The story of a homeless foreigner in Japan
A clip from a Fuji TV news report about Sidival Furuzawa Pereira, a 36-year-old homeless man struggling to survive in Hamamatsu, Japan:
Mr. Pereira spends his days checking trash heaps for aluminum cans and junk he can bring to recycling centers and exchange for money. At the beginning of the clip, he takes a full bicycle load of old appliances and exchanges them for 350 yen (about $3). Instead of using the money on himself, he saves it so he can send it to his wife and children in Brazil. As a result, Pereira eats food he finds in the garbage.
Pereira came to Japan four years ago to work as a temporary worker at factories in Shizuoka Prefecture. He was laid off 6-months ago. Without a source of income, he soon lost his apartment and became homeless. He tries his hardest to recycle as much junk as he can so that he can provide for his wife and children whom he has not seen since he came to Japan.
Japanese people who noticed Pereira’s plight have given him some assistance. A landlord has given him a free room, and he also sometimes receives gifts of food. A support organization has helped him apply for welfare. He is very grateful for the help and says that he loves Japan.
The clip ends with Pereira making a phone call to his family on January 1st. They ask him to come home, but he tells them he is determined to stay in Japan and earn money to help them. Pereira believes that there would be no work opportunities for him back in Brazil, so collecting junk from Japanese garbage heaps is the only viable option his has to earn money to feed his family.
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many questions. in effect, he’s losing money when he sends it back because sending cash overseas isn’t free, right?
with a free apartment and free utilities (TV was on), he should try subletting to get some cash. save some of that up and he can fly back home.
can’t find a job at home in Brazil?? then what skills did he have to be able to work in Japan in the first place?
very strange…at minimum, IMHO, his goal should be saving to go home.
“can’t find a job at home in Brazil?? then what skills did he have to be able to work in Japan in the first place?”
It`s not about jobs, it`s about payment.
Here in Brazil working in a factory he will gain $600 month.
In Japan, same type of job, the payment is around $2.000.
Converting dollars in brazillian reals, it possible provide a life more confortable for hsi family.
But his lost the job, because the crises.
Sorry my bad english, my portuguese is not very god too. 90% of brazilian native population don`t speak portuguese correct anyway. Mahuahuah… XD.
I thought everyone had a right for some kind of social security in Japan. If he has paid taxes he deserves welfare.
4;27 “支援団体の助けで、生活保護の申請も行った。”
“With the help of a support organization, he applied for welfare benefits”
He’s quite lucky to have some people look after him and providing him with a place to stay, a lot homeless people have it much worse.
Of course, sending money home helps his family but it surely doesn’t do his situation in Japan any good.
I don’t know what would be the best thing to do, maybe there’s really not much chance to get work in Brazil, but there won’t be that many chances for workers without special skills in Japan as well for quite a while.
It’s hard for me to grasp how the economy of the whole world could go down like this.
“It’s hard for me to grasp how the economy of the whole world could go down like this.”
As far as I can tell, it is like a flock of sheep. One panics and the rest panic as well.
“It’s hard for me to grasp how the economy of the whole world could go down like this.”
It’s called “investor confidence”. Basically, when people don’t have confidence, they don’t invest. Instead, they save money as insurance from a faulty economy. The economy is faulty because too many people are saving money.
The world economy up till recently had been established on a fantasy foundation. Fantasy foundations are obviously not as solid as a tangible ones. Think of it like an old Acme cartoon, where the character runs off a cliff, and keeps running in the air. That’s the economy as it was. Suddenly, the character looks down and realizes he’s in the air, and that’s when he plummets. That’s the economy as it is now.
Thank you, that’s a nice metaphor.
Deportation would be the best thing for him.
Japan’s not worth it man. Go home to your family. There’s no work for you here either. Your picking stuff out of the garbage.
At least in Brazil he’d be with his kids…
Exactly. He’s a bloody disillusioned idiot for believing he can’t make a living in his home country. What are you doing in a far away country if you have a family back home?
And he hasn’t been deported why?
I find it hard to believe that earning 300-some yen on random days would make enough money to cover the fee to send money overseas (or even the postage to send bills), much less feed a family. Even in Brazil.
what you mean ‘even in Brazil’?
Self-commiseration dramatization I’d say. He’s just acting poor, but in fact he’s an idiot.
Also why does he have a Japanese surname?
Before WW2 a lot of Japanese emigrated to South America to work as farm labor, etc. So there’s a large population in Brazil and Peru and Ecuador of 4th gen+ part Japanese folks. A few years back the J Govt started a program to entice these people back to Japan. They’re not really seen as Japanese by most Japanese, and I doubt they have anywhere near the same rights, so as you might expect, there are some tragic stories.
If he goes home, he will still be jobless.
I guess it come down to who has the better gomi, Japan or Brazil.
That must be one UGLY wife for him to pick his current lifestyle.
Very insensitive comment.
I’m not familiar with the logistics of government assistance and sending money overseas in Japan, but I’m familiar with how things are in Brazil. Collecting garbage in Japan may seem like a wasteful life, but it would still be better than being jobless and homeless in Brazil with a family to support. I’m guessing with a Japanese lineage this man is from São Paulo or Paraná. From what I saw, a lower-class Brazilian man in São Paulo with no skills would be lucky to get a job that pays any more than US$75 a month. If you’re fortunate enough to be employed, even the most average of jobs with decent skills would average about US$150 a month or less. Most of these people end up on the streets and succumb to violence and robbery just to get by.
Collecting garbage isn’t an option in Brazil. Recycling at large is considered a joke. The only thing that’s worth any money is aluminum cans, which just in recent years has become profitable for anyone who is determined enough to collect 10-20 pounds a day throughout the city.
Whether or not it’s wise or stupid for him to do what he does, kudos to the people who take notice and lend a hand as shown in the video.
wtf
Something stinks here. This guy is on seikatsu hogo and eats garbage? According to Wiki-J, seikatsu-hogo for a single 31 yr old man can be up to \137,400 a month (depending on housing costs). I was getting about that for my undergrad scholarship and thinking myself very lucky (and could certainly afford to travel overseas). I also think that someone on seikatsu hogo is getting enough to send home without having to pick up 350 yen from rubbish.
To R: He has a Japanese name as he is part-Japanese in ancestry. I assume too that his work visa has not yet expired.
Foreigners can only get seikatsu hogo money only if you are
a)Special Permanent Resident
b)Permanent Resident
c)Spouse of Permanent Resident.
d)Refugee
e)Those who are not gaining a refugee status,buthad applied for one.
The above man don’t fit in any of these category.Though he should have getting unemployment pay from his former employee which is enough to pay him one way ticket to Brazil.I’d imagine he either spend that or send that to his family back home…..
I assumed that the statement “生活保護の申請も行った” meant he was eligible to apply. We don’t actually know his visa status either.
It seems it depends.
If his assessment of his opportunities back in Brazil vs. his current situation in Japan is correct then he is one very cool and tough guy to persevere in such a bad situation to send money to his family. I hope somebody will offer him a job.
i agree
I assume he is earning 300-some yen per a day at average, which makes about 10,000 yen a month, is probably enough for feeding his family back in Brazil.
Anyway, it’s kind of shocking and hard to believe that collecting garbage in Japan is better than his helpless jobless situation in Brazil (even being with his family).
I would be really surprised if a family of three could live on 10,000 yen for a month even in Brazil.
I believe the food prices in Brazil are about 20% of Japan. Therefore 10,000 can be enough for just buying food for a family of three persons for a month. Of course 10,000 yen a month aren’t enough for whole the living for three persons at all.
This site:
http://www.v-brazil.com/business/vital-basket.html
indicates that 10,000 yen, or about 250R, would be barely enough to survive on, but possible (not including housing etc).
Coffee, to check just one of the items, is about a third cheaper in Brazil. Rice would be a significant saving however.
he should just save some money, get into technical school and go back to brazil to work
As long as your are in the pithole of skill-lessness then you will most likely stay there for the rest of your life unless you do something about it
I wonder how much it would cost for him to get into a technical school…
I think it would be better if he was there for his family, money cannot replace a human being. Its sad that he is working so hard for “money” when money is basically really nothing. [If you understand about how big corporations control the world you'll know what i mean...]
Can I have all your money then?
Well, I’m a brazilian living in London, but I know there’s lots of poor people down in Brazil, but the brazilian national minimum wage is something about 200 american dolars, so I don’t really know what this is guy still doing in Japan…
The average brazilian wage is about 400 american dolars and I think that 400 dolars is the mininum to live on Brazil with some dignity… anyway is always better be near our family on the bad times, specially in this case where the money he’s gaining do not worth to stay so far alway from then.
Frankly, with people like this, a lot of the time it’s not just a case of being poor or homeless. Many times they have psychological issues that need dealing with.
Maybe. But I guess there were also many cases that being poor or homeless made those people afterward psychologically devastated.
I once heard about a homeless in the US who had been graduated from Harvard University. He should be quite unlucky having no saving when he lost his job.
but regardless of whether it was emotional issues that led to being homeless or were caused by being homeless, if there are not dealth with then other help is just shoring up a leaking dam.
This guy is really bad in math. In Brazil, the recyclers earn a lot more than US$ 90. Actually, they usually earn close to the minimum wage (wich amounts to US$ 170-200).An industry worker easily earns more than twice as that.
Probably he is just ashamed of going back home with empty pockets