Why is homelessness not an issue in Tokyo? [closed]

I saw this article talking about impressive Japanese innovations in which having (almost) no homeless people in Tokyo was listed as one of them.

Given the fact that Tokyo is the most populated metropolis in the world (36.9 million people, over 10 million more than #2, Mexico City) I initially expected there to be a lot of homeless people as well. After all, I was born in NYC. I'm familiar with homeless people.

In my many months of wandering around Tokyo at all hours of the day and night, I only recall seeing a single homeless person. I'm not saying that they do not exist, just saying that thanks to the strong principles of the Japanese culture, homelessness is not near the problem there that it is in many other countries.

Reflecting on my experiences in Japan and the brief time I spent in Tokyo, I have to say that for a city that is so densely populated and wealthy, it is quite surprising to see very little homelessness or even people cadging (or begging) on the streets. If you have been to Las Vegas or LA then you'll be twice as impressed.

The article was published around 2013, and the author says that he is familiar with NYC and has wandered around in Tokyo for many months at all hours of the day and night.

My question is whether there are a number of factors that contribute to the seemingly low homelessness rate in Tokyo, and what they might be?

japan tokyo

Best Answer

Excuse my French, but that article's claims are bullshit: there are plenty of homeless in Tokyo.

According to official statistics, there were over 6,000 homeless in Tokyo in 2004, and while the official figure has dropped since to ~1,600, that assessment is disputed: a large part of the drop is just because tents in visible places were banned. There are also people who are effectively homeless, but stay in all-night cafes etc instead of on the streets.

In my many months of wandering around Tokyo at all hours of the day and night, I only recall seeing a single homeless person.

I suspect the writer has never been to a park in Tokyo? You can walk into any larger urban park (Ueno Park in particular is notorious) and see lots of shacks built from blue tarpaulins, and despite the crackdown there are a lot more than there were back in the 1990s.

Update: Also, the stats above are for a very specific category of homeless: ???? roj?-seikatsu, lit. "living on the streets". These are only a small fraction of all homeless: eg. this UK survey reports 14,420 homeless in London (pop. 8m), of whom only 742 were "rough sleepers".