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Homeless People in Japan

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Homeless People in Japan Homeless People in Japan: Characteristics, Processes and Policy Responses1) Yusuke KAKITA Introduction 1. Discussion The first ‘National Survey of Homeless People’ was held in Japan in January and February 2003 and the results were published in the following month of March2). According to this survey, in which I participated, it is estimated that there are currently more than 25,000 homeless people in Japan. This paper, by analyzing the national survey results, aims at disclosing the characteristics of homeless people in Japan. In addition, I would like to relate the process of falling into homelessness and the occupation and housing conditions of homeless people before they became homeless. I will insist on the importance of social security and social welfare systems as a safety net to protect people to fall into homelessness. Finally, I would like to discuss the policy responses extended to homeless people. 2. On the Term ‘Homeless People’ In Japan, ‘homeless people’ (hōmuresu) and ‘rough sleepers’ (nojuku seikatsusha) are words that are used in a similar way. However, I would like first to raise readers’ attention on the point that there is a clear distinction between ‘homeless people’ or the state of homelessness and ‘rough sleepers’ or the state of sleeping rough. For example in the European context, ‘rough sleepers’ are people who do not have a ‘house’ to live in, and they sleep outdoors. ‘Homeless people’ are more generally those with unstable or insufficient housing conditions. Consequently, rough sleepers are included in the more general homeless definition. They represent a particular type of homeless people. Such taxonomic differences between Japan and Europe have a significant impact on policy making. In the European case, because of an extended definition of ‘homeless people,’ policy generally includes preventive measures and the provision of stable dwelling places to people at risk of becoming rough sleepers. On the contrary in Japan, as the official definition of ‘homeless people’ was made in the ‘Law on Special Measures for Self-Sufficiency Support for Homeless People,’ the term ‘homeless people’ refers exclusively to ‘rough sleepers.’ So in Japan, homeless people do not include people who are living in unstable housing such as laborer’s lodgings (hanba) 7 Shidai Shakaigaku No. 5 or cheap lodging houses (doya), or people who are dependent on friends or relatives to get a place to sleep. These people are not yet a major concern of Japanese policy on homeless people, and measures that could prevent them to fall into sleeping rough are lacking. I believe that ‘homeless people’ and ‘rough sleepers’ should be clearly differentiated, but in this paper, I use, with necessary warnings, the Japanese official definition of ‘homeless people,’ which strictly refers to ‘rough sleepers.’ 3. Materials Used to Discuss the Topic Before starting the analysis, allow me to present an outline of the national survey on homeless people in Japan conducted in 2003. The survey was planned under the auspices of the ‘Law on Special Measures for Self-Sufficiency Support for Homeless People,’ enforced in August 2002. Based on the results of the survey and public hearings on it, the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare compiled its ‘Basic Policy on Self-Sufficiency Support for Homeless People’3) at the end of July, and now each local authority is designing its own action plan to put the Policy into practice. The national survey was composed of two pillars: a quantitative rough estimation of the number of homeless people in Japan, and a qualitative investigation concerning homeless people’s daily life and current status. The former was conducted simultaneously by all the municipalities throughout Japan. The latter was conducted in municipalities having a particularly high proportion of homeless people and the total number of investigated subjects reached 2,163. The subjects were interviewed face to face and were asked various questions including questions about their daily life, how they started their homeless life, their needs and requests, etc. A uniformed questionnaire format was used. Due to the fact that the national survey result just shows a simple tabulation of figures, I use to reinforce my analysis and assure its integrity another similar survey conducted in 2001 by Osaka Prefectural Government (hereinafter Osaka Prefecture Survey of 2001)4). 1. General Characteristics of Homeless People in Japan 1.1. Geographical Distribution of Homeless People Table 1 shows the estimated number of homeless people by prefecture based on the rough estimation survey, which says there are 25,296 homeless people throughout Japan. The noteworthy thing is that most of them are concentrated in prefectures where large cities are located. Especially, more than a half of them live in Tokyo and Osaka, the former accounting for 6,361 and the latter 7,757. Aichi Prefecture, of which the prefectural capital is Nagoya City, the third largest city in Japan, has 2,121 homeless people. Thus the number of homeless people in Osaka, Tokyo and Aichi totals 16,239, accounting for two-thirds of all the homeless people in Japan. As Table 1 clearly shows, though most homeless people are living in large cities, they are found throughout all the 47 prefectures in Japan. 8 Homeless People in Japan Table 1: Total and Rough Sleepers Populations by Prefecture No. of No. of Prefecture Population Homeless People Prefecture Population Homeless People (As of Oct.2000) (Jan.to Feb. 2003) (As of Oct.2000) (Jan.to Feb. 2003) Hokkaido 5,683,062 142 Shiga 1,342,832 57 Aomori 1,475,728 16 Kyoto 2,644,391 660 Iwate 1,416,180 18 Osaka 8,805,081 7,757 Miyagi 2,365,320 222 Hyogo 5,550,574 947 Akita 1,189,279 13 Nara 1,442,795 14 Yamagata 1,244,147 24 Wakayama 1,069,912 90 Fukushima 2,126,935 43 Tottori 613,289 13 Ibaragi 2,985,676 130 Shimane 761,503 4 Tochigi 2,004,817 134 Okayama 1,950,828 65 Gunma 2,024,852 87 Hiroshima 2,878,915 231 Saitama 6,938,006 829 Yamaguchi 1,527,964 33 Chiba 5,926,285 668 Tokushima 824,108 14 Tokyo 12,064,101 6,361 Kagawa 1,022,890 46 Kanagawa 8,489,974 1,928 Ehime 1,493,092 85 Niigata 2,475,733 74 Kochi 813,949 23 Toyama 1,120,851 24 Fukuoka 5,015,699 1,187 Ishikawa 1,180,977 22 Saga 876,654 41 Fukui 828,944 24 Nagasaki 1,516,523 41 Yamanashi 888,172 51 Kumamoto 1,859,344 124 Nagano 2,215,168 37 Oita 1,221,140 39 Gifu 2,107,700 86 Miyazaki 1,170,007 22 Shizuoka 3,767,393 465 Kagoshima 1,786,194 80 Aichi 7,043,300 2,121 Okinawa 1,318,220 158 Mie 1,857,339 46 Total 126,925,843 25,296 Source: Statistics Bureau, Ministry of Public Management, Home Affairs, Posts and Telecommunications (2002); Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare (2003). 1.2. Gender and Age of Homeless People Out of 2,163 homeless people surveyed in the qualitative survey, 2,014 or 95.2% of them were male and 101 or 4.8% were female (See figure 1). Almost all the homeless people are, thus, male. As figure 2 clearly shows, most of the subjects are in their 50s and 60s. Average age is 55.9. The data clearly demonstrate that most homeless people in Japan are male and middle-aged or older5). 1.3. Living Status of Homeless People Most homeless people build a small tent or a simple cabin using waste wood and blue plastic sheeting to cover their ‘house’ and live in it (Picture 1). Most of such tents and cabins are found in parks, riverbanks and on the road. The national survey, conducted in winter, found that some homeless people did not have cabins or tents to live in, and had no means of protection from the weather except blankets and cardboard boxes. A few wore only a jumper, 9 Shidai Shakaigaku No. 5 Figure 1: Homeless People by Gender Figure 2: Age Distribution of Homeless People % % Picture 1: Homeless People’s Tents in a Park lacking even blankets and cardboard boxes to protect them from the cold weather. As for the place of sleeping, 1,891 respondents or 84.1% answered they had a fixed place to sleep. This high rate is understandable because the survey was targeting homeless people sleeping in a fixed place. However, taking into account other surveys on homeless people, this is a typical trend of homeless people in Japan. Figure 3 shows the length of homeless periods. People with less than three years’ experience of homelessness comprised 56.3% of the total respondents, while those with less than one year comprised 30.7%. In terms of jobs and income base of homeless people, 1,400 respondents (64.7%) have some means to earn income. The fact that nearly two-thirds of respondents had a source of income is quite a noteworthy characteristic when speaking of homeless people in Japan. In other words, many homeless people do not make their living by begging, but by working. Speaking of job types, 1,011 respondents, or 73.3% of those with a source of income, earned money by collecting and selling waste products such as cans (Picture 2), followed by 234 respondents or 17.0% working as day laborers on construction sites. 10 Homeless People in Japan However, the amount of income paid Figure 3: Homeless Periods to homeless people is not sufficient to % secure a decent level of life. It is said that waste can collection brings in as little as 1,000 yen a day.
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