Graduate School of Geography, Osaka
City University, Osaka, 558-8585, Japan
mizuuchi@lit.osaka-cu.ac.jp
http://www.lit.osaka-cu.ac.jp/geo/intro_mizuuchi.htm
(Japanese)
http://www.lit.osaka-cu.ac.jp/geo/e-st_mizuuchi.htm
(English)
Two railway arteries,
JR Osaka Loop Line and the Nankai Electric Railway Line, which provide direct linksing
directly
to Kansai International Airport, cross at the Shin-imamiya
station in the southern part of Osaka city where. the area of Kamagasaki can be closely looked
down on close at hand from the windows of the JR airport
express “Haruka” and the Nankai
airport express “Rapito” which are both
running atalong the elevated lines. The
main-artery subway artery of Osaka city, the Midosuji Line, of
Osaka city only runs just underground here, but. It it takes
only one station rideis just one stop to the city center of Namba, the center of Osaka city,
and sub-city center of to Tennoji, the main center in south Osaka city. The
neighboring
area around Shin-imamiya station is a highly convenient place with
a municipal art museum, the Tennoji Park and Zoo, and the a major municipal
hospital. However, the gigantic elevated construction of this station
was built in the pre-war days of the 1930s, and now has an older, dreary and
dirty atmosphere. Comparinged with the huge number of transfer
passengers at this station, not so many passengers get off here. In front of
this station, there appearsis the Airin
District Complex Center where the largest day laborers market functions (Kamagasaki is the part of
Airin District and locatesd in Nishinari ward). In
the Early
every early morning, labor sharks and
laborers meet face to face, on the first floor of this center,
and employment contracts isare made. The
scene on the first floor has is that of amade
gloomy open space with the a line of blackish concrete pillars (Photo 1,2). It is filled
with the smell
and sweat of the crowd of manual laborers and people sleeping rough sleepers.
Along the side of this center, the stands and stalls of street vendors occupy
the street, whichand makes
are
reminiscent of the past imagethe scenes of
chaos and disorder immediately after Japan’s defeat ofin WWII (Photo 2).
There isare no
one men [FM1]who
would not feel
neither
indifferentce
nor
perplexed when
facing on this scene. Frankly speaking, it
appears a dirty place, a fearful place, it is a place of that smells bad, and
whenever we talk about this area using these adverbsterms like these,
it becomes directly
connected with a sense of distinction separation and,
even worse, discrimination. However, even if people do have not
actually experienced
Kamagasaki
firsthand, the sense of discrimination,
and feelings of contempt
and heterogeneity prejudice thrown
aboutonto
Kamagasaki is are shared byamong the many people in
Osaka, and it becomes a commonly held sense
beliefsin the ordinary
peoples’ mind.
People do not want to see nor visit the area, and just label it as a
different and negatively stereotyped heterogeneous
place, a day laborers’ and rough sleepershomeless people’s ghetto, and
this labeling continueshas
been reproducing continuously.
Negative and specific imaginative geography is imprinted on the place name of Kamagasaki
among
by the
people in Osaka.
The slum and cheap -inns
quarter of pre-war
days
Kamagasaki
was burnt down and destroyed by aerialair
bombing in March 1945. However, immediately afterward, it revived as the
largest cheap- inns ‘slum’ in Japan, and the occurrence
of Kamagasaki Riot in 1961 evoked focuseda
sheer attention at a stroke from on theat curious place
and led to that
of the
introduction of a policy of control. The will of the government,
that this ‘‘slum’’ of
cheap inns and squatter barracks must be improved and controlled, produced
resulted
in the Airin Doctrine Policy (‘Airin’ literally
means lovely neighborhood, and is also the name of an
actual district with an area of 0.69 km2, which includes the Kamagasaki
area within it.). It performed by tThe thorough
clearance of squatter barracks in and adjacent to Kamagasaki
along the elevated
Nankai Electric Railway line, and the
physical
disappearance of the slums was a successfully
declaredation of the end of “Sengo” (after
the the post- war recovery era)
after the EXPO held
in Osaka in
1970. This doctrinepolicy is was valid only
for the Airin
Ddistrict(area
is 0.69km2, and fairly
larger than Kamagasaki), and was athe
very special system started through the joint governance of the city government,
prefecture government and police, which hashad jurisdiction
in
each for welfare, labor affairs and the public
peace,
respectively. Thus, Kamagasaki, thus[FM2], continued to be
a problem area for more than thirty years. All the problems have been specifically
dealt within the Airin Ddistrict, such as those of faced by the day laborers
themselves, their employment, daily life, their health, a gang's
problems, sleeping rough sleepers,
dying on the
streetdead outside, etc were specifically dealt
with.. That is, the specific
local policy, which wasis valid
only for this spacearea, was performedcarried out to combat,
involving the accumulation of violence, laborer movement[FM3],
and the day
laborers’ struggle against the evil for their survival.
From the a geographical viewpointperspective, the
currently
controversial issue of concerning rough
people
sleeping roughsleepers is due can be seen in terms
of a to the spatial spilling -over
of the problem of
rough sleepers into city-wide, whichwhen it used to
be confined within the
Airin Ddistrict
(Kamagasaki). This phenomenon arises has led to some tension in Osaka city, which
has a slogan stating that it is anof
internationally attractive city for visitors and sightseers, and therefore there is
simultaneously a light and a dark side to simultaneously
holds the scene of light and shade withinthe city. It also reminds us the
urban scene of United States today,
which This
is similar to the urban situation in the United States today, which is one of opposites within the
same spaceholds two polar opposite worlds as a dual city.
It This polarity iscan be detected most
keenly observed in the public parks of Osaka, which are overcrowded with the blue tents of homeless people. Although
the number of tents of public parks in the city was 374 in July,
1996, it has been rapidly increasing, such as 1252
in August , 1998 and , 2593
in August, 2000 (Table 1);.
dDuring
the recent last four years, the this is a remarkable sevenfold increase of
this number marks seven times as many. In the large, -mediummiddle,- and small
public parks both in the city center and surrounding peripheral
wards, it becomes has become aordinal common urban sceneexperience withto see a sea full of blue tents.
However, because
civic concern is not high, we have, in my opinion, not correctly grasped
correctly
the background mechanism behind, the structure of, nor
information of about homelessness and poverty, which has produced
these urban scenes. Moreover, since the civic
concern is not so high, and everyone has not caught information correctly.
What is life, what is workjob
like, for the people sleeping rough
sleepers
in Osaka?
The result of the “'general
survey of the distribution of rough people sleepering rough'” in the whole
region of Osaka city, which was undertaken by under the
initiative of Osaka City University in August 1998, is illustrated
in Figs. 1
to 4 respectively. As shown in Fig. 1, 8,660 rough sleepers were accounted for in the whole
area of Osaka city. Of this number, 6,775
persons, that is, more than three- fourths of the those sleeping rough, total
rough sleepers are occupied bywere in five
wards, Nishinari, Naniwa, Chuo, Tennoji, and Kita. The distribution rough
sleepers are is widely detectedshown in Fig. 2 and,
the three main spatial
features arecan
be pointed as follows.:
Firstly, there is a fairly dense distribution concentration of people sleeping rough in the city
center and its the adjacent area inside the JR Loop Line.,
Ssecondly,
this concentration is particularly dense especially
in the southern part of this inner ring, with a heavy concentration
on
in Kamagasaki
around the neighboring area of the JR Shin-imamiya station and Midosuji Line sSubway
station of Dobutsuenmae
station, and as well as in the area a little bitshort distance
to the north of
theward Ssubway station
of Ebisu-cho.,
tThirdly, there is a broad
and sporadic distribution in along the banks of the rivers and canals beach
and in
the public parks outside the JR Loop Line.
If we imagine the actual
scene in the inner area, especially around the city center, most homeless person
people just go to
sleep rough aton the street or stroll walk around to gathering wastestrash such as
aluminum cans, card boxes, etc. This scene partly governs the night in
the heart of the city
center. It is clearly illustrated by Fig. 3, and
demonstrated by Table.
3 that, in the city center, nearly eighty per cent of homeless people are sleep rough sleepers
whoby
lyingie
down on the roadstreet to sleep only by covereding
only by with
cardboard
boxes paper
(52%) or with nothing cover at all
(15%). In the civic center, Chuo ward, thea sequence
row of
a
cardboard
box paper houses appearsed
at midnight on the main boulevard of Midosuji, which
actually and occupies the entrances of office
buildings, the sidewalk,
the thicketbushes, and
parking lot.
However, moving to the southward at to the Suo-cho
crossing in at the southern part end of Midosuji
boulevard, close
to where the “Amerika-mura” (‘American
Village’),, which is the
hottest attractive spot for the younger generation, locates very near, rough
sleepersthe homeless also escape to sleep
rough around
this noisy quarter. In the main covered shopping arcade of Shinsaibashi, at
several meters intervals, rough
others
sleepers relieves to sleep
on the paved street without fear of rain and coldness.
Thus, an acute change is occursring
between the streets
of the prospering scene of civic center in during the day and the streets lined with people sleeping rouh sleepers'
life atduring the midnight.
Both a light
side and shade a dark side , that is, both prosperous business center at the
day time and life space for rough sleepers at night[FM4], share
the same space in the citycompetent arena of
revolving global [FM5]capital[FM6]. This phenomenon is
evident enough to show the divided urban scene such a dual city as US[FM7]
As tThe second main feature , it
can be pointed outis the dense distribution of this core area
along the southern part of the JR Loop Line. This distribution seems to be a resulted
fromof the
traditional geographical concentration in this area of the socially vulnerable and
economically deprived people in Osaka. The historico- geographical
genealogy is profoundly imprinted in on the social
mapping of Osaka. The
eExistence of Kamagasaki is used
to be indispensable as afor shelter, which where there was can
easilyeasy
access to ‘the welfare’ and labor resources like no-deposit cheap
inns
without deposit, temporalary jobs
opportunity, NPO[FM8] supporters
and consultation, and free meals for rough sleepersthose sleeping rough,. However, what is
provided it is not enough nor and not efficient
thoughenough.
Kamagasaki is the largest ‘yYoseba’, or cheeap inns districts
for day laborers in Japan. Being dDifferent
from Sanya, the largest yoseba in Tokyo, where conventional low-income people's
residential area whose function is now being reduceding and becoming disorganizinged, Kamagasaki is
continuesing
to be a tolerant place for such disadvantaged and deprived people, even if,
near Kamagasaki, there is progressing athe
redevelopment project is in progress inof Abeno
and there is
an
emergence of thean amusement center of called ‘‘Festival
Gate’’ close by. Although 3,445 rough sleepers,
about 40 per cent
of the city’s total numbers,
of people
sleeping rough are concentrated onin Nishinari and
Naniwa wards,
in
which the distribution is not spread evenly throughout
the
both wardthem
respectively. As shown in Table .2, a remarkable
concentration can been seen in the blocks where the four wards including of Nishinari, Naniwa,other
Tennoji and Abeno touch nearmeet, whereich we might
call the Southern
Core Area.
In the Airin
Ddistrict
including Kamagasaki, 1,191 people sleep rough at night, who share which is 14% of the
city total. If this area could bewere extended even to
the Shin-sekai, Ebisu-cho, and the Nipponbashi streets in Naniwa ward
just northward of the
Airin District, and extended eastward
to Tennoji Park, and the two terminal stations of Tennoji and
Abenobashi, rough sleepersthe number or people
sleeping rough would be are accounted 3,527, 41% of the city as a whole. This
is the place thatwhere sleeping rough at night has been
historically commonplace.
In this area, there is only 17% who sleep rough at
night do so in
tents and huts;,
on
the contraryin contrast, 81%
sleep rough on the street without any covering or at most with a cardboard box, which is thepaper
as a conventional
style of rough sleeping rough around
here. There is no
subtlety of in the selection of a sleeping place
does
not work any longer, here such
as sleeping in a backyard
or in a
hidden place. When midnight comes, they lie down on the street without any
consideration. At the small stops used by the of tramcars,
the platforms
change to the bed spaces for sleepers every
night.
Whenever we mightIf we trace backhistorically
to the Meiji
Era, or even the
Edo Era, this Southern Core Area has a geographical and social lineage history of being
a marginal areas
for unstableitinerant laborers or,
“Nago-machi", and it ishas
been naturally
understood that this spacehas
used to be naturally welcoming to people sleeping rough.e rough sleepers, Aat
the same time, there
was no interest internationally in investing or conducting global
capital paid no concern for investing nor making business here.
This geographical structure situation appears not
to have changed and continues tohas not been erased
out which makes Kamagasaki a core focus for the
marginalized.of such marginality, and still exit, isn't it? (Table
2)
The distribution of a ‘vagrants’ can be seen
from the series of former Censuses. For example, the transition ofchange in the ratepercentage of
vagrants in this Southern Core Area of Osaka which includinges Nishinari,
Naniwa, Tennoji, the former Minami, and Abeno ward, illustratesd
this area’s the growing
share of theis
area
vagrant population,such as 36% in 1947, 51% in 1950, 64%
in 1955, and 63% in 1960. In the latest rate due From the Census ofto
our survey of 1998, it was found that this number is now still at 63% of 8,660
people sleeping roughin Osaka. This geographical pattern of
distribution has not been changed for over fifty years, so
on.
It is worthy to noteing that from the 1920s onward, the
great mayor Hajime Seki had already taken the initiative to introduceing
several pioneering projects of urban social welfare policiesprojects, and
according to his progressive ideas, many services such as an employment agency,
a
public cheap inns, public housing for those who had cleared
lost
their homes throughby slum clearance, had putwere introduced
into this core area.and
the accumulation of such Yet, these labor welfare policypolicieshad
strengthened to and maintained the character ofpoverty the area, as one of poverty and of
being a slum or cheap inns district. Moreover, after the post-war period,
this place has beenwas consistently reserved as a space for
vagrants. In this geographical context, the imaginative geography of this area has continued to remain
negative or marginal in the minds of among people
living in Osaka city has continued to remain as negative
or marginal.
However, athe
new factor has emerged and made changed the conventional pattern
apparently different, that is, outside the Southern Core Area, there has been a remarkable
increase of in the number of people sleeping roughsleepers
who sleep in the public parks or along the river bedsb ineach
making tents or huts can been seen.
About the growing tent
living as a new residential style of rough sleepers, Table.
2 and Fig. 3
clearly show that
there is athe big large concentration
of tent living in the
six bigmajor public parks of Osaka city,
where among of the 1,219 residents, the share of tent or
hut living reach to 68% live in tents or huts. This concentration is
also seen in the public parks near the Southern Core Area, and especially in
Naniwa ward where,
six small or medium-sized public parks are filled with the tents of 10 to 30 people. When we
look to the northward, along the Ookawa River
running
in touchwhich runs alongside with the
civic center, along
the Yodo River which cutsting
through the northern part of Osaka city, and along the city boundary line of the Kanzaki
River, many rough sleeperspeople who sleep rough
have made make tents and huts on the river beachbanks, as shown
in Fig. 3.,
Tthus
the former pattern
of concentration pattern is now added by the has now become an
extended and scattered pattern.
Table 3 shows the cross-table by type of place and that
type
of sleeping
arrangement. In the case of living in the all
public parks,
and
temples and shrines, 48% of 3,193 rough sleeperssleeping rough
reside in tents or huts. InAlong river beachbeds, 54% of 279
sleepers do the same living style. They People sleeping rough
can are also remarkably be found in the
shaded place underneath the elevated Hanshin Express Way and here.
34% of 939 residents live in tents or huts. Example of tThe humblestructured
cardboard box
houses are is accounteded for 15% in the
whole Osaka city.
Considering the The proportion of
people living inshare of tents and huts living,
its share is growing by over one fourth, and,
without doubt, this style of living evokes is becoming the new central
concern among ordinal ordinary residents in Osaka city. In other
words, the rapid growing growth of people sleeping rough sleepers
in recent years are visualizedhas become visible
and is seen as a problematized
by them residentsin the
city wide rather
than as being, which used to be confined into the Southern
Core Area.
While it is a new problem of geographical distribution, it is also a
new style of living or life of roughfor those sleeping rough sleepers.,
isn't it? Next, what must be asked ascertained is
the relationship
between with Kamagasaki amongand people sleeping rough
sleepers.
Until recent years, the ‘geographical
source of supply’ of rough sleeperspeople sleeping rough has
used to be the Southern Core Area, and above all Kamagasaki. Among the most cases
ofThe predominant group
of people sleeping rough sleepers, the career ofwere
construction worksers who wereas day
laborers has been overwhelmingly dominant, and
they have accustomed themselves withto the life of
Kamagasaki as day laborers for construction works.
Just a couple
of years beforeago and even
now, when these
peopley lapsedfell into thise
life of sleeping rough
sleep, Kamagasaki has beenwas the only
space where thea safety network has givengave them thea minimum chance
for their survival with, at least, thea supply of
‘welfare’ resources.
However, there exists a belief or a rumor amongrough sleepers, whomwhich we heard
from our interview survey of people sleeping rough, that there is athe
strong sense of the
need to escape from Kamagasaki or Nishinari[FM9]has ,
which beenis widely shared. with the evaluation,There is also the
feeling, for example, that if he a person happens
to go to live in Kamagasaki, his that person’s life might be nearly over, or he that a person should never
think to about going to Nishinari. On the other hand,
residents in the
city, who have felt they have suffereding
from the occupancy of nearby public space by rough sleeperspeople sleeping rough,
tend to say that rough sleepersthose people
should have to return to Nishinari, or that
the owners of cheaep
inns for day laborers should have to be welcome rough sleepersthem into their
vacant rooms wherethat day laborers cannot pay
for stayingafford to stay in just due
to the economic depressionrecession. There
seems to exist a deep-rooted force of to pushing
rough
sleeperspeople who sleep rough back into Kamagasaki.
Instead, areWho are the people who
sleep rough?
SleepersAre they the new
urban underclass or ordinary salaried workers or small business entrepreneurs who have become
unemployed or bankruptentrepreneur running small business, and,
who have not experienced Kamagasaki nor or day labor
construction work? The spatial
[FM10]housing stock of
Kamagasaki might be crucial when we consider the how to ameliorateion
of the conditions of rough sleepersthose who sleep rough.
However, these feeling of the need to escape from Kamagasaki and, in contrast, the
arguments forof
pushing people
back into Kamagasaki should be carefully considered.
According to result of our interview survey in summer 1999, though
this survey did not include the Southern Core Area, among of 532 respondaents who lived in tents or
huts, 59% of them answered that their living/working experience was in
Kamagasaki. Two interpretations of this resultmight are be possible. Namely, whether
we shcould stress on the
spread of the former Kamagasaki laborers throughout in the
city, or emphasize the 41% as the emergence of a new style
group
of people sleepingof rough, sleepers who
have had no experience
ofrelation with Kamagasaki or of being a day
laborer.
It might be possible to regard this rate of nearly 60% as the
diffusion or spilling over of ‘Kamagasaki’. However, even among those who had
experienced working/living in Kamagasaki, 32% of them have already cut off
their relation with neither visiting nor working in connection with Kamagasaki completely.
This rate has exceedsed
the share of 28%,
who have still been
stil visiting Kamagasaki for job-hunting etc.. Thus,
this survey demonstrates that only one fourth of tent and huts sleepers
dwellers
have contact with Kamagasaki. On the contrary, 17% of them do not have
experience of working in Kamagasaki nor or of having ever been
engageding in construction
works ever before. We might identify this
type of roughthese people as a new group
sleepers as a new type. It is also clearly
shown in Fig. 5 that the rate of these sleepers with who have no experience
ofnon- Kamagasaki experience increases
in proportion to the distance from Kamagasaki.
More than 80% rough sleepersof people sleeping
rough has their job of collecting
waste articles,
especially aluminum cans, for money. Although among Of those who
have an had experience of Kamagasaki, 90% of them are
doing a certain kinds of work.,
but
amongOf
those who have not,
it
becomesthe percentage finding any kind of work is a third lower, that
is accounted a little bit over 60%. Regarding As for the jobs which was
engaged just people had before becomingthey started sleeping
rough sleeper, those who have not
experienced Kamagasaki, had worked in a relatively variousvaried number of
in terms of industriesy
and occupations,
and also had had got a
little bit of stability ande
status. Concerning As for the
former housing type just before becoming rough
sleeperhomeless, those who have experienced
Kamagasaki, had lived mostly in cheap inns or in laborers’
dormitoriesy., on the contrary In contrast, more than 50 per cent of those who have not experienced Kamagasaki, had lived,
more than a half, in rental apartments or houses, their parent’s home
or owned their
own house.
On the one side, tThe
feeling of the
need to escape from Kamagasaki , orand on the other side,
the negative
imaginative geography toward Kamagasaki is complicated by the appearance of this new group
of people who are sleeping rough. with sharing by new type of rough
sleepers, complicates this problem. There are two alternative ways of thinking:;
to
draw adivided
line on the map to
preventing the diffusioned
rough
sleepersof people sleeping rough across
into
the whole of
Osaka city and to thus confine once again these issues only in to Kamagasaki;,
or to accept this map of diffusion
and consider new progress of this policies to address the
issuey. It is necessary for ordinary
residents, city administrators and the people sleeping rough themselves to
catch
and think of seriously this
issue as a city-wide
phenomenon. for ordinary residents, city staffs and rough
sleepers themselves.
Ordinary
residents’ opinions
ThenSo, how do
ordinary residents recognizeview to this
marked increase of in people sleeping rough sleepers?
Our questionnaire survey of resident’s’ opinions
poll, which was held a poll conducted at
the end of 1998, asked 8,000 residents in Osaka city,
about their
degree of recognition of the problem, their ideas of about how to solve the
problem,solution and their
strain feelings of about facing the
presence of people
sleeping rough sleepers in public spaces.
There
was a cConsiderable difference between
in
the degree of concern and attitude to this issue which was dependent upon the
location of places of the respondents is
detected in terms of degree of concern and attitude to this issue.
The degree of concern to about the problem of people sleeping rough sleeper
problem is higher among the white-collar
people’sworkers with
residential quarters in the adjacent city center and the southern
districts. On the other hand, this rate of degreeconcern is
relatively low among the residents living in the Southern Core Area, which
a
finding alreadyit is already pointed out in the former
previous
chapter. In the latter area, the continual existence of people sleeping rough
sleepers
has not, in some part ways, evoked the
expectation of this kind of research. Accordingly, these Southern Core Area
residents recognize their problem as the being part and parcel
of their daily troubles such as scattereding
garbage, wastes, and the selfish use of private properties, which are all a hindrance to business.
But this type of response is at most 20%; conversely, from 60 to 70% of
responses find it a severe problem, which are concerned
with
when the issue is related toof civic
beauty, and annoyance ofat the abuse of
public spaces. This latter type of response is most typically
seen in the middle-class residential area of the southern district in Osaka
city.
In the Southern Core Area, since the physical distance between those sleeping rough
sleepers
and ordinary residents are is close, and both
groups sustains,
in a sense, a ‘peaceful
co-existence’. On the other hand, especially for the residents in the
residential districts particularly in the south, it is a newly emerged
problem, and when faced with the ‘illegal’ use of public space
by people sleeping rough they express their opinion on this problem asin the form ofmanifestation
of trouble, insecurity, fear, etc about the manifestation of trouble. facing the
‘illegal’ use of public space by rough
sleepers.
ThenSo, how does people who sleep rough
sleepers
themselves view their future? The survey of people sleeping
rough conducted in theof summer
1999 also askeds
to
rough sleepers what their intentions of their future viewwere:,
whether they
would (1) to work in a stable job after quitting
sleeping rough;sleep,
or (2) to owego on social welfare,; or (3) to continue
sleeping
rough at night and work as it were. The balance of this rateanswer results for this question
hasve had a big influence on the formation of
active participation by each member of municipal office staffs,
orand on the
national consensus., at
the moment theThe Hhomeless aAct (Special -Measures Act for the
Support of theSelf- Independencet
of Homeless People) has was enforced last summer of 2002. Since the people’s
views to about those sleeping rough
sleepers seems to still be still severe
and indifferent due because ofto their
imaginative image or belief that these people are of idleness
and dirtyiness
of rough sleeper. The sSituation
might be even worse, if the rate of (3) would becomes higher. In
such a situation, Governmentit [FM11] should prepared
to motivate take the
opportunity to execute smoothly the support actions and programs instituted by
this Aact.
Therefore, it is important at this moment in time to protect the human rights
of people
sleeping rough sleepers through the enlightenment of the public
enlightenment and to obtain
the
a national
consensus of this arenaon this issue.
The Ministry of Health and Welfare,
for the first time, announced in May 1999, for the first time, thea new policy entitled ‘‘the
Urgent counter-measures to address the homeless problem’’.
This announcement classifieds those sleeping rough
sleepers
asinto
three types of:, (a)
those who have an
intentsion
to work but fail to get a job and become homeless;,
(b) those who need medical treatment and welfare support etc; and.,
(c) those who refuse to be socialized into an ordinary lifepart of society.
Each type has set awas assigned (a) the specific
service of an independence
support center;,
(b) a hospital
and
or care
facility;,
and (c) nothing identified, respectively. This classification was
criticized by supporters organizations thatbecause it does
not guarantee the right of self-determination of people sleeping rough
sleepersto choose and
deprives them of
the opportunity to intentionally act according to his
/ hertheir
own decisions.
Support organizations argued that ,
rather theythe homeless required more a flexible / and more finely tunedr
services and assistance.ids
should be required.
The classification system used by the Min.istry of Health
and Welfare is indirectly demonstrated in Table. 5 by
our survey which
shows that nearly a half of people sleeping rough
sleepers
hope to work, 10% of them hope to be dependent on welfare services, and over 20%
of them want to continue sleeping rough. In comparison, the rate of those who
hope to work in the case of the 1999 survey by Tokyo Metropolitan
government is over 70%, and is over 60 % in the
case of the
2001 survey by Osaka prefecturee
government. At the same time, one third of them answered that they wanted to
be left to let themselves alone, to desired nothing, or does
did not
answer. The system for responding these to these types of
answersways of decision, where there is no
request for authorized service for rough people sleeping roughsleepers,
are not yet prepared at this moment.
Through the accumulation of
frequent outreach interviews and consultations, and, at the same
time, the development of the support for housing and
employment, we should try to motivate them the homeless to push
move
toward an alternative lifves
other
than rough sleep patiently and continually support them.
Conversely, Iit is, no doubtundoubtedly, an
urgent task to perform thetake suitable action for those who
require care due to illness and aged by
using the existing usable operation of welfare and
pension system.
A homeless policy
to address homelessness
inof Japan has started, for the first
time, after the above-mentioned announcement of the Ministry of Health and
Welfare in 1999. Thereafter, Osaka city government, actually, was
destined to moved run fast
to provide introduce a policy
in
for tackling
withthe rough sleepers issue of people sleeping
rough. Here, let me show outline the brief history of the trials and
accomplishments
in Osaka city as a forerunner in addressing this
arenaissue in Japan.
From around 1995, labor unions,
Christianity associations, and the NPO set upabout
voluntarily outreach activityies,
and began offering life
consultations to rough sleeperspeople sleeping rough.
These actions were
important in thatimportantly led the route they paved the way to the to
apply life protection toof people sleeping roughsleepers
for
and in assisting them to escape their homeless situation and live an ordinary lifeving.
From the viewpoint of security, of the
minimum condition for
this is aof dwelling, and the first
step was taken by the opening of the ground floor space of the Airin
District Complex Center in 1997 after the tough
negotiation with the
prefecture government., The next achievement
wasthen gained the opening of a short-stay care
center for short term stay in 1998, and this was followed
at the end of
1998 by the
installation of the a large tent which could be used as an urgentemergency
shelter at the end of 1998. Moreover, the public employment
for old people over 55 years old in the public sector
was also startedoffered.
In 1999, there occurred the
foundation
of NPO Kamagasaki Supporting Organization was founded,
which is offersserving
various support activities for day laborers and people sleepingrough sleepers.
Concurrently, the
municipal government itself started an outreach service, on the other hand,and managers in of cheap inns
for day laborers also began to consider supporting people sleeping roughsleeper’s
support in 1999.
In 2000, a large-scaled
shelter containing
600 beds for an overnight stays was
constructed in
the Airin dDistrict, which is
accommodated with 600 beds. Moreover, several supportive houses
for the ex-rough homeless sleepers
withwhich
provideing
welfare care and support services also started to run business,
and were which
were remodeled from the former cheap inns for day
laborers.
Three independence support centers
for rough sleeperspeople sleeping rough
were also established in autumn atof the same
year, and the a short-term accommodation shelter was constructed for
the hundreds
of rough sleeperspeople sleeping rough
in Nagai Park was constructed within this
the park
area itself,
whereone of the venues
where World cCup soccer games were held in 2002. During
its construction process, different objections were raised by
the neighboring residents and by supporters’
organizations were raised with the different opinion
respectively, and, finally, they both sides were
forced out to compromise to with the city
government. Now, its the type of shelter constructed at Nagai
has multiplied tobecomes three. About former
3,000 people
who formerly slept rough sleepers are
estimated to have
escaped
from rough sleep condition,that life and
about 2,000 more rough sleepers are successfully becoming
starting
to live in a private rental apartment houses by through the
efforts of
outreach social workers and NPO activists.
The A nationwide
survey of homeless peoples was, for the first time, executed in
February 2003. In Osaka city, 6,603 rough sleepers arewere identified,
whose
which
is anumber decrease of 2,000 comparing
compared
with the 1998 survey. Since
aAbout
4,000 former rough sleepershomeless people
are thought to have
beenbe able to catch take the
opportunity to use various support services and escape from their hard living
lives
under the open sky at night, in spite of a 2,000 increase of in people who had newly
become homelessbecoming
rough sleepers.
Tracing back
this series of events, which appeared in Airin Ddistrict,
very
many actions and organizations have been started during the previous these
five years are born and are growing. And
theThe
changes in the style
of movement of these actions and
organizations have also accomplishes
bigresulted
in a massive
conversion from in the nature of the conventional labor movement
and a religious body’s charitable work. The former fighters of the labor
unions and activists of the new left-wing are now in fully engaged ment
ofin
the running of
NPO Kamagasaki with thewhich coordinatesion with
the management of shelters, contracts of a public
employment programs and welfare support for welfare,
making
establishing
a close relationship with Osaka city government, whose a relationship which
relation had
formerly been in conflict with antagonismantagonistic.
Besides NPO
Kamagasaki, Kamagasaki Community Regeneration Forum, which had established
in 1999, is also very influential and unique in Japan. They This
forum zealously
pursues activities with the following slogans: from rough sleeper
countermeasures to community development;,
self-reliance rooted in the community;,
community development enabling Kamagasaki to be livable for anybody. Various
people come to join as members of the executive committee of this forum and
participate as free individuals. By holding forums and workshops in the Kamagasaki
area, they seek to
fulfill a
vision for of community development to revive residents’
living standards and
we facilitate the realization of that vision. This forum is thus running a head
of other organizations from the
viewpoint of the urban
regeneration movement as an organization, which released
opened
up the three-cornered closed structure of an Airin area:;
traditional undue inclination to a labor movement, the commercialism of the
cheap inns business, and the bureaucratism of a governmental agency.
Although some
NPOs and volunteer organizations greet welcomed the
stage where it they could could finally take
part in the planning of urban regeneration, at last, the
urban regeneration itself has still only just started. The following fourSome
scenarios might be assumedcould be envisaged,
regarding
with
regard to the issue of people sleeping rough sleepers' issue, especially in
this Airin Ddistrict,
within the a span from of five to ten
years afterwardtime.
(1) There might occur the advancement of aThe ageing of
day laborers and the
reduction of in newthe inflowinflux ofa
single male
single construction works day laborers might occur,of
construction works which
have long underpinned
the supportednature of the
Airin Ddistrict, and this may lead to .
Therefore, the community itself, which centersing on a the day laborers, of
construction works may not
be reproduced any moreceasing to exist.
(2) Transformation Changes may
occur in terms of change of employment formtypes, the influx ofa foreign worker'sinflow,
and the increase
of
in an
current unstable employment class of the younger generation.
(3) Gradual change from deprived areas to attractive placesmay
progress like the which include such areas as spaces for global travelers
and consumption spaces like a street
markets.
(4) A
wWelfare-oriented community may be born
as a space where the poor and needy are gently accepted, where they can have agiving
definite aim in life and, haveing
fun with vital aged lifeand a healthy old age.
When considering the
future of the Airin District, iIt will
be comea basic underlying principle to establish the middlemedium-term
prospect of urban regeneration when considering the future of Airin district.
Urban regeneration of the inner city area has just started such as in areas such as
Kamagasaki and Sanya in Tokyo where the rough sleepers’ issue
of people
sleeping rough is a central problem. Thereis
is a truly new style of urban regeneration in Japan, which involves an extensive
NPO and volunteer groups’ activities. The keys of to success of for this urban
regeneration are surely owinglie in to
the ability of the
NPO and volunteers, in enterprise accumulation, in the
initiative of the
administration, and in adequate funding.
[FM1] Not just men. It is important not to just refer to men as
representative of men and women..
[FM2] I presume you mean continued from 1970 to 2000? In which case, “Thus” is incorrect.
[FM3] Meaning of using “movement” is not clear. Do you mean illegal immigrant laborers?
[FM4] Deleted. It is not necessary to repeat the same thing in the next sentence. The point is clear.
[FM5] This is part of the sentence is not clear and is in my opinion overstating the case.
[FM6] Osaka is not a capital city.
[FM7] This is not a comparative paper about the situation in the US and Japan as you provide no detailed discussion on the US experience.
[FM8] What is NPO? You need to write in full for readers’ benefit.
[FM9] Perhaps it would be a good idea to make this clear earlier on in the paper.
[FM10] Spatial stock? Size of the area or do you mean housing?
[FM11] Who or what is it? The government? Everyone?