Japan’s 0% Homelessness Rate: The Hidden Truth and Dark Consequences

In the many ways that Japan stands out, there is one particular statistic that completely sets it apart from any other country in the world. Despite being one of the most populous nations, it is the only country in the world that has a homeless population rate of almost zero percent. While the United States is experiencing a major homelessness crisis with the number of people living on the street rising every year, Japan seems to have found the solution to a societal issue that was thought to not really have one. But if you look past the headlines, the situation starts to look very different. The reality behind this seemingly amazing success reveals a disturbing and dark reality about what life in Japanese society is like and what is really going on under the surface. So, how did Japan manage to have a zero percent homelessness rate, and why is it actually not good news for the country? This article will explore the dark secret of how Japan solved homelessness.

The Official Statistics: A Deceptive Picture

According to official statistics, Japan, a country with over 125 million residents, has around 3,000 homeless people, about 0.003% of its population. This is way less than other countries with low homelessness rates, like Switzerland, and miles ahead of countries like the US. But why exactly? Well, there are several reasons that are often mentioned as the cause of this extremely low rate.

The Stigma and Difficulty of Being Homeless in Japan

First, being homeless is actually very difficult in Japan, and in the Japanese culture, it is incredibly stigmatized. According to a founder of a non-profit organization that supports the homeless in Japan, there is no culture of compassion for homeless people in the country. They are usually seen as people who only have themselves to blame for their situation and who deserve no help at all. This is even stronger because the majority of homeless in Japan are men, who are traditionally expected to be self-reliant. Their failure to do that is seen as an embarrassment both by the public and by themselves. As a result, the authorities tend to make it harder to actually be homeless than in most countries. Any kind of begging in public is banned by law. Homeless people tend to be pushed out of sight, and cities like Tokyo are known for implementing what’s been called anti-homeless or hostile architecture, like parks that are locked at night so that people can’t sleep there or benches and other city features that are specifically designed to make lying, sleeping, and prolonged sitting on them uncomfortable in order to discourage homeless people from staying in the area. And so, making it both difficult and socially unacceptable to be homeless contributes to the low rate, as it is something most people try to avoid at all costs.

Japan’s Unique Policies and Infrastructure

What also helps are some of Japan’s unique policies that, while not designed to reduce homelessness, help to do it anyway. Japan has very strict laws on basically any drugs other than alcohol and very severe punishment, and as a result, only 1.6% of the Japanese population has tried drugs other than alcohol in their lifetime, compared to 46% of Americans. This means that drug addiction in Japan is barely an issue. According to Tom Gill, a Japan-based social anthropologist, this is another key factor.

At the same time, Japan has a very robust healthcare system, which is also significant since 30 to 35% of people who experience homelessness in the United States have a mental illness. While in Japan, people with severe mental illnesses tend to be placed in mental health institutions, in the United States, they often end up on the street.

Finally, Japan has relatively accessible housing because it builds more houses than any other developed democratic country. Unlike most Western countries, where building housing became increasingly difficult due to various regulations, Japan took the opposite route and has very few restrictions, making it very easy to build anything and, in turn, making it relatively affordable.

The Hidden Reality: Cyber Homelessness and the Lost Generation

Despite the official numbers, the reality is a lot more grim, and there are many more people without a home in Japan, but they are hidden away from sight and government statistics. So, how is that possible? As you might have seen in another one of my videos, in the 1990s, Japan experienced a severe economic crisis when the stock and real estate markets collapsed. In the following years, it became extremely difficult to secure a steady, regular job with a decent pay, and so millions of people were left to survive on low-paying, temporary, part-time jobs. Many of them never managed to recover, and they became known as Japan’s Lost Generation, people with no status, no place in society, and no future. As a consequence, many of them were unable to hold down an apartment and pay rent every month, even in a relatively affordable Japan.

But at the same time, they would do anything to avoid living on the streets in order to avoid the shame and stigma from society that comes with it. And so, the phenomenon of cyber homelessness emerged. Japan has a wide network of 24-hour internet and manga cafes where people pay by the hour and can stay as long as they want. Since the 1990s, many members of Japan’s Lost Generation have begun using them as temporary shelters. They don’t have beds, but people often sleep in the computer cubicles, and over time, the cafes expanded their services to offer food, drinks, fresh underwear, or showers. Gradually, this became an industry of itself, and today, the cyber cafes are basically a uniquely Japanese concept of commercial homeless shelters, ones that you have to pay for yourself, which is, by the way, not even that cheap. Prices for an overnight stay in a small booth cost somewhere between $17 to $28.

The net cafe refugees, as they are known in Japan, often have some kind of low-paying, part-time, or temporary job that doesn’t pay enough to rent an apartment, but they can afford to pay for a few hours in an internet cafe every night. These net cafe refugees are homeless; they don’t have a home or a permanent address, and they’re excluded from many aspects of life. But they don’t look like it; they don’t sleep outside, they work, and they do everything they can to maintain a clean-shaven, polite, well-kept appearance to avoid the shame that comes with being homeless in Japan.

That’s why the government statistics of homeless people in Japan are considered wildly underestimated. Non-government organizations estimate that the real number of people living on the streets in Japan is at least three times higher than the government says, and that’s even without taking into account the cyber homeless people staying in internet cafes on most nights for at least a few hours. If they were to be included, the real number would be radically different. In 2020, it was estimated that at least 15,000 people lived in cyber cafes in Tokyo alone, five times as many as the official number of homeless people in the entire Japan.

Conclusion: A Disturbing Reflection of Japanese Society

In one way, this phenomenon of cyber homelessness can be seen as positive. On one hand, it helps people to avoid falling on the very bottom of society and allows them to keep some level of dignity even though they don’t have a home. But at the same time, the existence of the net cafe refugees demonstrates the incredible problems that Japanese society has as a whole.