Al Jazeera reports on Osaka’s homeless

Although you note that “the plight of the homeless is a favorite topic of Japanese evening news shows,” whether that translates to actual action for the homeless either through charity is another thing altogether.

I find that people who do not see the homeless regularly in real life (because they live in the countryside, or live in more afluent areas) prefer to see them as an anomaly that are other people’s problem. People who live in the areas that are used to them tend to ignore their plight. I used to go through and change trains at Shinimamiya station to go to work, and used to see the homeless that live literally below the train tracks and hang around the area everyday.

It’s not hard to see that the thousands of people that commuted with me everyday were desensitized to the homeless, considering them just another part of the scenery. I believe the same thing happens with continuous exposure in media, where the homeless are displayed to the public without convincing ideas on how how every day people can help their plight, such as recognition and denunciation of misguided concepts of shame or pride.

Such coverage should also include discussions on how every day people can complain to the government to give their “free cash” to social programs such as their pensions or aid for homeless people, but I guess that’s too another story altogether.

I know that serious discussions with my elementary school students (including the 6th grade) are full of interjections of “Homeless Chuugakusei” and “Unko!” So I at least know that the next generation aren’t doing so well in terms of education about the plight of homeless people.