For Some in Japan, Home Is a Tiny Plastic Bunk

For Some in Japan, Home Is a Tiny Plastic Bunk

www.nytimes.com

The government says about 15,800 people live on the streets in Japan, but aid groups put the figure much higher, with at least 10,000 in Tokyo alone. Those numbers do not count the city’s “hidden” homeless, like those who live in capsule hotels. There is also a floating population that sleeps overnight in the country’s many 24-hour Internet cafes and saunas.

The jobless rate, at 5.2 percent, is at a record high, and the number of households on welfare has risen sharply. The country’s 15.7 percent poverty rate is one of the highest among industrialized nations.

(visit the link for the full news article)

The thing people keep ignoring is that it is not just the U.S. economy that is in trouble, it is the world's economy.

What a strange upside down world it is when supply exceeds demand, and people can not make a living.

We have cars filling up the warehouses that no one can afford to buy.

We are more productive than ever, yet we are working longer hours than ever.

We are working longer hours than ever, yet fewer people have jobs.

The people who do have jobs are paying out everything they own just to keep up with their bills, mainly the huge mortgage payments on their over priced homes.

With our technological advances, and increases in productivity we should all be working less hours, and more people should have jobs, and we should all be living better lives with more freedom, more time to spend with out children, instead of working jobs that are mainly political games.

Instead we have this huge ponzi scheme where the super rich live in giant houses made of cards.

This is what the free market has wrought.


www.nytimes.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

well the real numbers are more like 25,000 people live on the streets in Japan ...
[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/eb27d1703ed1.jpg[/atsimg]Homeless people's tents right below a train station in Osaka.

In fact they even publish a map so homeless people know where to go and set up their blue tarps
[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/01896960f7bf.jpg[/atsimg]

Still maybe if the GOV would build more of these coffin boxes (Old Expresion for this style of sleeping) that would make a dent in the numbers

It seems even though Japan's industry has taken over the world's auto industry, as a country they are falling onto hard times, a victim of their own success, just as the U.S. is facing the same problems.

Chances are that China's economy is faring even worse, as China relies heavily not only on the U.S. to buy its goods, but Japan as well.

I wonder if Japan will soon start going green as well. Instead of buying oil, put up windmills and start producing bio-diesel. Japan makes the most efficient compressor there is, at least last I knew. I wonder if they will invest in these new pneumatic cars that get astronomical fuel mileage, thus freeing Japan from its need to import oil.

The Wall street priests keep announcing that the economic recovery has started, but I don't see it yet. Does anyone on Main street?

Who will be the next sacrifice to the gods of the free market?

I've felt for some time now that this winter has the potential to be a tipping point with a lot of people unemployed without hope of a jobm, more people getting under employed and those in employement being over employed and if this winter is bad enough come spring people will snap and think along the lines of "I am not going through another winter like this" it will be the fear of getting through another miserable winter that will drive people to make changes happen.

I have no idea what those changes will be but I do feel given human nature everyone be they unemployed, under employed or over employed is under so much pressure that the snapping point will come in spring.. until then it is survival mode..

Who will want to face another miserable winter of more of the same!

Sorry for the doom and gloom

It makes no sense that we have more capabilities than ever, and yet even in first world nations the average person is falling behind.

People who want to work and are willing to work, and have worked all their lives can not market their skills in order to make money.

Economically speaking, the problem is simple, supply exceeds demand, which is why everything is upside down.

We should all be working less and spending more time enjoying life, but instead, through the ponzi scheme of the free market, we are all going broke, and that includes the super rich who had to turn to government bailouts, essentially with a gun to the head of our nations retirement plans.

We are at the point in history where we can now produce more than we can consume, where the economics of the past have been turned upside down, and we need major social changes to move ahead.

reply to post by poet1b

We are at the point in history where we can now produce more than we can consume ...

It does call for a major paradigm (sorry, hate that word too, but ...) shift. It was inevitable that expansion couldn't continue forever and that eventually there would not be new customers. I think China has a way to go yet before they run out of new people to sell to. They still have hundreds of millions of poor people looking into moving up in the world.

The rest of us are going to have to learn to live sustainable lifestyles that involve conserving, and using less resources, and generally speaking doing with less. As an early retiree I do that already.

The other piece of the puzzle that has to come into play is some method of redistributing wealth more equitably across society. Right now too much money is being hoarded by too few people. That just doesn't work as a model for any society. How to bring about this change is the major question.

What a strange article. I'm really not sure what to make of it.

Japan's unemployment is not at a record high, as the article states. It hit the record high in late summer. 5.7%. It's down to 5.2%. That's an improvement, and that's also the lowest in the G8.

Furthermore, even taking the homeless numbers posted by DaddyBare - 25,000 - and doubling them to be safe, the numbers are still significantly less than other G8 nations. Canada, for example, has well in excess of 300,000 homeless - and a fraction of the population.

In other words, Japan is doing pretty well, all things considered. There are issues to be resolved, obviously, but my question is:

Why does this marginal decline warrant coverage in the international press?

Is it the somewhat alien idea of staying in a capsule while you look for work? Or crashing in an internet cafe? (I've done both, and I've stayed in shelters in Canada in my youth. There is NO comparison. Sorry. ). Or is it the media trying to make a domestic audience feel better somehow, like "things are rough all over" kind of thing?

reply to post by vox2442


Canada seems to have a much worse homeless rate than most. Japan's unemployment rate does seem pretty good, but it's homeless rate is about average for most G8 nations, however it seems that Japan has a higher percentage on the street than most of the other G8 nations. when you look at the numbers of people actually on the street. Especially when you consider that Japan has very few immigrants, while the other G8 nations have a great many immigrants.

iws.punahou.edu...

Canada pretty much has an open door policy when it comes to immigration. When you look at how many of Canada's youth are winding up on the street, their open door immigration policy seems pretty cruel to the youth of Canada.

reply to post by poet1b


It's really too bad, and a bit sad that we can't get rid of the concept of money.

Originally posted by poet1b


Instead we have this huge ponzi scheme where the super rich live in giant houses made of cards.

This is what the free market has wrought.

Not the "free market", rather the corporate-state (fascist) controlled market. Corporate interests have been in bed with the State since the early part of the 20th century, and Congress serves corporate/banking interests over the individual public interest. Government regulations serve the big corporate interests "against" the public interest, and are often used to weed out the smaller, less influential competition.

Federal Income taxes, were after all implemented in 1914, immediately following the passage of the Federal Reserve Act, so that the public would be forced to pay tribute to the Banks, who had recently "conquered" the US government.

People think our incomes taxes go to serve the domestic public by building highways, etc., but they dont. They serve to pay the interest on the Federal debt, and fund wars made possible by the largess of the Federal Reserve, as well as our foreign creditors...all for the sake of the corporate establishment.

We have effectively become "slaves" to the corporate-banking-state, working longer hours for less "effective" wages...while we are kept placated by the notion that we are "free" to buy our hamburgers at either Wendy's or McDonalds.

reply to post by poet1b


$640/month for a capsule?

that sounds like a lucrative business

Canada's homeless aren't all housed in bright blue tarpaulins or tents situated in designated areas of the cities. They are instead in various doorways, under bridges and on friend's couches under dingy sleeping bags or cardboard boxes.

I take it the Japanese homeless are simply more conspicuous than their Canadian counterparts.

On a side note, I think a version of those micro room hotels would work here in North America as well for those with a frugal outlook on life; of course not for those outrageous prices.

reply to post by Angiras


If you were paying attention, our huge federal debt was created by the people who sold the free market con just, and told the sheoples that corporations are goooood, and gobernate is baaaaaad.

When we let our corporations control our government, then we surrender our liberty.

The free market con job has been the key to corporate success in taking over our government.

Wake up and start demanding that your reps take action to reign in these corporate crooks. How much more evidence do you need of the corrupt business practices on Wall Street, which have thrived under deregulation?

Could you imagine an american trying to squeeze into one of those?

www.peopleofwalmart.com...
Maybe if they supersized 'em!

Originally posted by poet1b
reply to post by Angiras

 

If you were paying attention, our huge federal debt was created by the people who sold the free market con just, and told the sheoples that corporations are goooood, and gobernate is baaaaaad.

When we let our corporations control our government, then we surrender our liberty.

The free market con job has been the key to corporate success in taking over our government.

Wake up and start demanding that your reps take action to reign in these corporate crooks. How much more evidence do you need of the corrupt business practices on Wall Street, which have thrived under deregulation?

Well said you guys! Star!

reply to post by wayno


Japan has a much better history of taking care of its people than we do here in the west.

The coffin hotels were originally designed for partiers who have drank too much to have a place to sleep it off. Or as a place for young lovers to have some private time.

Why don't we have these coffin hotels in the west?

Basically because we have too many control freaks who don't want people out having a good time to have this option.

They don't care how many kids, or women with children fleeing domestic violence, wind up sleeping on the streets.

No way are they going to allow an affordable place of shelter for people out having a good time who over indulge.

reply to post by poet1b


I actually think it would make good business sense, but of course, would not pass the codes and regulations over here.

I do believe there is a cultural difference too. As frugal as I am, even I would not want to rent out one of the lower bunks -- looks too much like a dog house.
Although lots of people would reject such places, I am sure the young and adventurous would not mind.

I suppose if you are desperate any port in the storm should do.