Has Japan solved the problem of homelessness?
Manage episode 462273890 series 3640590
“Has Japan solved the problem of homelessness? And even if it has not, what lessons for other countries does the Japanese experience have to offer?
According to Japanese government statistics, Japan’s street homeless population peaked in 2003 at 25,296. The figure for 2023 was 2,830 – 2,575 men, 172 women, and 73 ‘unclear’. That is an 89% decline. Of course these figures must be treated with caution, but there seems little doubt that Japan’s street homeless population is far lower than most other industrialized countries. So has Japan virtually “solved” the problem of homelessness? Or is the truth more complex? This podcast will outline the reasons for Japan’s low homeless population, explore problems that still remain, and discuss ways in which the Japanese experience may offer hints to other countries struggling with large and growing homeless populations. The panel includes a Japanese homeless activist and the manager of a homeless shelter in Yokohama, as well as British and American academic specialists in the field.
Organizer:
Tom Gill, Professor of Social Anthropology, Meiji Gakuin University
Other members:
Masao Seno, head of the Hamakaze Living Autonomy Support Centre, Yokohama
Tetsuo Ogawa, homeless activist
Matthew Marr, Associate Professor of Sociology, Florida International University
Profiles of Panelists
Tom Gill is Professor of Social Anthropology at Meiji Gakuin University and author of Yokohama Street Life: The Precarious Career of a Japanese Day Laborer (Lexington Books, 2015).
Masao Seno is head of Hamakaze, the only municipal homeless shelter in Yokohama, Japan’s second-biggest city, and as such at the cutting edge of homeless policy in Yokohama.
Tetsuo Ogawa has been living in a homeless community in Tokyo’s Yoyogi Park for many years, and is an articulate advocate for the rights of homeless people.
Matthew Marr has studied homelessness in the USA and Japan, and is the author of Better Must Come (Cornell University, 2015), a comparative study of homelessness in Los Angeles and Tokyo.
Relevant scholarly works
Gill, Tom. Yokohama Street Life: The Precarious Career of a Japanese Day Laborer (Lexington Books, 2015).
Marr, Matthew. Better Must Come (Cornell University, 2015).
Maruyama, Satomi. Living on the Streets in Japan: Homeless Women Break Their Silence (TransPacific Press, 2020).
Available in Japanese as 丸山里美 『女性ホームレスとして生きる――貧困と排除の社会学』(世界思想社, 2021).
Jencks, Christopher. The Homeless (Harvard University Press, 1994).
テーマ
「日本はホームレス問題を解決したのか?もしそうでないとしても、日本の経験は他国への教訓となりうるか?」
ゲスト
1.明治学院大学教授 トム・ギル (主催者)
2.横浜市生活自立支援施設はまかぜ施設長 妹尾光治 (セノ・マサオ)
3.ご自身が路上生活者で、長年にわたり路上生活者のために活躍している 小川てつオ (オガワ・テツオ)
4.フロリダ国際大学准教授 マシュー・マー
内容
日本の路上生活者人口が他の先進国に比べて少ないことは疑いようがない事実です。しかし、日本はいわゆる「ホームレス問題」を事実上「解決」したといえるのでしょうか。それとも、背後にはより複雑な事情があるのでしょうか。今回、日本のホームレス人口が少ない理由を概説したうえで、路上生活者にかかわる諸問題を多角的に探り、日本の経験がどのような教訓を提供できるかについて議論します。
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