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Japan’s economic recovery is an uneven one which is leaving many people behind. As homelessness becomes an ever greater problem, Kyung Lah looks at one temporary solution, but finds it is no place to call home. Satoshi Miura steps into his home for the night. He crawls because there’s no room to stand. It’s a comfortable place to stay, says Miura, there’s a shared bath and a place to sleep.

 

This is a capsule hotel. The rooms are boxes about the size of a coffin. This capsule hotels were once a sign of prosperity. Businessmen working too late or parting too late into the night could find a safe place to crash. And for that purpose, this small space does have everything you need, a bed, a television, a radio. They were never intended to be lived in for an extended period of time, but just costing $700-$1000 a month with no deposit, a housing bargain in Tokyo, the working poor are increasingly calling this home.

 

Miura is part of the working poor. He goes from job to job as a part time temporary worker. The work is low paid and not steady. Hired and fired at will. Temporary workers were fired in mass in Japan’s recession. Many lost their homes. And in a sign recovery has been slow, 800 people quickly filled the government emergency shelter that opened for one week in the New Year. When the week was up, the government then moved them. Miura among them to capsule hotels across Tokyo.

 

Some here will find public housing. Those who don’t will eventually disappear into the city again, into hourly Internet rooms, the size of closets, Internet cafes, 24 hour fast food restaurants, and capsule hotels. The global economic slowdown has hit this country hard. Unemployment is at an all time high, at 5.2%. And the poverty rate is one of the highest among developed nations. The biggest problem in Japan is when you’re jobless, you drop right into poverties, says Kawazoe, housing is so unaffordable, he says, that temporary workers can never make enough to pay the deposit at an apartment or make rent.

 

Japan’s new Prime Minister in his first news conference of the year promised to change that. I want everyone in Japan to have basic living rights guaranteed by our constitutions, says Prime Minister Hatoyama. People want a place to live. They wish to work, but there’s nowhere to work. I want to build the government this year that supports workers and protects their lives. Japan is not a rich country, says Miura from his capsule, there are rich and poor and a great gap between. But on this night, Miura is feeling a bit more upbeat. He has a day tomorrow that will pay him enough for another night indoors making it one more day in the world’s most expensive city. Kyung Lah, CNN, Tokyo.

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