Japan's unseen cyber homeless
Updated on 04 January 2008
More4 News reports from Toyko on the growing numbers of homeless people who are seeking refuge in all-night cheap internet cafes.
Tokyo - home to over 12.5 million people: a place of incredible wealth. It has the largest GDP for any city worldwide, and for the last 14 years has been rated the most expensive place to live on the planet.
But beneath the glittering surface is a society struggling to survive. Fierce competition from global markets is making it difficult for many to find secure employment. A job for life - now a distant memory. The promises of a modern utopia can rapidly disintegrate.
Tokyo has over 5,000 homeless: a relatively small number compared to other capitals, but for a country that prides itself in social order, and strives to attain full employment, the homeless who camp out in the city's parks are seen as much an embarrassment as they are a problem.
These sites are some of the cleanest homeless sites seen, with people leaving their shoes placed neatly outside their tents. This is the visible side of homelessness in Japan, but there is another side of the problem that is completely unseen.
The internet cafe home
We met one man called Nakazaki. He works as a building maintenance engineer in a central Tokyo hospital. A high school graduate, he has a number of skilled qualifications to his name. He is neither a drunk nor a drug addict. And yet, until just recently, he was homeless.
Every night, after leaving work, he would take the train across Tokyo to one of the cheaper districts of the capital. Above his head, adverts for cheap mortgages would run, but for Nakazaki it was an unreachable dream.
Instead, home for him was an Internet cafe.
In Tokyo there are hundreds of cyber-cafes, that offer over-night deals - where you can stay in your own cubicle, with unlimited net access, free drinks and an easy chair to sleep on - all for about £8. And without a place to stay, for Nakazaki this was better than sleeping on the streets.
"There are many Internet cafe homeless like me. Many do this because they can't find someone to act as a guarantor to help them rent a flat. And as they don't have a set address they find it hard to get a proper job.
"Instead they have to rely on day - to day work - earning about 7.000 yen a day - just about enough to survive on let alone to save up to buy a flat. The downsides of sleeping here are that you can't sleep well." - Nakazaki
But just how many people are in a situation like Nakazaki's?
The charity, Moyai, is one of the only organisations that work with cyber homeless.
"Let's say there are about 600 internet cafes in Tokyo and of these about 10 to 20 per cent of customers are staying overnight regularly - you can say there are a few thousands cyber-homeless.
The problem is that local government are unable to do any quantitive surveys on the subject as the cafe owners themselves don't want the bad publicity and also those cyber homeless themselves don't like talking about their situation." - Inaba Tsuyoshi, Charity worker for the homeless
'There are many Internet cafe homeless like me. Many do this because they can't find someone to act as a guarantor to help them rent a flat.'- Nakazaki
Tsuyoshi told me, though, the majority of homeless in Tokyo are in their situation not because of drink or drugs, but because of the demanding nature of the rental market in Tokyo. And it is not the monthly rent that is the real problem. It is getting through the door.
An estate agent explained the problems many face. Firstly prospective renters need two months rent for deposit, key money (a 'gift' to the landlord), one month for agency fee. You also need to pay one month rent in advance. Renters are looking at six months rent in advance just to move into a flat.
But being unable to rent does not automatically put you on the streets or in a cyber cafe. Tokyo has long stay hotels, dormitories and hostels as other options. Along with some odder alternatives.
But cyber cafes do provide the cheapest living around. For many it is just a place to escape the relentless crowds of Tokyo. Oh - and it offers the chance to look at pornography which seems to be a major pre-occupation for many.
But for others the service is a necessity, not a luxury.
The striking thing, though, is those who use these booths as homes are presentable: they want to be part of society. But they are forced to survive on short-term contracts and piecemeal work.
As the numbers of cyber homeless grows, so does the need for government to address the problem. Last year 13 people contracted TB in a cyber cafe west of Toyko, leading to the health ministry to begin a study of the 1,300 cafes across the country to determine the extent of the problem.
Charities claim that the cyber-homeless need more help finding accommodation, and the minimum wage needs to be raised.
Nagazaki has been helped by one of them to find temporary shelter but there are many others like him still looking for a place to live.
And as Japan comes increasingly open to the fickle world markets, it is clear that the land of the rising sun needs to address the pressing problem of what happens to those who are left behind when the night falls.
Georgia Hanias reporting for More4 News
