Visible Homeless in Tokyo, Japan | Tokyo
Information | History | View | Sightseeing | Video
Join me as I go on a walk around Shinjuku, a major government and business district in Tokyo, exploring the living conditions of the visible homeless. Disclaimer: Everything presented is simply my observations and some anecdotes I've heard. This is the start of my investigation into the homeless issues that Japan faces, so take what I say as uninformed opinion, not fact. This is very early on in my research, but I wanted to share what I've seen so far. What prompted me to investigate homelessness, is that the visible homeless in Tokyo seem quite different than the visible homeless I encountered in Vancouver, Canada or in San Francisco, United States. In Vancouver, you can see many homeless that suffer from mental illness, have drug and drinking addictions, and are survivors of abuse. In San Francisco, the homeless I encountered were more visible in the well-trafficked areas and were vocal in their begging. In Tokyo, the homeless seem to be quiet, respectful of others, and organized (in that they kept their belonging relatively tidy). They also didn't appear to suffer from apparent mental issues. They seemed to have their act together enough that I figure they would be able to make use of the social safety net and not have to live on the streets. So why are they on the streets? In the video, and even in writing this, I'm very worried about the terminology that I've used. The homeless are marginalized and I don't want to marginalize them even more. So I'm struggling with coming up with the right way to phrase things, and I'm afraid I haven't done the best of jobs. So if it's not apparent, here's my stance. I think we live in wealthy societies and that poorest and unfortunate should be able to live in peace and comfort, as well as given opportunities to ameliorate their situation. How this is achieved, I don't think we quite know yet, otherwise homelessness wouldn't be an issue. I didn't ask this in the video, but what kind of questions around homeless in Tokyo/Japan do you think I should investigating. And as I did ask in the video, what does the visible homeless (and the non-visible as well) look like where you're from? If you'd like to support our mini-documentaries, we have a Patreon account https://www.patreon.com/lifewhereimfrom Website: http://www.lifewhereimfrom.com Main Channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/lifewhereimfrom Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lifewhereimfrom Instagram: https://instagram.com/lifewhereimfrom Twitter: https://twitter.com/lifewhereimfrom
Comments
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im learning alot from you sir Greg..say hi to your kids: aiko and shin😀😀thank you
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I live in a prettz small town in Germanz (population of 17.000) and I have never seen a homeless man here. But in the big cities like Cologne there are many homeless to play instruments, but most of them are at the train station and smoke or drink. Many of them have dogs.
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In my opinion, Japan is the best country in the world. Everything is clean and organized, even the homeless. Government and private citizens at its best.
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i live in El Paso, Tx, USA and the homeless people here are in allies or out in the open. Its mostly people with a drug problem.
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Thank you for your videos; they are very interesting! I am from Australia,and do come across the homeless here, from time to time, but especially in the central business district of my city. I read once that many of the homeless in my State are diagnosed as mentally ill, but are not in appropriate care or have been discharged from facilities and have nowhere to go.
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How big do these homes get? What do the insides look like?
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I live in the US, I have been homeless since graduating college, but you'd never know because I hide. I work very long days, but am underemployed and have student loans. I think the "visible" homeless here are often drug users and stuff, but due to housing being too costly many invisible homeless live very hidden stealth everywhere.
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This was a very interesting video. I am Maltese (a tiny island in the middle of the Med sea) and work in a homeless shelter. In our country homelessness is hidden problem as although we do have homeless people, we have a good social system and so all of them (or nearly all) are offered long term accommodation and are assisted in order to reintegrate back in society. The thing which bugs me is that since we do not have homeless people sleeping rough, for society and politicians, it means that we do not have any homeless people and so we do not have a lot of services which cater for their needs even though the numbers are increasing every single year. Furthermore, we do not have any laws in place safeguarding the rights of a homeless person or what the definition of homelessness. We do not have any statistics about how many people are homeless and the only research was conducted 10 years ago which means that it is completely outdated now.
I am really looking forward to see your updated video. Keep it up. -
I'm shocked to see so many homeless people. Didn't expect this in Japan.
How come the government doesn't solve this problem? -
i don't know if it's because of social pressure or because of these homeless people's social awareness but they still manage to keep their living quarter relatively tidy! Much respect!
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It's a pretty small country here so honestly I have NEVER seen a homeless person around here at all, mostly because there would just be no room. I have however, seen a lot of homeless when I travelled to Belgium and tried to help them out as much as I could.. It's just very very sad that there are any homeless at all... and especially when people ask them to ''move somewhere where they'll be less of a nuisance''... how sad the world is..
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In my area, homeless aren't allowed to camp, anywhere. It sucks. Then they just wander the streets. In my area, it's primarily drug addicts and mentally ill. We don't really have much in the way of services for them, and it's very sad. However, I'm getting very tired of the panhandling. They are getting very aggressive and it's dangerous sometimes.
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A lot of the homeless people live by freeway entrances and litter EVERYWHERE. They leave their trash and just let it pile up and it's definitely an eye sore. It's ridiculous and disgusting. Finally the city cleaned up the mess and kicked them out. But of course that only lasted a month and they're back along with their filthy trash.
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I live in Tucson, Arizona. Especially in the winter time homeless people can be seen everywhere. I think many go to other places in the summer. This is not surprising as it can get above 110 degrees regularly, which means it is much hotter on the concrete sidewalk or asphalt. Just walking from your car to a building can be unbearable. I can't imagine being out in it all day. There are some parks that are completely taken over by the homeless. There are no families or kids playing in these parks ever. In some areas of town, especially downtown and 4th Avenue it can actually be difficult to walk there are so many homeless on the sidewalk, again especially in the winter. I have spoken with some of the homeless people. I'm sometimes willing to buy them a meal when I see them in or around a fast food restaurant and I have money. I never give them cash. I know that many have just fallen on hard times, but I have also met some who simply prefer that way of life and do not wish to change how they live. I have no idea how to solve the homeless problem and while my heart often goes out to them I also feel for the small shop with several homeless in front, deterring people from going in. And as I said earlier I feel for the families who live near a park so taken over by homeless people that they can't let their children play there. It is a terrible social problem with many facets, people with mental health problems, people with an addiction problem and people who have lost their job and everything else for a variety of reasons.
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I thought you have to pay to use the toilet
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Greed made homeless people.
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I live in San Francisco and it's the worst.
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Thank you for this informative info I and my children alwYs wondered this.
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Thank you for your videos.