Posts Tagged ‘homeless in Japan’

Al Jazeera reports on Osaka’s homeless

Thanks to Canadaguy for sending us a link about Al Jazeera English airing a special on Osaka’s homeless. The twenty minute report from People & Power is embedded below.

Part I:

Part II:

Note: This is a pretty good report, but it should be noted that presenter Barbara Serra’s claim that the subject of homeless “gets little coverage from the country’s media” is just plain false. Through my addiction to Japanese television, I have found that the plight of the homeless is a favorite topic of Japanese evening news shows. One can hardly go a week or two without one of the major networks doing a feature report on the homeless. Big Issue‘s use of homeless salesmen has received a lot of positive press.

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Woman Found Living in Man’s Closet

Wow – the bogey man is being given a run for his money by Japanese homeless people, apparently. Talk about a closet case. Where do we even begin on this one?

Japanese man finds woman living in his closet

A Japanese man puzzled by food mysteriously disappearing from his refrigerator got a shock when he found out a woman had been living in his home for months without permission, police said Friday.

The 57-year-old man living alone — or so he thought — in the western city of Fukuoka installed a security camera and called the police when he saw images of someone walking around his home while he was out.

“We searched the house in the man’s presence. We found the woman in the closet,” said a local police spokesman.

The woman, named as 58-year-old Tatsuko Horikawa, was found in a flat storage space only just big enough for a person to squeeze into lying down.

Wow. I don’t know if I’m more horrified or impressed. A number of questions do jump to my mind immediately, though. Did the man freak out and wet himself upon discovering his unknown guest? How many times did she enter / exit / steal his food? Did she secretly use his bathroom too? What else was living in his closet? When was the last time that guy opened his closets? Did he think he just had a seriously bad rat problem? How does this happen?

“She told police that she had nowhere to live,” the spokesman said. “She seems to have lived there for about a year, but not all the time.”

It is unclear how she managed to enter the home undetected. Police suspect she might have been closet-hopping, moving from house to house.

AFP via Breitbart

You hear that, Japan? You have shadowy ninja-like closet-hopping homeless people living amongst you. A nomadic group that secretly infiltrates other peoples’ closets. And so far as the bogey man goes, hey – at least he didn’t eat your food.

A Little Christmas Conflict

This video has a few curiosities including: self heating sake, a look at the lifestyle of homeless in Japan, a rambunctious dog, and how to argue (or not) with someone who’s instant noodles you have ruined. The last part is a bit controversial among viewers. The video maker said in his description:

Before you jump all over me…I went back apologized and took him to the convenience store to replace his food and drink. SORRY! I overreacted!