ASIJ Essay Contest- Jane Schlesinger "Homelessness in Japan" ― 2014/05/01 18:22
Homelessness in Japan
By Jane Schlesinger
"Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health & well-being of himself and his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care, and necessary social services ..."
These words are taken directly from Article 25 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, adopted by the UN General Assembly in 1948. The rights stipulated in the Universal Declaration are, according to the UN, "a common standard of achievement for all peoples and all nations." In Japan today, there are about 9500 homeless people, according to official estimates. Tokyo has a homeless population of around 2000. To be sure, Japan is not alone among developed economies in having a homeless population; in fact its number is comparatively small. However, that does not make it any less of a human rights issue.
Walking around Tokyo, you could almost overlook the homeless. They tend towards the side of a street and huddle in corners smothered in blankets and trash, or concealed behind open umbrellas. At about 7 a.m., they disappear from their nightly perches and begin walking the streets. They push carts heaped with old cloths and bundles, their precious belongings. They wear several layers of clothes, even in summer, as if to protect themselves from the world. They seem to recede, avoiding eye contact with passersby. Yoshie Omura, a nurse with Doctors Without Borders, described to The Christian Science Monitor how one homeless man began to cry when she said hello: "Because they are alienated from society for a long time, they don't expect to be spoken to."
People in Japan become homeless for many reasons. The majority of homeless people are men above age 50. Japan has a rigid employment system, in which employees are hired just out of college and often rise through the ranks until retirement. Businesses prefer to hire young people because any investment in them will last for years. A man who loses his job for any reason at age 50 is unlikely to find another comparable job, because he is no longer part of the employment cycle. Older homeless men are often those who've been fired and can't get back on their feet. Homeless advocate Mitsuo Nakamura says, "Companies tend to think people in that age group are stubborn, inflexible, weak, and forgetful."
A lot of homeless people are or were day laborers. However, menial tasks that once went to the very poor are being automated and jobs for the under-qualified are becoming obsolete. Moreover, in the economic downturn of the 1990s, people already living near poverty lost their jobs and ultimately their homes. This started a vicious cycle because once homeless, getting a new job became even harder. A homeless man interviewed by advocacy organization Tenohashi said, "even when I try, I get nowhere. I'm just no good." According to Tenohashi, almost no one is willing to hire people without addresses or cell phones. It is not for lack of motivation that the homeless cannot work. As Nakamura says, "many of the homeless are desperate for a job, but there are no jobs.”
A growing problem is homeless people who are so damaged, due either to childhood trauma, undiagnosed illness, or social isolation that they can't take care of themselves and are unable to work. They were given education true to the Japanese system, but those who faced abuse, bullying, disability, and other impediments struggle nonetheless. Others suffer mental illness or Alzheimer's and some have such a complex variety of problems that they themselves can't describe them.
Many in Japan describe a deep-rooted mentality of self-help and self-reliance. It is not regarded as the responsibility of others to help those who cannot help themselves. In fact, it may even be to the detriment of the weak to become dependent on others. The general population seems to assume that homeless people received the same opportunities as themselves, and that if they cannot utilize these opportunities, then the homeless must be homeless through their own fault. An international survey cited by Tenohashi found that 38 percent of Japanese, the highest percentage of any country in the world, believe that the government should not assist the impoverished. Researcher Chieko Tsuneoka believes that most people do not sympathize with the homeless, but rather regard them with skepticism, condescension, and even outright hostility. In Nakamura's words, "most of the homeless are systematically eliminated from society."
Ironically, the homeless in Japan maintain the same values as the rest of society. They respect both themselves and their environment. They treat their jobs, often menial tasks such as collecting recyclables to sell, with care. Before entering their cardboard-box shelters, they take off their shoes, as all Japanese do when they go into their homes. Tsuneoka speculates that in a status-conscious society, they are too proud to beg: "It's such a social stigma to become homeless, so the homeless people don't want to act [in a way] that would remind them they are social outcasts. To beg, you have to be aware you are a social outcast, which hurts your pride." These people do not stop caring about their ideals, beliefs, and sense of dignity when they are homeless.
The right to housing is incorporated in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, to which Japan is a signatory. However, it is not a national law and nobody can throw government leaders in jail for not doing away with homelessness. There is no penalty for neglecting these men and women, who make up a relatively small population in a relatively large country, a tiny fraction of 1%, according to official numbers. Because the homeless, both in numbers and in situation, are so easily discounted, the right to a home is one to which the government is not dedicated: according to a spokesperson for Moyai, an advocacy organization, "Japan does not see a home as a right." As Tokyo Governor Shintaro Ishihara contended, the homeless "have their own philosophy and opinion." In other words, the homeless are homeless because they choose to be so, and do not belong with the rest of society.
But homelessness, however small the population affected, is indeed a human rights issue.
The position that homelessness is a lifestyle choice is belied by the kinds of work the homeless are willing to do for their subsistence. Moyai explains that the homeless are put to work by the yakuza in gray-market jobs that do not meet labor law standards. They find themselves working fourteen-hour days without pay, except for food and clothes. In a further example of the desperation of the homeless, Reuters reported in December that the homeless of Japan have been recruited by middlemen, at less than minimum wage, to help clean up from the aftermath of the Fukushima nuclear power-plant explosion. They clear radioactive soil and debris. The conditions are bad, not only because of the obvious dangers of that line of work, but because after deductions for housing and food they often end up with no pay at all. The homeless are scouted at train stations, vulnerable and "an easy target for recruiters," explains Shizuya Nishiyama, a homeless man in Sendai. "We turn up here with all our bags, wheeling them around and we're easy to spot. They say to us, are you looking for work? Are you hungry? And if we haven't eaten, they offer to find us a job." If homeless people were truly content in a state of homelessness, they would not stay working for minimum wage in what turns out to be the world's most undesirable, unpleasant, and hazardous job. Furthermore, Tenohashi surveyed homeless in the parks and streets about how much they wanted a home. On a scale of one-to-five, one being not at all and five being desperately, almost every respondent answered five.
The human rights violation in the case of Japan's homeless population is not a case of active abuse, but rather of neglect. The problem is not only overlooked by the general public, but also discounted by the government. Homeless advocates say that official homeless statistics are inaccurate because the government only counts the people found in parks and on the streets and not those who move around, stay in internet cafes, have decrepit homes, or are on the edge of eviction. Government services for the homeless are inadequate. Since 2002, it has made monthly welfare payments available to those without an address, but when homeless people call local agencies for help, the responders frequently give opaque answers, scaring them off from what they are really entitled to. Government shelters impose rules that act as barriers: only those who work are allowed to remain, a rule that is almost impossible to follow for middle-aged homeless who have already been fired. They cannot stay longer than six months, but if they are still homeless then, they will have lost their spots and few possessions on the street and will have to start from scratch. Of those who do enter shelters, more than half end up running away. The homeless often conclude that they'd rather remain in their current state than accept the help.
Other countries have a lot of experience with the homeless issue that Japan can draw on. There are studies that present approaches that have helped. Whereas Japanese government "work first" policy expects homeless to find jobs and then seek homes, the studies show that it is more effective to give them a home first and that other steps towards maintaining a healthy lifestyle will follow. The American homeless support group 100,000 Homes speculates that "Other aspects of recovery... are easier to take when someone can sleep in a warm bed." The first step to relieving homelessness and its accompanying problems is not to force people to take on daunting challenges, but rather to give them the "warm bed."
The government isn't the only one that should be acting to improve the situation. Japanese people, too, need to develop more open-minded views. Other countries' studies demonstrate the central importance of community in helping homeless get back on their feet. Communities reduce a homeless person's isolation, providing support, information networks, a safety net, and perhaps most importantly, acceptance.
Human Rights Watch has a role to play. It can help educate the public about the causes and complexities of homelessness. It can publicize the activities of the relatively obscure advocacy organizations. It can help the organizations gain access to the "best-practices" research done around the world. Furthermore, it can play a watchdog role about labor violations, conditions at government shelters and welfare rights. Finally, it can petition all of Japan to take responsibility for those in need. A home is an internationally recognized human right and Japan as a society must help these people to achieve what they, like all of humanity, have a right to.
Works Cited
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights. http://www.un.org/en/documents/udhr/index.shtml#ap
Kasai Teppei, "Old Age Far From Gentle for Japan's Graying Homeless" Reuters, Mar. 1, 2013. http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/03/01/us-japan-homeless-ageing-idUSBRE92005720130301
Shakai jitsujo deeta zuroku. http://www2.ttcn.ne.jp/~honkawa/2970.html
Kasai Kazuaki, "Corporate Restructuring and Homelessness," in Jennifer Chan, Another Japan is Possible: New Social Movements and Global Citizenship Education, p.95.
"Homuresu mondai nit suite shiritai kata e" Tenohashi. http://tenohasi.org/homeless.html
Moyai (Homeless Advocacy Group), Orientation Seminar, Jan. 22, 2013.
http://japandailypress.com/japans-new-problem-an-ageing-homeless-population-0124399/
Tamae Ishiwatari, "Homelessness in Japan" Share International. http://www.shareintl.org/archives/homelessness/hl-ticardboard.htm.
"Homuresu mondai nit suite shiritai kata e" Tenohashi.
Interview, Tsuneoka, Chieko, freelance researcher, Tokyo, Jan. 15, 2013.
Sinclair, Brian, "Urban Japan: Considering Homelessness, Characterizing Shelter and Contemplating Culture" http://www.aia.org/aiaucmp/groups/aia/documents/pdf/aiab087180.pdf
Saito, Mari, and Slodowski, Antoni, "Special Report: Japan's Homeless Recruited for Murky Fukushima Cleanup," Reuters, Dec. 30, 2013. http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/12/30/us-fukushima-workers-idUSBRE9BT00520131230
"Homuresu mondai nit suite shiritai kata e" Tenohashi; Torres, Ida, "Japan's New Problem: An Aging Homeless Population" Japan Daily Press, Mar. 1, 2013. http://japandailypress.com/japans-new-problem-an-ageing-homeless-population-0124399/
Human Rights Now/Asian Legal Resource Centre report to the UN Human Rights Council for the Universal Periodic Review of Japan, February 7, 2008. http://hrn.or.jp/eng/activity/area/japan/report-summary-of-the-human-rights-situation-in-japan-for-the-ohchr
Maguire, Jake, "After the Streets: Following Up With Bernard One Year Later" 100,000 Homes Blog, Jan. 6, 2014. http://100khomes.org/blog/after-the-streets-following-up-with-bernard-one-year-later
【HRWニュース】 インド:マイノリティの子どもたちにも教育を ― 2014/05/07 16:27
インドでは、4年前、すべての子どもに初等教育を保証する教育法が成立し、不可触民やムスリムの子どもが学校に通い始めましたが、学校の現場での差別によって通学が困難になっていることが調査で分かりました。HRWは、法律の違反者への罰則や、苦情や救済制度が必要と考えます。
なお、インドでは小学校に入学した子どもの約半数(8,000万人以上)が途中で通学を断念しています。
詳細はこちらをご覧ください。
【HRWニュース】中国:天安門事件の研究会出席で拘束された活動家たちを釈放すべき ― 2014/05/08 17:39
中国政府は1989年6月4日に起きた天安門事件において、人民解放軍による市民の殺害を未だに認めていません。
4月下旬、政府から同事件に関して発言をしないよう警告を受けていたジャーナリストが行方不明となり、5月上旬には、同事件に関する研究会の出席者が警察によって拘束されています。
詳細はこちらをご覧ください。
【イベントのお知らせ】 「世界難民の日」国際シンポジウム ― 2014/05/12 11:29
HRW後援のイベントです。ご関心のある方は事前申し込みの上ご参加ください。
大学間連携共同教育推進事業「国際協力人材」育成プログラム
「世界難民の日」国際シンポジウム
「ルワンダのジェノサイドと国際協力~残虐行為と難民流出をどう予防すべきか~」
日時:2014年6月20日(金)18:20~21:00
会場:立教大学池袋キャンパス 太刀川記念館3階多目的ホール
内容:2014年は、20世紀最悪と呼ばれたルワンダのジェノサイド、そして最悪の難民危機となったルワンダ難民の大量流出から20周年を迎える。この機会に、難民、国内避難民やルワンダに帰還した元難民(帰還民)の視点から、ジェノサイドの文脈やそれがアフリカ大湖地域に与えた影響について分析する。その上で、将来、ルワンダやその他の国々における残虐行為を予防し、持続的な平和を目指すために、国際社会がどのような国際協力に従事すべきかについて議論する。
アフリカ中央部、特にルワンダの法律や政治を専門とする、世界を代表する研究者、フィリップ・レインツェンス教授(ベルギー・アントワープ大学)が基調講演を行う。映画「ホテル・ルワンダ」の影響もあって、ジェノサイド、民族対立や和解などに関心を持つ数多くの研究者や学生にとって、難民、開発、ガバナンスや平和構築の理論と現実のギャップを学ぶ、重要な機会となるものである。
プログラム:
【ビデオ・メッセージ】
ジョセフ・セバレンジ アメリカ・School for International Training 助教(ルワンダ虐殺の生存者で、難民生活を3回経験)
【基調講演】
講師:フィリップ・レインツェンス アントワープ大学教授
テーマ:「ジェノサイドから20年:現在のルワンダの課題」
・討論者
武内進一 日本貿易振興機構アジア経済研究所地域研究センター次長
ローランス・ビネ氏(国境なき医師団(MSF)インターナショナル、MSF財団人道問題研究所リサーチ・ディレクター)
・討論者・モデレーター
米川正子 立教大学21世紀社会デザイン研究科特任准教授、元国連難民高等弁務官事務所(UNHCR)職員
・司会
小川蘭那(立教大学法学部国際ビジネス法学科2年生、本プログラム受講生)
※日本語・英語による同時通訳有り
主催:立教大学、明治大学、国際大学「国際協力人材」育成プログラム
後援:公益社団法人アムネスティ・インターナショナル日本、国連難民高等弁務官事務所東京事務所、特定非営利活動法人国境なき医師団日本、ヒューマン・ライツ・ウォッチ、日本アフリカ学会
対象:立教大学・明治大学・国際大学、他大学学生及び教職員、一般
申込:要事前申込み
定員100名
お問合せ:立教大学グローバル教育センター TEL. 03-3985-4876
【フィリップ・レインツェンス氏の略歴】
専門は憲法学。国際ルワンダ刑事裁判所や国際刑事裁判所で証人、そして外務省、開発協力や国際NGOのコンサルタントを務める。最新刊は、Political governance in post-genocide Rwanda(Cambridge University Press, 2013)
「世界難民の日」国際シンポジウム
「ルワンダのジェノサイドと国際協力~残虐行為と難民流出をどう予防すべきか~」
日時:2014年6月20日(金)18:20~21:00
会場:立教大学池袋キャンパス 太刀川記念館3階多目的ホール
内容:2014年は、20世紀最悪と呼ばれたルワンダのジェノサイド、そして最悪の難民危機となったルワンダ難民の大量流出から20周年を迎える。この機会に、難民、国内避難民やルワンダに帰還した元難民(帰還民)の視点から、ジェノサイドの文脈やそれがアフリカ大湖地域に与えた影響について分析する。その上で、将来、ルワンダやその他の国々における残虐行為を予防し、持続的な平和を目指すために、国際社会がどのような国際協力に従事すべきかについて議論する。
アフリカ中央部、特にルワンダの法律や政治を専門とする、世界を代表する研究者、フィリップ・レインツェンス教授(ベルギー・アントワープ大学)が基調講演を行う。映画「ホテル・ルワンダ」の影響もあって、ジェノサイド、民族対立や和解などに関心を持つ数多くの研究者や学生にとって、難民、開発、ガバナンスや平和構築の理論と現実のギャップを学ぶ、重要な機会となるものである。
プログラム:
【ビデオ・メッセージ】
ジョセフ・セバレンジ アメリカ・School for International Training 助教(ルワンダ虐殺の生存者で、難民生活を3回経験)
【基調講演】
講師:フィリップ・レインツェンス アントワープ大学教授
テーマ:「ジェノサイドから20年:現在のルワンダの課題」
・討論者
武内進一 日本貿易振興機構アジア経済研究所地域研究センター次長
ローランス・ビネ氏(国境なき医師団(MSF)インターナショナル、MSF財団人道問題研究所リサーチ・ディレクター)
・討論者・モデレーター
米川正子 立教大学21世紀社会デザイン研究科特任准教授、元国連難民高等弁務官事務所(UNHCR)職員
・司会
小川蘭那(立教大学法学部国際ビジネス法学科2年生、本プログラム受講生)
※日本語・英語による同時通訳有り
主催:立教大学、明治大学、国際大学「国際協力人材」育成プログラム
後援:公益社団法人アムネスティ・インターナショナル日本、国連難民高等弁務官事務所東京事務所、特定非営利活動法人国境なき医師団日本、ヒューマン・ライツ・ウォッチ、日本アフリカ学会
対象:立教大学・明治大学・国際大学、他大学学生及び教職員、一般
申込:要事前申込み
定員100名
お問合せ:立教大学グローバル教育センター TEL. 03-3985-4876
【フィリップ・レインツェンス氏の略歴】
専門は憲法学。国際ルワンダ刑事裁判所や国際刑事裁判所で証人、そして外務省、開発協力や国際NGOのコンサルタントを務める。最新刊は、Political governance in post-genocide Rwanda(Cambridge University Press, 2013)
【HRWニュース】警察活動での「キラーロボット」の使用を禁止すべき ― 2014/05/14 10:20
日常生活での警察によるキラーロボットの使用について、初めて人権法に照らし合わせて検証した結果、人権を侵害する恐れがあるものであることが分かりました。
現在、キラーロボットに関する初の国際会議がジュネーブで行われていますが、ヒューマン・ライツ・ウォッチは各国政府へ全面的禁止を求めます。
詳しくはこちらをご覧ください。
【HRWニュース】 国連安保理:シリア 国際刑事裁判所に付託を ― 2014/05/14 14:59
【HRWニュース】 米国:たばこ農場で働く子どもに深刻な健康被害 ― 2014/05/14 15:51
アメリカでは、たばこ農場での児童労働は合法です。また、その児童を守る労働法がありません。
作業は安全性が保たれていないことが多く、ニコチン中毒に似た症状や農薬による健康被害、作業中の大ケガなどが発生しています。
ヒューマン・ライツ・ウォッチは日本企業を含むたばこ企業10社に対して、本調査結果をもとに対応を取るよう働きかけをしました。
詳しくはこちらをご覧ください。
【メディア掲載】 サンデー毎日 5月25日号 ― 2014/05/17 17:29
【映像公開】『Syria』を公開しました。 ― 2014/05/17 18:33
シリアで政府軍と反政府軍によって犠牲となる多くの市民。
危険な状況下にある学校、村民の虐殺、化学兵器の使用で亡くなる子どもたち・・・。ヒューマン・ライツ・ウォッチは状況を変えるために活動しています。
是非こちらからご覧ください。
【HRWニュース】攻撃対象にされる医療従事者と患者たち ― 2014/05/19 14:35
2012年以降、紛争下で働く数百人の医者・看護士が攻撃にさらされています。すでに殺害、爆撃による死亡、逮捕などが起きているほか、医療従事者を標的にした攻撃も発生しています。
WHOや安保理による対応など、詳細はこちらをご覧ください。