Homelessness In Japan: The dark truth behind small numbers

The homelessness rate in Japan is around 0.003% and although this seems like a good statistic, it is due to Japan’s culture making it difficult to be homeless. Homelessness is stigmatized and is seen as the person’s fault, leading to these people receiving very little care and sympathy from Japan’s society and being shunned. The government also doesn’t help their case as they made begging in public illegal. In cities such as Tokyo, the architecture is in a way where it is almost impossible for homeless people to stay in one place, forcing them out of the public eye. Due to these factors, most people who would be considered homeless, avoid the streets and instead take refuge in internet/manga cafes, an establishment that has adapted to these homeless refugees to temporarily provide essentials for a price, leading to this absurdly low statistic of the homeless population. This culture of internet cafes is most definitely a positive aspect but it highlights the underlying problem of Japan’s society, which is that the idea of homelessness is rejected to the point where internet cafes are needed for these people to be able to join society. Another big issue is that ⅓ of Japan’s population are temp/part-time workers due to being unable to get full-time jobs and in most cases, these people are paid minimum wage, therefore can not afford things such as rent. Due to all these factors, although the homelessness rate is much lower than in a country such as the US, the percentage of people in poverty is much higher in Japan. Now we need your support to tackle the needs of the unhoused community. Please register to be a volunteer member as we have upcoming service projects in the near future