Homeless in Tokyo

Homelessness is different in Tokyo to that which I've seen in other countries. Many are ex-salary men, eduacated and sober, a contrast to the mix of mentally ill, drunks and drug-addicts that make up the homeless population of western cities. In many parks, you see neat and tidy shacks built from discarded timber and blue sheeting. The semi-nomadic residents clean the parks they live in, connect their "houses" to drinking fountains, and are generally tolerated by the authorities. The results are kind of middle-class shanty towns. Some interesting pictures here.

There's an interesting report here from Channel 4 on the "cyber-homeless", people who instead of sleeping on the streets live in my cyber-cafes - which have always been my preferred option to hotels and youth-hostels. You can watch it here.

My only quibble with the Channel 4 report is that the flat they picked to look around was hardly a typical flat for a young single person. I mean it had more than one room! That makes it a millionaire's mansion for Tokyo! The estate agent quoted a figure of 290,000 when you can find many flats for 50,000 or 60,000 - and that's right in the centre of the city. A bit sloppy, but otherwise good in highlighting the raft of charges that make accommodation market so rigid in Tokyo.