Last week, I introduced Japanese slum in Osaka, which was a kind of shocking news for us. While researching on the slum, I got interested in Japanese policy toward homeless people like how can the government try to decrease the number of homeless people. Then I found one law about homeless people.
This law is called ' the act of peculiar measure for helping homeless people ', which I don't know how to translate it into Japanese but Japanese name is 'ホームレスの自立の支援等に関する特別措置法.' From this name, we can image that Japanese government will do something concrete policy to help poor people, but I read it briefly, it doesn't say such things but say like "The government will make efforts for homeless, people, so please agree with us.' This is not a concrete and clear law to solve Japanese poverty.
This law says ;
1. The word 'Homeless people' means people who live roads, parks around stations and so on illegally. ( definition of homeless people)
2. To make policy for homeless people is the government's responsibility.
3. The aims of this law is to make homeless people self-sufficient by supporting them with giving jobs, money or house.
(These are just aims but not concrete policy)
This law is remarkable in terms of the definition of 'homeless.' There are a lot of groups to support homeless people, and some groups say that they regard people who don't have regular place to live (except net-coffee or friend's house) as 'homeless' as well. The definition of 'homeless' differs from each groups, but the government defines it under law, so that is one of points.
Other point is that this law is limited, which means this law was active by 2012 and after that, government decided to postpone the term but it is still limited by 2017.
There is limitation and its content is not concrete, so it is obvious that this law is not good way to solve Japanese poverty.
Of course this is one of the government's policy, so there might be other actions. For example, it does money support for poor family, or many volunteer groups provide homeless people food for free, but it is not enough. Then, I researched what kind of supports there are , and I found interesting article about one of job support ; clean-up in Fukushima (click here to see the original article).
I feel we should know this situation when we think about homeless problems or systems of job supporting.
<Summary>
It seems the job of cleaning up radioactive waste in Fukushima is the worst one in Japan. It is so risky that no one is willing to working there, but some homeless people work there because ;
1. they really want jobs even if they are risky
2. some homeless are housed by gangsters and gangsters take homeless people to such places
3. homeless people do anything to make money
4. some people try to recruit poor people
Due to those reasons, many homeless are hired and work there, but there are problems.
1. They are 'weak', so if their employers decides not to give enough pay to homeless people, the poor cannot receive sufficient money. Actually, many of them can get very little wage.
2. They might be controlled by gangsters. = This kind of recruits is deeply connected with gangsters because the law regulating clean-up is loose.
It is clear that homeless people are used and the government have no interest in them because officials wants anyone who can be clean-up men of radioactive waste.
<Opinion>
Everyone knows somebody have to clean up Fukushima, but they don't want to do it by themselves because of radioactivity and wish other people will do it. Therefore, this kind of situation is occurred but it seems no one cares about it or even they don't know the reality. I feel Japanese media don't try to cover this reality because this is connected with gangsters and the government to some extent, so it is unfavorable truth. On the other hand, foreign medias reported it many times, so this is well know reality, so I could know it. I want to say I cannot forgive Japanese government due to treating homeless people as 'weak people' which means people who do anything, but I cannot criticize the government so strongly because we are same. We have ignored the reality of Fukushima, so homeless people work instead of us. This is really complicated issue, but the government must change the treatment of the homeless because only they can have authority.
I feel we should know this situation when we think about homeless problems or systems of job supporting.
<Summary>
It seems the job of cleaning up radioactive waste in Fukushima is the worst one in Japan. It is so risky that no one is willing to working there, but some homeless people work there because ;
1. they really want jobs even if they are risky
2. some homeless are housed by gangsters and gangsters take homeless people to such places
3. homeless people do anything to make money
4. some people try to recruit poor people
Due to those reasons, many homeless are hired and work there, but there are problems.
1. They are 'weak', so if their employers decides not to give enough pay to homeless people, the poor cannot receive sufficient money. Actually, many of them can get very little wage.
2. They might be controlled by gangsters. = This kind of recruits is deeply connected with gangsters because the law regulating clean-up is loose.
It is clear that homeless people are used and the government have no interest in them because officials wants anyone who can be clean-up men of radioactive waste.
<Opinion>
Everyone knows somebody have to clean up Fukushima, but they don't want to do it by themselves because of radioactivity and wish other people will do it. Therefore, this kind of situation is occurred but it seems no one cares about it or even they don't know the reality. I feel Japanese media don't try to cover this reality because this is connected with gangsters and the government to some extent, so it is unfavorable truth. On the other hand, foreign medias reported it many times, so this is well know reality, so I could know it. I want to say I cannot forgive Japanese government due to treating homeless people as 'weak people' which means people who do anything, but I cannot criticize the government so strongly because we are same. We have ignored the reality of Fukushima, so homeless people work instead of us. This is really complicated issue, but the government must change the treatment of the homeless because only they can have authority.
RQ
Q. What other countries people think about Japanese this kind of situation?
Q. Why don't Japanese medea cover this news?
DQ
Q. Do you think it cannot be helped that homeless people are hired and work at Fukushima ?
Why or Why not?
Q. How can we prevent homeless people or weak people from treating badly?
Q. What other countries people think about Japanese this kind of situation?
Q. Why don't Japanese medea cover this news?
DQ
Q. Do you think it cannot be helped that homeless people are hired and work at Fukushima ?
Why or Why not?
Q. How can we prevent homeless people or weak people from treating badly?
Reference
1. Japanese government,27th June 2012, "ホームレスの自立の支援等に関する特別措置法", viewed on 20th October 2014
http://law.e-gov.go.jp/htmldata/H14/H14HO105.html
2. Traci Tong, 1st January 2014, "Japan's homeless are being recruited to clean up the radioactive debris at Fukushima", PRI'S The world, viewed on 20th October 2014
http://www.pri.org/stories/2014-01-01/japans-homeless-are-being-recruited-clean-radioactive-debris-fukushima
1. Japanese government,27th June 2012, "ホームレスの自立の支援等に関する特別措置法", viewed on 20th October 2014
http://law.e-gov.go.jp/htmldata/H14/H14HO105.html
2. Traci Tong, 1st January 2014, "Japan's homeless are being recruited to clean up the radioactive debris at Fukushima", PRI'S The world, viewed on 20th October 2014
http://www.pri.org/stories/2014-01-01/japans-homeless-are-being-recruited-clean-radioactive-debris-fukushima