Tent village in Tokyo park draws over 300 homeless people

Saturday 03rd January, 03:46 AM JST

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shinjukuboy at 02:03 PM JST - 3rd January

In sum, this is what is called "living under capitalism".
USARonin at 02:12 PM JST - 3rd January

Shinjukuboy, I don't know quite what you're tryin' to say but Japan is a socialist country.
Athletes at 02:22 PM JST - 3rd January

USARonin

You mentioned

"You don't bother addressin' the root causes of your homeless folks."

"Why don't you want great numbers of 'homeless' to take responsibility for their lives?"

It is true that not all homeless are decent people. However we can not assume them all are one single prototype. Therefore your easy judement has some flaws.

For the first sentence from you, the cause are "Not all were born with silve spoons with caring parents". "Not all have an opportunity to obtain the volcational skills or decent education in younger life. Not all of them have the mentally stable since they were born. Not all of them have vision, fitness & hearing capacity like us." Some are stronger & smarter therefore they will find the jobs sooner or later. However we can not expect all of them will get jobs.

For the second one, "the answer is even their employers got broke now. It is fair to say that they have no other resource & skills for alternative living". Besides that some homeless are too old & frail & some even have incurable deceases". Personal responsibilty is not only for homeless. It is for everyone. CEOs & Head of the states failed their actions. They did not take responsibilty for that. They blamed someone or something else. They even got bail out from public finance. Traffic should be two way.

It is fair to say that homeless can not depend on others forever. However asking them to buy the house by themselves is unrealistic too. Singapore & Australia has public housing system. It is better than nothing.

I am suprised that your toilet has such a easy flow for money. I wish to donate such a good toilet for homeless.
seesaw at 02:44 PM JST - 3rd January

zhazam05: we are discussing a homeless topic in Tokyo..thanks for offering, but no thanks!
USARonin at 02:49 PM JST - 3rd January

Athletes, you fail to differentiate between those who have brought homelessness upon themselves, those who wish to be homeless, and those who are homeless because of circumstances beyond their control.

I don't throw my money down the toilet. It was my suggestion to you that you don't either.

See, I am the milk of human kindness.
Athletes at 03:16 PM JST - 3rd January

USARonin

"Athletes, you fail to differentiate between those who have brought homelessness upon themselves, those who wish to be homeless, and those who are homeless because of circumstances beyond their control."

You repeat your same sentence again. I am not making the living with investigator. I have mentioned that not easy to track the root cause of homelessness among all homeless. Not everyone will tell you the truth. Some are mentally unstable. It will require huge financial resources, time & volunteers for their history. If you are interested, you can volunteer for chasing self ruined people or welfare cheats. If someone came from Hokkaido or Okinawa or Alaska you may need to travel there.

When 300 people quening infront of you, they will not wait for your investigation. For hunger & freezing people, the more we asked the question, the more they became disoriented. I can not help all the homeless people.It is a herculian task for me. However helping one or two with limited resource make me feel good. It is a wonderful moment for me too.
USARonin at 03:29 PM JST - 3rd January

Atheletes, I hink you should do what makes you "feel good" as long as you're not harmin' anyone else.

I see no harm in you re-directin' your own financial resources to whomever you want.

I choose to be more discretionary with mine whenever it's within my ability to do so.
Samuraiiki at 05:50 PM JST - 3rd January

Thou shalt reap what you sow. This society has been encouraging selfishness, and gthat is what they get.
Athletes at 06:02 PM JST - 3rd January

USA Ronin

You have no obligaion for something you do not wish to do. I will not force anyone against his or her wish.

I have just found the new article about homeless victim. In the reality there are some people abusing, bullying & murdering the homeless. Not only homeless commit the crimes & unsoical behaviours. It is also true that there are some lazy, opportunitistic & uncivilzed homeless too. Choosing black & white is incredible workload.

Pls read this moving story.

"Homeless man found bashed to death under Tomei Expressway in Tokyo; suspect in custody

Saturday 03rd January, 02:50 PM JST"

God bless that poor homeless man! Rest in peace!
nutricycle at 09:40 PM JST - 3rd January

Theyre all lazy bums, why dont they get jobs, shesssh lazy. Isnt this the sort of thing the japanese were saying about americans during the last US recession. Maybe if japanese society had an inkling of charity and a modicum of sympathy Id feel inclined not to look down my nose at them.
rurika at 11:26 PM JST - 3rd January

A friend of mine is currently living in a homeless hostel after spending 6 months staying with various friends (Shiuu, not even your closest friends can give you a home for ever!). He lost his job then his home. The longer he stays homeless, the less likely he is to ever get his life back on track. The growing gap in his CV makes him less and less employable, he is sinking further into depression each day which also makes him less likely to ever work again. THIS COULD HAPPEN TO YOU. He has a good degree and over 15 years work experience. No-one is immune.
meguro at 09:21 PM JST - 5th January

Hope they could find job .
hold the Mao at 11:54 AM JST - 7th January

http://www.japantoday.com/category/commentary/view/how-not-to-get-fired-in-a-bad-economy

Everyone needs to have a back up plan. How many of you posting here have enough cash for 1 year of living expenses?

RERIKA, sadly yes, this could happen to all of us...
whitepocky at 03:54 PM JST - 7th January

Thou shalt reap what you sow. This society has been encouraging selfishness, and that is what they get.

Unfortunately, isn't it the lower classes who get hit first?
Sammi33 at 02:30 PM JST - 10th January

There are a lot of homeless that could have prevented and/or can fix this problem. Esp. the ones from the inaka with their housewives that don't want to work so they had to relocate to Tokyo and just send the money home, now they can't go back home because of "pride" and mom is just so "busy" raising 1 or 2 children. I guess it could happen to all of us, but I'm a teacher, my husband is a chef, which are both pretty mediocre jobs by themselves but we're managing to put away over 400,000 yen in savings each month. It's because we work full-time, 5-6 days a week, unlike these highschool dropouts that think it's perfectly fine to work 3-4 days part time for room and board that they could lose any day.