Comment by asiachick | Hacker News Reader

Comment by asiachick | Hacker News Reader

280k homeless?!?!? Japan claims they are down to ~4k nationwide and AFAIK they don't have nearly as much support for the homeless (could be totally wrong on that). What they do have AFAICT is a culture of self reliance so that someone who is homeless generally feels guilty about asking for help (not saying that's good or bad thing, only saying that's what I believe is the culture)

They aren't often easy to see but if go into a public park, if you see blue vinyl tarps in the bushes those are often a homeless person living there. There's a few in Yoyogi park and some in Shinjuku Central park (next to Tokyo's gov HQ). Otherwise in the winter some people try to sleep in the subway stations close to closing time.

Japan does not have "free" medical support AFAIK. You have to pay into the national health insurance or otherwise pay your own medical bills. On the other hand, prices are regulated.

Japan has a lot of homeless that can only be seen by visiting certain places,such as internet cafes, where they can shelter at least for a bit or for the whole night.

Seems like you can also get housing in Japan for $14/day which is much less than you can in LA, to my knowledge.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homelessness_in_Japan#Internet...

For that kind of price at an internet cafe, which may be outdated info anyway, you'd probably just get a chair at a shared table. The reclining chair and a little private cubicle would be quite a bit higher for an entire night, probably comparable to hotel rates. A shelter or youth hostel would be better.

I get the impression many of the homeless on Japan are quite a bit tidier than their US counterparts. They try to keep their areas neat and coordinate to keep their surroundings clean as well. Yes, occasionally you can see someone who just doesn’t care about appearances, but that’s more an exception.

Theyre homeless out of necessity. They tidy up because they don't want someone complaining about them so that they get harassed. The japanese mindset on homelessness is shame.

There is also a social/cultural "shame" mentality of being homeless there so people don't wear it like a badge like they kinda do in the US. Pot smoking hippies are looked on far worse there than they are here.

Drugs are also super illegal and very strictly enforced.

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