|
(CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1)
Homelessness in Tokyo:
According to government estimates there are 24,000 homeless in Japan. Japan is a country the government that does not like to talk about the problem that they are encountering. They do not seem to like the idea of letting people know (both in Japan and outside of Japan in the world community) about any serious problems that may exist in the country. But, statistics have shown that in Tokyo there seems to be an estimate of 3,000- 4,000 homeless people. Unemployment is around 3% which is very high by Japanese standards. There are many homeless individuals that live in tents and cardboard shacks under bridges, inside parks or railroads stations. Many people believe that the longer these homeless stay on the streets, the more difficult it is for them to become independent again.
As we translated the same survey into Japanese, we had the chance to hand them out to people we met in the schools where we visited for three days and to our Japanese host families. By these surveys, it showed that in Japan, like in United States, not many people are well informed about the problem. Kids in school are not being taught about the problem of homelessness in their country. 99% of the people indicated that they were not well informed at all. In the survey, 90% of the Japanese felt that homeless people don't receive help from their government. Similarly, as in the United States, Japanese people feared becoming homeless. 55% expressed this fear. They did foresee a time in their lives where they might be in this position. As one person expressed in the survey:
"When I lost my job, I feared that I might become homeless. While I was working at a store near Shinjuku train station (in Tokyo), I saw a homeless person who came there every morning. He was looking for change that customers dropped. It looked like he had such a difficult life style. I have also seen a homeless person who died from exposure to cold temperature."
When we had the chance to do community service in Japan, we were able to interact with many people homeless people and volunteers. When we visited Japan, we had the great opportunity to visit a homeless organization called Sanyukai. Sanyukai is a nonprofit organization that began in 1984. This is a voluntary group of private individuals who have continued to help the street people. The funding of this organization is by individual donations. This organization has 9 doctors of different background. The program is sustained by doctors, nurses and social workers.
Our visit to this organization helped us to learn about the homeless people they attend. Some were alcohol abusers and some had good backgrounds. Some were even doctors or psychologists, etc. This shows how not every single homeless person is an alcoholic or drug abusers. Experts state, "In contrast to America's homeless population which has high rates of alcoholism, drug abuse and mental illness, a large proportion of the homeless in Japan had steady jobs and stable lives until there companies went bankrupt or they were put out of work for some other reason." Once again, when the economy declines, unemployment rate goes up and the result is the increase of homeless population.
About 30 men got to the clinic daily. The homeless were very nice and greatly appreciated the fact that we went to give them a little bit of food. They appeared very clean. Even though the Japanese people may state they do not receive help from their government, they do receive some. This organization informed us that many of these homeless suffer from tuberculosis, diabetes, and high blood pressure. About 300 people pass away every year in the streets and many of them die in the winter because they freeze to death. There is an estimation of 1500 people living along the banks of the Sumida River in Tokyo.
|
|
