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In a quiet neighborhood in Iidabashi the scent of coffee drifts through the air. It is a quiet suburb,located for ease of access directly between East and West Tokyo. If one wasn't in the know, one could easily imagine the smell to simply be an over-enthusiastic housewife preparing a morning expresso, or a cafe in amongst the houses. The scent, however, is the first signal of the presence of one of the most innovative homeless charities in Japan; Moyai.
Moyai literally means two boats, tied alongside each other to weather out a storm, and refers to the principle at the centre of the NGO, founded by Tsuyoshi Inaba and his friends in 2001.
The Beginnings of Moyai
"There are two main problems for the homeless" Inaba says, "the first is economic hardship and the second is isolation from human relations". The NGO therefore works to respect the humanity of those it helps, by promoting mutual assistance and community, as well as addressing the practical difficulties of finding a job and home. It is this principle of working together that was at the root of Inaba's first contact with the homeless in the 1990's.
"It was around 1993 that the economic bubble burst, from there we began to see more and more people building cardboard houses around the East exit of Shinjuku Station" says Inaba, "It was shocking". But it was only in 1994, when the Tokyo Metropolitan Government attempted to evict the homeless from around Shinjuku Station that Inaba first became actively involved in the issue. Concerned by the Governmentfs move, he and his friends went into homeless shelters to ask what it was that they could do to help. So began discussions that led to the first homeless demonstrations that summer.
Inaba and his friends were not only concerned with protesting evictions however, their contact with the homeless alerted them to the difficulties of living on the streets. They began to patrol at night and distribute food and blankets around Shinjuku, they called their project, "Ettou Toso" or "Crossing Winter" and focused on helping people survive the Winter months.
"Homeless people were always a part of our activities", says Inaba, explaining how they helped with the distributions and were consulted over what could be done to help. In 1995 with the tragic death of his friend and fellow activist Takeshi Mitsu, Inaba felt it was now up to him to continue the work that had begun with their joint involvement in the issue of homelessness the year before.
In 2001 he set up Moyai to assist some of the 18,500, who live on the streets of the third largest economy in the world. Studies show the average age is 56. According to 2006 statistics 93% are men. The women who are on the street therefore suffer double discrimination, not only as homeless people, but also through exclusion in the homeless community itself. Gambling, debts and alcoholism are endemic.
Homelessness in Japan
Japan's economic development since World War Two created a society that prided itself on being predominately middle class and free of the inequality and poverty that marked other developed nations. The economic collapse of the 1990's had a major impact, not only on the thousands of business men who lost their jobs and found themselves homeless, but also on working patterns more generally. Lifetime employment became rarer, while reforms and labor law deregulation led to a massive increase in temporary staff, many of them known as freeters, those people who drift between odd jobs.
These freeters have failed to benefit from the resurgence of the Japanese economy in recent years. They are often unskilled and thus are passed over for employment, in favor of more recent graduates. Although unemployment fell to 3.9 percent in 2007, these statistics fail to consider those freeters who may be employed, but are often paid pitiful rates as temporary staff, sometimes in dangerous and certainly unstable conditions. According to Rengo, The Japanese Trade Union Conferederation, 40% of freeters rely on financial support from family members. There are estimates that every year the number increases by 100,000, with a present estimate of 2.13 million in Japan today. The Japanese minimum wage, although set at a prefecture and industry level, at an absolute minimum is 673/hour. This is criticized for not being enough to cover the basic cost of living.
Thus, these freeeters, who are often young, live on the margins or edges of homelessness and according to Inaba require recognition to prevent their further descent into poverty. Homelessness is thus a symptom of a lack of a liveable wage, a breakdown of community support and a failure of government policy to address the needs of the weak and the vulnerable.
Young NEET's (those not in education, full time employment or training) number 640,000-a figure that has doubled since the 1990's and includes the estimated 1 million hikikimori, who shut themselves away from any external contact.
Over the last few years awareness of the homeless issue has increased, and the work of homeless charities like Moyai, as well as a policy of government housing has, according to statistics contributed to a decrease in those visibly seen on the street. But Inaba is keen to emphasize that government statistics focus only on the most visibly homeless (the estimated 18,564 in January 2007) and ignore the large numbers of freeters and NEET's who lack security or stability and move back and forth between living on friendsf floors, in cheap dormitories, day laborer accommodation, capsule hotels, and moving into the category of officially homeless. It is their social exclusion and isolation as much as their financial worries that need to be addressed.
Shocking statistics released last year by the Health Ministry reveal that 5,400 young freeters spend weeks and months at a time living in Internet and manga cafes. At 1,500-2,000 a night, with a blanket, shower and small cubicle included, the option is preferable to alternatives. Young girls who find themselves without financial or society support sometimes look to gdeaih (encounter) cafes, where business men pay for an "encounter" with school girls, (5,000 for dinner, 10,000 for karoke is a typical price range). They are an invisible presence living on the margins of one of the most developed societies in the world, and are vulnerable as they grow older, to also finding themselves on the street.
Inaba talks about how many of these people have already begun the gradual descent into homelessness. This descent has several stages at which intervention or support might prevent the spiral downwards. Importantly, and often ignored in government policy on homelessness the descent is marked by the severing of relationships and connections to family and friends. This support is particularly essential for providing stability and support in the absence of effective government policy. Moyai, along with other NGO's such as The Big Issue attempt to rebuild community connections, confidence as well as financial self sufficiency as the first steps to getting people off the street.
Practical issues, such as lack of washing facilities, preventing those on the street from appearing presentable at job interviews, discrimination and a lack of a permanent address, all make it difficult for people to pull themselves off the street once there. Few homeless people in Japan beg. Most earn money by collecting rubbish for recycling, and some have begun selling the Big Issue, a magazine whose profits go to the homeless sellers. Getting back into employment is particularly difficult for men in their fifties, the core group of the homeless in Japan, who are spending more and more time living on the street, and for who re-employment is unlikely. Unless one is afflicted by an obvious disability or is over 65, welfare and services are difficult to obtain, despite government pledges to address the problem. The diary of one middle aged man who was found starved to death, dreaming of onigiri (rice balls) in 2007, after his welfare benefits were cut is an example of how government cut-backs are being felt and of how the traditional safety net of family or neighbors is also breaking down.
Moyai's Services
The Moyai service centre is run by 6 staff and some 15-30 volunteers, who include people such as Masataka Togashi, a Hokkaido born 29 year old, who after years of instability, part time jobs and no family support, asked Moyai for help and proceeded to use his last thousand yen to take a boat to Honshu, where he walked 100 kilometers over ten days to reach Moyai's office. His is a success story and he is not alone. gWatching people move from homelessness to renting an apartment and working in Moyai to support others, is one of the best partsh of the last fourteen years, says Inaba.
Among the projects of the Tokyo based NGO, one of the most innovative is the coffee roasting plant, housed in the second story of the drop-in centre. Here two homeless people man the roasting machines, to ensure that the Brazilian coffee beans are freshly roasted, and that the streets around the office are fragrant with the smell of roasting beans. The coffee is available on-line and at events, such as Earth Day.
One of the groupfs activities helps overcome housing restrictions-a major challenge to anyone struggling to move off the street, or for victims of Domestic Violence, who are escaping their abusers. It is said that over 90% of landlords refuse to rent to people without a guarantor-someone who promises to cover damages or missed payments should the person fall behind or be unable to cover the costs themselves.
This has repercussions beyond just the issue of keeping a roof over ones head. A permanent address is often a requirement for job applications. Acting as a guarantor Mayoi offers a service that is essential for those who without homes, but without a person to act as a guarantor.
Mayoi's help does not end there. Unlike other homeless outreach programs, particularly government housing projects, Moyai offers a system that supports people once they have moved into apartments. By offering consultations in writing four times a year, as well as visits if necessary and a helpline manned every Tuesday and Friday, Mayoi can arrange consultations with experts in Law, Health and Labor issues. Over six years they have reached out to assist 1,300 households and their advice service continues to grow. They receive calls not only from the homeless, but also from people on the hazy edges of the category and in need of advice. Mayoi offers emergency assistance for those behind in payments.
In line with the importance of community so central to Moyai's philosophy, the NGO also offers a weekly group meeting for those homeless who have moved into apartments or shelters. This helps to build connections and support groups. "Once people have moved into housing, there are lots of people who will go a whole week without speaking to someone", says Inaba. Moyai recognize the importance of helping overcome this loneliness to stop people returning to the streets.
Unlike the situation in other countries, the homeless in Japan are only just beginning to be connected with drugs. Discrimination has created a worrying trend of violence and aggression against the homeless in recent years. The group of teenagers, who set a homeless man in Kobe on fire in 2006, is symptomatic of a prejudice that runs deep in Japanese society.
As Inaba explains, "if you are homeless it is seen as your own individual problem and nothing to do with society". This is perhaps surprising in a society famed for its communal attitude. Although the right to life is enshrined into the constitution, Inaba complains that the reality of government policy not only fails to protect life, but, in recent years has even cut back on welfare support. It is only in the last two years that the Japanese Legal Association has begun to take homelessness cases to court.
To overcome this attitude towards homelessness, Inaba sees Moyai, as just one part of a more expansive effort to change attitudes and help create a proper safety net for the neediest in Japan. Homelessness is not a separate issue from society as a whole, but a symptom of the financially and psychologically isolated. Support needs to be provided on the basis of a recognition of the most vulnerable, before they actually become homeless, and to assist those who are homeless, not only by clearing them off the streets and out of public sight, but by addressing their needs more holistically. It is only by doing this that Japan can provide the safety net Inaba has spent the last fourteen years dreaming of and working for. The streets of Iidabashi may be infused with the scent of coffee for some time to come.
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