The Dark Secret Behind Japan's 0% Homelessness Rate 

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N.O.P.E. - 30 yr veteran of Japan here. Born and raised in 東京. There are PLENTY of homeless people in Japan. But, you don’t see them during the day because most of them make ends meet with menial jobs. After 1700hrs, you’ll see them in parks, under bridges, under the highway intersections and along 隅田川, the largest river in Tokyo. Most parks are filled with the homeless at nights in Tokyo. I’ve gotten to know many of them at night when I was a kid.

hi, Japanese here. homeless issue is deeply connected with life protection benefit (welfare benefit for poverty). The government provide life protection benefit 2million people max as if there is a quota, which means the government reject to provide help for some people who actually cannot stand by themaelves. these people who were rejected to be supplied life protection benefit by government will be likely homeless. this is the country ,people in needs cannot reach proper information to get help. i must say why people become homeless has various backgroud but mental health(depression) issue is one of the biggest factor. homeless people in Japan does not talk or try to mingle with society neither try to escape to drug, but they are facing the potential risk of suicide. the reason why men tend to be homless more than women is women in poverty tend to work as sex workers. there is other hell with women. I trurely wish our society accept failure of life and supoort chance of rebuilt. also wish people pay attention for mental health issue more seriously.

I was homeless in Australia for 4 years, I lived out of an internet cafe for 95% of this time. Started off paying 30 dollars a day for 18 hours of cubicle time, 5 dollars for 2 meals a day and unlimited water. After spending 2 thousand dollars I was upgraded to VIP which was 24 dollars per day for 24 hours of time. 370 AUD and I had a roof over my head and 2 meals a day with uncapped internet service. The owner of that net cafe saved my life by his care and understanding and not just kicking me out when I was sleeping, he and his workers would even tell police officers to stop waking us up when they came in for inspections. Jun you legend of a Human, thank you from the bottom of my heart mate, you not only helped me but you helped out dozens of us who just fell prey to a terrible government.

Asking any government to report on their own performance is like asking a student to grade their own exam papers. So regardless of what any official figures state, they'll never be trustworthy or accurate because even "independant" assessors can't risk upsetting the same people who appointed them to the role in the first place.

As a Japanese, I can confirm this looks throughly neutre and true. The homeless problem is omnipresent, but the government “hides” the real number to be the cleanest country. I have this acquaintance of which a family member was “homeless”, the family entirely disappeared one day because of the social harassment by neighbors calling them “shame of neighborhood” and socially isolating them. Japan is in a sense very disciplined country, but for me it’s too intolerant. You did one mistake, people treats you with that mistake for life…We are humain, we do mistakes🫡

i lived in the mangakissa (cyber cafe) for 2 months. it was good and the people are nice. there is showers, water and food available. Its is safe and really good alternative to sleeping on the street

I lived in Okinawa for 7 years and would always use the manga cafes in large cities like Tokyo and Osaka as a cheap getaway (compared to a more expensive option like AirBnB). Everyone looked so clean and well-kept, it never occurred to me that they were basically homeless and using the cafes as a residence. I only had one negative encounter with a homeless person my entire time in Japan - it was a mentally-ill woman who followed me for 3 blocks in Osaka screaming at me "urusai!" (Shut up!) for no reason.

I went homeless and was on the street for years, getting diagnosed with ptsd, and major depressive disorder got me the help I needed, but I'm one of the lucky ones

I live in Nagoya, Japan. I’ve been in this country for almost 11 yrs, and there’s plenty of homeless people around. It’s really a sad sight to see. 😢

One of the trippy things, as a resident of Japan, I see homeless camps everywhere, some even within city centers and fashions districts, for instance the Sakae area in Nagoya, there's a homeless community parked under the elevated highway with dozens of tents and ramshackle huts of plywood, corrugated metal and plastic tarps. There are metal bins for warmth and lots of litter. Japan is just really, really good at ignoring negative aspects of Japan, aggressively so.

I was working in the US under a work visa and my job provided housing for me but very low monrhly pay. When the job location moved, they were unable to provide me with housing so I lived in my Bronco for 3 years on the streets of Los Angeles circa 2004. I met hundreds of people in a similar situation and about a dozen of us would communicate with each other on a daily basis about the availability of the best spots to park at night. It had its rough moments for sure but I'm glad I went through that experience as I'm much older now with my own family and a roof over our heads.

Thank you so much for this video!

Canada had very close to 0% homelessness until the 1980s, when all the mental hospitals were shut down. People asked “What will happen to the residents of the mental hospitals after they are closed.” No answer was given. However, after the mental hospitals closed, the number of homeless people obviously increased.

Strict drug laws are not the reason why Japan has low rates of drug use. There's lots of countries with strict drug laws that have huge problems with it. There's low use rates there because Japan's culture very strongly emphasises being law-abiding and to not doing anything too far out of the accepted norm.

I have been to Tokyo 3 times, there are homeless all over Akihabara and I have also seen homeless in other areas. To say there is no homelessness is a lie by the government.

I used to live in Okinawa. The poorest prefecture in Japan. Homeless people were a common sight, along with people missing a suspicious amount of teeth. You'd even see people having deep conversations with absolutely no one. Most people don't know this side of Okinawa because they're tourists or US military, but Okinawa has some of the most ghetto places in all of Japan. It really is Japan's version of Hawaii. Even the history of how Japan has treated Okinawa reflects the US's treatment of Hawaii and its natives.

I used to volunteer to feed the homeless in Yokosuka. They were so nice when I gave them packets of noodle, they handed me gifts of origami crane, it was really sweet. I wanted to cry. It's too sad.

I dont wish being homeless on my worst enemy. I was homeless for about a month. Worst time in my entire life. I held a job for 3 weeks of the month. I lost it because my phone died one night and I was 2 hours late for my shift, only a month into having it. The misquotes and ants would eat you up at night so it was impossible to sleep. Being in Tx you'd be drenched in sweat at night trying to sleep. Simple things youd take for granted, like water, would be a hour walk away from a 24 hour gas station sink. Was rough af.

All of this was news to me. What an eye-opener. Thanks for the video.

This was a revelation , Thank You,

I volunteer at food bank charity in Tokyo, plenty of homeless and severely poverty stricken people lining up there. Your point about mental health issues being taken care of by the health system is technical correct, however mental health is a very taboo subject here and most people wouldn’t seek help which is obviously a huge contributing factor to the real homeless rate.

I saw a story on Japanese news a couple years ago that affected me strongly. There was a middle-aged woman who worked part-time as a food demonstrator (sample lady) in supermarkets. She couldn't afford an apartment, so she slept on a bus stop bench at night. She kept her lifestyle a secret from relatives because she didn't want to worry them. One night a local man with mental issues came up and demanded she get up so he could sit down on the bench. She ignored him, probably hoping he would go away. This made him so angry that he hit her with a plastic bottle full of rocks that he was carrying, unliving her. He was eventually caught or turned himself in, I don't remember which. What a terrible life she must have had.

Spent a total of 9 months in Japan. I saw homeless people, but they are kept from the spotlight, out of sight out of mind. I was actually chased off by police when I tried to take a picture of the cardboard houses.

Good job on the video brother

Weird. The dark secret seemed lighter than my country. I used to study at cafe located in train station near by where I used to study. I witnessed a lot of homeless people trying to rest in the public resting corner of the station. Some may be trying to sleep while sitting on a chair, and or some just killing times enjoying a safe place to stay, non of them beg for money nor bothering people. One day, I found out that no more homeless people showing up in the station any more. It made me suspicious, but till one day, I found out what actually happened. The guard shout at a homeless person who was sleeping on a stool, and chased him off the station. He used the radio asking his colleague to make sure the homeless person didn’t return. At first I thought maybe the homeless person did something bad and is on the black list, but same thing happened to other homeless people. The weather report said there will be cold snap coming in, and it sure did, multiple times. I kind of worry the homeless person will be freeze to death since I already saw him curling up like a worm shivering on the road trying to get some sleep for a while. He was very skinny, I could see his rib bones from the front. I gave him a sleeping bag, a pillow, several clothes and jackets, pants, heat pockets and socks. Some money ,food ,and a big bag to carry these things as well. He thanked me, and that’s the last time we ever spoke. After that, I got some problems in my life to solve, and not able to go to that area for months. When I finally went to that area again, I found out that many familiar homeless faces disappeared. I thought they made it and quit the homeless life, but when I asked one of the homeless person I’m familiar with, he told me the answer. There was a big election around that time, and since it was a tourist spot, these homeless person and beggars were very kindly asked to move there ass, since they will make the major look bad. Himself returned there since the election ended a few months ago, and he thought it may be safe now to come back. The homeless person that I gave the supplies, he didn’t make it. Many of the homeless people didn’t make it, since the cold snap was worse and longer than previous years. Only those who know how to survive as a homeless survived, and others were just wiped out. And this, is our secret to how my city remain the homeless rate. You can’t be homeless if you are dead.

I was homeless as a youth and now live a relatively wealthy life. To forget how it felt, to become wasteful or ridicule the suffering of others would be to forget who I am. There are very few legal paths back up from the gutter. Falling through the cracks can make you change who you are just to get by without humiliation. That’s no life. A nation is judged by how they treat the least of their people.

The more I learn about Japan the more I have to review my positive view on the country.

What shines through for me is the fact that stamping out hard drugs would hugely alleviate homelessness in the US. Also, we could help a lot of homeless people with practical accommodations, instead of the foolish idea that every homeless person should have their own full-size apartment, paid for w/ public funds. Japan shows that initiative & respectability come from within. Can you imagine them tolerating graffiti, urine, broken windows & doors (basically willful full scale destruction) & terrorizing helpless neighbors in public housing? A large part of our problem in the US is entitlement, bad attitude & lack of discipline. God forbid, we not be "nice"!

I run a Food Not Bombs chapter in Yokosuka; Japan absolutely has a homelessness problem. We feed the homeless every month, and we also worked with other groups like Tokyo Spring that feed the homeless. Also the censuses only count those that are visibly homeless at any given time; in reality the numbers are significantly higher than Japan wants to admit.

I'm a westerner who's lived in Japan over 15 years. To be honest, I liked the fact that I could go downtown without anyone asking me for money. I wondered where the homeless people were, but then I found out. There's the blue tarp phenomenon. A lot of homeless people get a hold of a relative cheap tarp. For some reason most of those are blue in Japan. They use that for shelter under bridges, in certain parks, along rivers, and in the woods, amongst other places. For a while I was working in Yokohama. Kannai Station attracts homeless people because there are underground pedestrian passages where they can set up some cardboard and whatever else they have to sleep on. One day, I saw a pretty rough-looking homeless guy walking around, with his pants falling off. It was really sad to see a businessman in a suit laughing at him. That kind of person is a lot worse than the typical homeless person. To not understand that you've got it better and that you too could be in a bad situation is pretty pathetic. Thinking back, I'm not sure that I've ever been asked for money in Japan, whereas in the old country, it would be a daily experience as long as I was out and about. A couple of times I've given homeless people food. I was surprised to see some guy sitting in the corner of a local train station. I bought him some food at the convenience store there because I had seen him earlier. When I gave it to him he seemed honestly surprised and asked me how I knew he was hungry. There's definitely homelessness in Japan, but it's a whole different thing compared to western countries.

That's strange, because when I was in Japan, I saw homeless. I slept in the same city parks with them.

II find this topic interesting and have seen people cover this a few times throughout the years. Cool video. ^_^

me and a couple of my friends each rented a overnight internet cafe room a couple weeks ago when we visited osaka. we only did it because our hotel was in tokyo and we wanted to experience dotonbori at night. I can't say i'd ever do it again, it wasn't a very pleasant experience. the room was small, smelt bad and of course i feel bad for increasing demand for these rooms.

I visited Japan in 2005. I took a walk in the early morning in Toyko. There were some homeless people along the street. However, the police chased them away so that they would not be seen. That was quite a while ago. However, I realized that many countries are not truthful with their social proclamations, whether they concern homeless people or the high educational achievement of their school systems.

I had heard of the "lost generation" in Japan before, but it was presented in comparison to the "silent generation" in the U.S. - those that experienced the Great Depression and came into maturity during WWII

The psudo-homelesness people living in cyber cafe's is an interesting thing I never made a connection between. It also amazes me that cigarettes' still aren't classified as a drug. If you added that in for Japan you would probably see a 70% plus rate of drug usage. Smoking is super common from what I have learned but I have never gotten the chance to visit.

while i was in korea (i know, entirely different country and culture), i noticed their spas were dirt cheap and you can literally use one as a hotel. just pay for the night (super cheap), grab a mat, and go to sleep. i did this while i was on a weekend pass just to try it for myself. i even remember thinking "holy shit, this is an option if things go south in the US". well, now i'm home and things are looking kinda south

if you compare this to normal homelessness this is a MUCH better option. other videos show that some of these net cafes are like proper hotels with free food, internet access and good HVAC. only thing holding it back is Japan's abysmal government and society shaming these people into recluses and staying there forever. i'm surprised there are no NGOs made yet to help these people try to join the regular workforce. if done right these could become temporary rehabilitation centers that serve this purpose while providing them a place to stay. edit: nice job dom this video blew up, 1.5M views, could this be your most viewed vid on the channel?

A night of august 2015 in Tokyo I actually met (basically said "kampaï" that mean "cheers" passing aside of them and they invited me to share) a group of japanese homeless peoples (in thé red district of Shibuya or Harajuku I think) 2 of them spoke really fluidly english (due to travels if I remember well) something that isnt that common in Japan, and they was helping other ones among this Tokyo homeless community , I hope they're good right now

It’s crazy how many homeless we have in the US. Just here in my area, more & more people have taken to panhandling on intersection corners holding a sign saying they’re homeless. It’s so common now & it’s actually made a lot of people wonder if they’re all actually homeless. To my knowledge, the most successful one was an older man who held a sign that said “Not going to lie, I need beer money.” He actually wracked up quite a bit just for being honest about it. I’m not sure if that’s good or bad though.. lol

I didn't hear this problem mentioned. The problem of acute social withdrawal called Hikikomori: "...cooping oneself up in one's own home and not participating in society for six months or longer..." This is another social problem in Japan that is swept under the rug out of sight of main stream society. It has been going on for over 20 years.

Definitely it’s not zero homeless rate in Japan because I can find homeless people living in tents in some parks. Another thing to share is, when I came to Tokyo in the late 90s, there was even a very visible and sizeable “homeless village” right outside the west exit of the extremely busy Shinjuku Station. It’d been there for years but people just walked by pretending they saw nothing. Only after a small fire after 2000 did the police finally take action, and forcibly dismantled the tents. Later I learned that the homeless living there were only driven to the nearby parks in the quieter areas in Shinjuku.

Japanese homeless dont tend to beg for money or disturb or inconvenience others. They seem to have a high sence of honor and pride in being good people and keep to themselves for the most part at least in the countryside. Almost like they dont want to be bothered themselves but in my experience, I greet them like I would anyone else because they are humans too and they appreciate it. Many times they are treated like living ghosts passing by.

That is so sad, I thought Ireland was bad but we had a famine where nearly everyone was effected so the populous have some heart when it comes to this 💚

The sad part is almost everyone thinks homeless people got that way from the way they want to live, and completely forget that they are 3 pays away from being homeless themselves. Many of those people couldn't really care less what happens to the homeless, and that's why it's the problem it is. They think it can't happen to THEM, but guaranteed, it can. One layoff, one house fire, one car accident, one landlord being unreasonable, yep it sure can.

I lived in Japan in the 1970s, and there were homeless people even back then, mostly living in and around train stations. The numbers had increased when I came back in the 1980s.

I was in Japan in September. There were streets in Osaka like Skid Row, it was full of homeless, even people taking a piss outside of convenience stores under zero shelter, just whipping it out.

Interesting video, thank you for shedding light on this topic. You what else i have never heard anyone talk about? How disabled people function in Japan. You NEVER see them, hear about them, etc. Invisible or visible disabilities. I know lots of Americans who want to work in Japan but just physically can't hack the workplace hours and wouldn't be expected to in the US, myself included.

I was just in Tokyo. There were multiple people living in cardboard boxes at the pedestrian underpass at the Metropolitan Government building in Shinjuku. There were also a few in one other pedestrian tunnel we went through. I do have to say though, no pan handling, no bad odor, they appeared to clean up the area during the day and only camped at night. All the locals completely ignored them. Police never rousted them during the ten days we were there which surprised me as it was at the Metropolitan building.

providing access to shower, food and laundry is at least in part a helping hand. they should have this feature everywhere else. Beyond that, may be these cafes can provide an address for the person which can be used in job applications. in this day and age, when every human is catalogued and put in the data base, via national id number, etc, it is inexcusable to deny people jobs because they dont have a house address...that is so unfair.

Whatever they're doing, we need it here in CA. I was stationed in Japan in the early 2000s, it was gorgeous for how crowded it is

Nice to see footages from Boiling Point (one of my favorite Japanese deadpan comedy by Beat Takeshi) in this vid.

I lived in Japan for 40 years. Homeless people in Japan are not violent and do not do drugs. They do not even ask passersby for money. Some of them collect recycled goods and turn them into money, but many live on the little money and coupons they receive from the government.

I never tried drugs and still became homeless. I have scoliosis, herniated discs, sciatica, tendinosis, overactive bladder, and possibly IBS. I'm medically limited to desk work and struggle to get interviewed despite having a BA and MA.

Very Interesting 🤔

What is the name of the piano track that was playing in the background?

I was fortunate enough to take a tour of Japan through my high school a little over 10 years ago. We saw a park where several homeless people were gathered. Our tour guide pointed them out and said something along the lines of that it was very troubling because it was easy to freeze to death. She said that it was very difficult to help them because they are sick. She seemed pretty compassionate toward them, and she was very nice in general.

I lived in Japan for 4 years when I was in the Navy. Not only is homelessness a stigma for them but they hate foreigners. One time when I was going back to base after a night out with my friends, I saw a homeless man holding out his hand and in his hand was a cup. I looked inside my pocket and found some change 500Y and some other coins. I walked by him and dropped the coins into his cup. The homeless man looked at me and realized a foreigner had taken pity on him, he yelled "Gaijin!!!!" he tossed all the coins in his cup at me and spat on the ground. I shrugged. At the end of the day he is going to be homeless and proud of his xenophobic heritage while I sleep on a warm comfortable bed. Life is funny like that.

Los Angeles, CA they ride the metro trains until they get thrown off at the last stop at 4AM. Some ride busses all night. There's bathrooms on trains and they can sleep sitting up. They have to wait from 4AM to 5:30 to get back on the trains.

I spent about 2 weeks in Japan recently, in Tokyo, Osaka and Kyoto. I only saw maybe 3 people that seemed homeless the whole time. All in the same area near Shibuya in Tokyo. Living in a cyber cafe is something completely different than living in the streets which is what people think when they say homeless.

Fascinating. I live in Tokyo but I never knew that. I did notice that there are far less homeless on the streets than 10 years ago. I also noticed how the newer net cafes have completely enclosed rooms with a lock. I thought it was overkill for a few hours of renting internet but I also thought it must be nice for people who lived off of net cafes. seeing this video everything makes sense now.

The U.S. employs a lot of these same tactics. I work in a public library. From my work with the public, I am well aware that the typical person who is experiencing homelessness likely has temporary or part-time employment, appears neat and tidy, and does not fit the stereotype that most folks have in their minds. People often pay for temporary shelter in motels, sleep in their cars in places like Walmart parking lots, take RVs to campsites with monthly rental rates, "couch surf," etc. Some people even try to stay in storage units. Some shelters do charge residents a fee. Other shelters have strict rules regarding drugs, alcohol, work requirements, and time limits for how long a person can stay. Inhospitable design is very much a feature of many American cities. In my hometown, the city removed the tables and benches from the public park nearest my workplace because the customers of a nearby business complained about the type of people who gathered there. The city also added useless metal grommets to a bench-height retaining wall that surrounds the garden. The purpose? To make it too uncomfortable to lay down, of course. We have our fair share of folks who are noticeably, obviously experiencing homelessness, but there are many that you don't see.

Human capacity to produce suffering and intolerance of every kind remains appalling as ever.

In Akihabara under the bridge I always saw alot of cardboard boxes with homeless people sleeping in it

"Out of sight, out of mind" seems to be a really common principle in Japan, and this video does a great job of explaining why that is. There's such a huge emphasis throughout several Asian countries on reputation -- and while there are some good things that come of such social pressures, a lot of suffering/problems can also just be pushed into the shadows. A problem like this "working homeless" issue could likely be fixed if the government would at least admit it existed. I see some parallels in the US criminalization of homelessness though -- we just throw people in jail in a similar way to "hide" them. And the underlying issues (addiction, poverty, etc.) remain unsolved. But it's not about emphasis on reputation here, it's about American ideals of "pull yourself up by your bootstraps" and a distaste for social programs that get unfairly called "handouts."

Those net cafe refugees may be leading a life much better than those who actually have to sleep in the rough, but the lack of a permanent address is a real obstacle for them in their quest for a permanent job. A permanent address may not be necessary for part time job or gig work, but a permanent job in an established company definitely needs one. The lack of such essentially means that they face a lot of challenges to move out from their current dire strait situation.

What was that music in the last few minutes? It sounded very contemplative and a bit sorrowful.

I was not ready for thatttttttt.....

Bloody brilliant that you've brought awareness to this systematic and sad issue. "A problem kept out of sight is a problem easily ignored" that accounts for SO many problems with the World right now, my goodness! How easily industry and governments keep things hidden from the public.

I was in Tokyo and took to jogging in the local park and there was this hidden section behind some trees. It was a mini homeless city. You can't see it from outside.

Salute to your bravery for showing us the dark reality behind the government claims of Japan .

You should do Singapore. Apparently, the homeless simply "disappear" there. Nobody seems to know what happens to them, or at least they're not telling.

I don't know, speaking as someone who was a homeless street musician in America for a year, I would have been grateful for something like this. It sure would have beat sleeping outside.

On July 1 2003 I was coming up the escalator from the Subway at Hakata Station in Fukuoka at midnight. All over the floor inside the station were homeless people sleeping on sheets of cardboard. I wonder if that’s still happening. I went there a few times after that but never again at midnight.

Anybody else had off grid power ad in this video?

Thank you for this well-put-together video. I lived in Osaka for many years and saw the homeless population in the central city grow, be moved, coalesce in a new area. The cyber-cafes phenomenon is very real, and there's also "Triangle Park" near Shin-Imamiya station, a kind of semi-lawless zone where homeless, or barely housed, people are the norm. I lived nearby for a year. You've hit the nail on the head here, and the clips of "Tampopo" to illustrate 1980s Japan were a lovely touch!

As a westerner who's worked with American homeless this seems better. Cyber cafe dont have the stigma and they are still maintaining good appearances which could be a sign of mental health and still working (hasnt lost all hope) is pretty amazing.

The Matrix parable. Souls are surviving and have shelter, but they are dependent on the system, and if they are "exposed", the system cuts them off.

Retsuko highlights this pretty well. How people become homeless, living in a cyber cafe, and doing small time work. And how they become invisible even to their own family.

When I grew up we had almost no homeless people in Sweden, because the state supported everyone who needed it, except a few who resisted it. Then things changed and unfortunately we have many homeless people now and it's very cold in the winter.

I studied in Japan a few years ago, for context I was coming from Seattle where we have a MASSIVE homeless problem and I remember going to give a homeless man who I saw a few dollars and I got so many dirty looks from passerbys. Probably one of the only times I felt like I’d actively done something against that culture and it definitely stood out.

I stayed at an internet cafe in Japan when I visited, it was epic!

This really makes me think of Shikabane from Aggretsuko

It's been about twenty years since I have been to Japan. However, I saw a lot of homeless people camping out on subway platforms and inside city parks. Unlike in the US, they were generally much more circumspect. For instance, at the park, they would camp out inside the bushes rather than on the benches.

Great video dude, I've only seen one other video on youtube address this topic, iirc it was vice or something like that. Addressing a topic that isn't often covered. SE Asia in general is a nightmare in terms of work culture.

Great documentary. Thanks for this important study. Carrying for people who fall out of the main economy is an ever-increasing global problem.

So that proves that homelessness and poverty is an inevitable thing that any society faces, even Japan, especially Japan

I am originally from Helsinki, but I have lived in Southern California most of my life. In Helsinki today, I understand that homeless people are given homes, nothing fancy, but safe, they can go to work. Here in Los Angeles if you leave your encampment, your stuff may well be gone when you return, you are stuck, it is tough to get a job under those conditions.

They covered the cyber cafe homelessness in the latest season of Aggretsuko. While it wouldn't completely fix the issue, I feel like pod hotels and more efficiency apartments would help in the US. Temp/part time work is a bit of a problem in the US too. The big gap isn't just wages but benefits vs no benefits.

Actually saw a homeless person on a river bridge in Tokyo (Saw far more homeless in LA tent cities last year).

Welfare in Australia is such that no one has to be homeless, yet there are people who actually prefer sleeping in a cardboard tent.

I wonder if they have what we call "Tafeln" in Germany? These are places run by volunteers where food is dispensed for people in need, generally provided by supermarkets etc. that hand over expiring products. It helps a lot of people who are not necessarily homeless, but generally in serious problems.

At least Japan doesn't have a deep rooted drug problem like LA or SF. It's so much easier to "solve" the problem than in the US.

I live in Nara, I love it here because the winter and summers do a excellent job at cleansing the region of homeless.

Very informative video. Its far better for someone to spend the night in a cyber cafe then sleeping on the street.

Wow that's deep... This video is extremely interesting.Thank You ! ! Coming from the guy who was homeless in L.A. But then I got a commercial driver's license, and it changed my life.

Spent some time in Japan. Been to Tokyo, Yokohama, Kyoto and everywhere in-between. I like to do a lot of walking and exploring and I can tell you there is homelessness. It's just not upfront and visible like other countries. Actually, they tend to be pretty considerate, and from my perspective seem to not want to be a nuisance.

It's a bit odd to me with the price of the cyber cafes that you wouldn't see more hostels to take that place. Using bunk beds you could easily enough fit 3 guys to one bedroom. 6 guys in a two bedroom home is a bit of a tight squeeze, but still should be a step up from a cyber cafe, and a bit cheaper too. I suppose that would be difficult for the quazi-homeless guys to organize themselves, and maybe it's a bit too risky for the landlords. But if you did it on a large enough scale, especially with proper insurance, the risks from each individual property would be less relevant. It honestly seems like there's room for a real win-win here, if someone could hit the formula right.

So basically Japan has many temporary housing options where ppl could stay and be safe and somewhat clean and presentable for a relatively cheap price. It seems like a much better option than the US, where homeless usually means you either have to stay at filthy, drug ridden, dangerous shelters or completely become reliant on government assistance