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This. This is the image that has been stuck in my mind for years.
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Here I was below the massive towers of the Tokyo metropolitan government building and I came across this blue tarp with solar panels on it.
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This was quite a scene for me.
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That's because back in Vancouver, where I lived most of my adult life, I was used to seeing scenes like this.
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Why were the visible homeless I encountered in Tokyo so different?
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Thus started my search into understanding why the homeless in Japan are different than the homeless in North America.
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Where I started to find answers was in the research work of professor Tom Gill.
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My name is Tom Gill, I'm from England.
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But I've lived in Japan for about 25 years and I'm a professor of Social Anthropology
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here at Meiji Gakuin University, Yokohama Campus.
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There are a number of things about Japanese society
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which makes it a lot easier to deal with homelessness than in other industrialized countries.
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For a start,
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the level of drug abuse is much lower in Japan
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than a lot of other countries. It's pretty difficult to get hold of hard drugs in Japan unless you know a Yakuza,
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a gangster who will supply you.
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And for the most part guys who become homeless in Japan
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don't do drugs other than tobacco and alcohol.
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Yes, there are a substantial number of
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alcoholics in the Japanese homeless population.
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There are also a considerable number of
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compulsive gamblers and of course, even if you are getting Livelihood Protection Money,
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if you spend it all on alcohol or horse racing in the first couple of days of the month,
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you can still end up on the street.
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Another important factor is that Japan has a very conservative approach
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To treatment of mentally ill people,
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who are generally institutionalized.
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If you look at statistics for mental health in Japan,
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you are much more likely to be put away in an institution
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if you have a mental health problem.
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We never went through the processes
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that were called "mainstreaming" in America
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and "care in the community" in Britain
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which are both kind of code words for shutting down mental Hospitals and
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Letting mentally ill people out into society and
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Which might have seemed like a good idea and something-
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some liberal people did support that move but unfortunately
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there wasn't the backup to follow what happened to these people after they were let out
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and a certain number of them ended up being on the streets,
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and that's one of the reasons why you have a lot of people with mental health issues
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in the homeless population in many Industrialized countries.
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Then a third factor is that Japan has managed to
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keep out of wars and conflicts since the end of World War II.
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So as a result, traumatized war veterans, which are another large component
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particularly of the American homeless population-
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we don't have that in Japan either.
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Where are homeless people?
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Urban parks,
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riverbanks,
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streets,
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station buildings,
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and other buildings.
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So the kind of archetypal situation
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where you're walking along the street and you encounter a homeless person is
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a lot less likely to happen in Japan because a lot of them are not in that part of the urban space.
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Most of them do try to keep clean. One of the reasons why they tend to gather in parks is because they
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generally have public toilets and washrooms there which helps you to maintain a basic level of hygiene.
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On the question of begging:
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it's true that very few homeless people in Japan beg.
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Far more likely, as a way of making a bit of money, is can recycling,
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and sometimes newspaper and magazine recycling,
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but that's the main way for putting together a little bit of cash.
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Why they don't beg? I think there are push factors and pull factors.
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Japanese are disinclined to beg.
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They're also disinclined to give to beggars, and these two things go hand in hand.
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In countries with a strong Christian tradition, or indeed a strong Muslim, or Hindu tradition,
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giving to the Poor is deeply ingrained in the religion and the culture.
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There's nothing quite like that in in Japan so
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People are less likely to give money to beggars.
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I mean, they're not used to being begged off. It's a "chicken-and-egg" situation, really.
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The fact that
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you know, it's shameful to beg and
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you don't want people to know that you're homeless
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you don't want people to know that you're unable to look after yourself.
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Pride, shame. Yeah, these are also factors
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I'm sure you have many questions about homelessness in Japan and I did as well.
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It's a very complex topic that touches on many parts of society.
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As such, this is just a single video as part of a bigger series about homelessness in Japan that I'll be making,
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so stay tuned for that.
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I have to give special thanks to professor Tom Gill, who's so
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knowledgeable and so generous with his time, so thank you for that!
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And a shout out to my patreon supporters who make It possible for me to make videos like this;
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videos that aren't necessarily so popular and videos that do take time to research,
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so thank you for that and as always:
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Thanks for Watching!
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See you next time, Bye!