papers operate on an entrepreneurial basis. They are run and operated by the homeless and the economically marginalized, who produce and sell copies of the paper at an artificially low price to vendors, and the vendors then sell the paper on the street at a higher price to make money. They often write the articles as well, and the content covers issues critical to homeless and low-income communities.
Street papers offer a hand up – as opposed to a handout – to people who need a way to get by, to make ends meet. Most people just walk by the street vendors, unaware of who they are, or what they are selling. And that for the vendors, selling the paper presents an opportunity for low-threshold employment to people who find it difficult to obtain more conventional work due to myriad types of adversity.
I know all this because I used to edit Spare Change News, one of the INSP street papers in Boston, Mass. And I know the role street papers can play in empowering the homeless and economically downtrodden through self-employment, skills development, and self-expression.
The homeless are a population easily ignored and forgotten about by general society. And so when I saw a headline about a week ago in a major news outlet proclaiming “Homelessness in Tokyo Hits Record Low,” I wondered if that’s really true.
The survey, conducted by the Tokyo Metropolitan Government, found homelessness in Tokyo hit a record low of 1,697 this August, down from 1,877 last year. That number compares with a high of 6,731 homeless people reported in the city in 2004.
The count, however, is limited and faulty. The survey was compiled by city staff members who were asked to tally the number of homeless over the course of an August day in public parks, streets, and riverbeds. Individuals were not interviewed to confirm their status as homeless.
So the passive count of “rough sleepers” may be accurate, and it may be going down from historic highs. But the survey fails to take into account people without a permanent residence who may be sleeping in Internet cafes, fast-food restaurants, or cars. Or who are doubled or tripled or quadrupled up in an apartment, or tucked away in remote places, or otherwise out of sight and out of mind.
So even if the traditional count of the visibly homeless on an August day is going down from past counts, there is a population of invisible homeless that is missed by the count.
The count also fails to take into account the rising number of Japanese workers living in economic anxiety. The so-called precariat - “precarious proletariat,” or workers without full employment or job security – rose from 15% of the Japanese workforce in the late 1980s to 38% today.
And applications under the livelihood protection law - "seikatsu hogo" – are up sharply. That’s good news for those who get it, but not everyone can. Livelihood protection for all is an unsustainable proposition given its impact on the national debt, the largest in the developed world.
It’s easy to walk past the huddled unfortunates you see as you leave Ueno Station on your way to work, telling yourself those people must be irresponsible or lazy, else they’d have a home. And when you hear their numbers are dwindling, that seems another reason not to worry about them.
But there are no number crunchers telling us that the number of people living in economic desperation is going down. Those numbers are up. And those rough sleepers you see camped out on the street or sleeping on park benches aren’t lazy, they’re just not as lucky as you or me.
© Japan Today
20 Comments
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ArtistAtLarge
Good article.
Tessa
Come to think of it, I really have noticed fewer street people, at least in Osaka. They used to be everywhere, and "tent cities" (those distinctive blue tarp communities) used to be a common sight. What happened to them?
fds
you're welcome to help them if you want. just don't use my tax money.
nath
@fds On the contrary, I want to use your tax money :-P My concern is I just don't want to see people openly panhandling. Discretely through lame busking performances is ok. I think selling newspapers might be an improvement, but I feel there have to be solutions somewhere in the world...
CH3CHO
Zichi, "social welfare payment" (seikatsu hogo hi) for a family of 4 in Tokyo is 269,790 yen per month. http://生活保護.biz/
By properly filling out the forms, any Japanese can get that amount. Homelessness should not be a problem.
Tessa
In cases like this, males are treated shoddily anyway. I've personally witnessed this at my local town hall.
I don't know how long you've been living in Japan, but Big Issue vendors have been around for a few years, at least in Osaka. I used to walk around with a foreign (European) boyfriend who made a point of buying a Big Issue from every vendor that he saw, even if it meant buying the same magazine several times a day in a language he couldn't understand. I urged him to stop doing so, because "homelessness is not a problem in Japan." I feel ashamed of my words now.
nath
No address is a catch 22 in this country. You cannot even get a post office box. Homeless are destined to stay homeless.
Very sad.
Tikkun Olan and Tzedekah are very much needed.
CH3CHO
zichiOct. 28, 2014 - 06:45PM JST
I really hate to see this misinformation keeps spreading in the internet. Having an address has nothing to do with eligibility of social welfare payment. That is what the law says.
Now, the misinformation has spread so widely, even streetwise people tell their friends that a homeless is not eligible for the payment, contributing to certain chunk of the suicides by homeless people.
CH3CHO
zichiOct. 29, 2014 - 04:13PM JST
CH3CHO
zichiOct. 30, 2014 - 01:38PM JST
What homeless people need to do first is to see a real counselor rather than a half-baked informant, who often makes wrong advice.
A person who has no place to live is eligible for social welfare payment. Period. City welfare officials are not the kindest people around, and they use all the tricks to turn down social welfare applications. What one has to do is to stick to the letters of the law and claim the due rights. Forget about the silly "bank account" story or "connection to the area" story. They are all red herrings. Just claim, get the forms, turn in and get the money.
CH3CHO
A homeless person visits the welfare window of the city hall every month to get the cash.
Is there anything is the manual you linked that states or implies that homeless people are not eligible for welfare payment because they do not have a place of living? No, there is not.
You know that the social welfare payment includes allowance for rental housing.
Iris Delgado
It seems the non engaging non conflict aspect of the japanese culture reflects the limited options facing the homeless in japan.
nath
I buy that magazine whenever I can, part of the sales goes to the seller and helps them get back to a normal life.
In addition many of the articles are real eye openers.
Also support my local food kitchen, etc it is easy to drop to the bottom and many suffer from health or depression issues.
Help them when you can, even a short chat helps.
nath
Social welfare pays around 130.000/month of which rent is 51.800/max, rest is living expenses utilities, clothing, food, etc.
Granted on same token a Toei free pass is available and medical is 100% free but no pension coverage.
People receiving social welfare need a residential address and thus are NOT counted as homeless.