Recently
the economic recession, in 1998 - 2002, homeless people are still
increasing.
Now
there are 30 - 50,000 homeless people in Japan.
Not only in Tokyo and Osaka, but many in smaller cities have increasing
numbers of homeless.
They live on the streets, in stations and public parks and
riverside.
Two years ago, there are only single homeless people, but since
then, we're starting to see actual communities of homeless people living
in Parks and along riversides.
Some leaders from the homeless communities, we helped him go to
SPARC in India and Philippines.
Also Celine came to Japan.
We also did an East Asian exchange program, involving homeless
people in Japan, Seoul and Hong Kong, for which we did a document you
can pick up on the table.
Now
little by little, in Tokyo, Nagoya and other areas, some community
movement are starting.
But also I'm now explaining about the homeless movement. But
government action is also starting now.
2001, government is starting to respond to the homeless problem
at a national level.
Finally.
Their main purpose is to - there are many homeless people in the
public areas, so some neighborhoods are very afraid of the homeless.
So the government's main purpose is to evict the homeless from
the park and riverside and make shelters for them.
That is the government style.
Prof Hosaka continues ...
The
New Homeless Law
(refer
to Peter's article given out at meeting)
Now
we also see
that government can no longer ignore the problem.
In the past they just ignore the homeless issue.
Now the current parliament session, there is a controversial
draft bill being discussed :
"Law Concerning Temporary Measures to Support the Self
Reliance of Homeless People."
This is so controversial.
Basically, I am for this bill, but Peter is against it.
Very briefly, article 11 of this draft bill, that local
authorities are in a position to maintain the public place in a proper
use. So
all the activist are afraid that this may justify forced evictions from
parks and riversides.
Also from the point of Peter's work with homeless communities -
he is afraid that such new laws may just block the local community
process and affect very negatively.
He wants more time and space so the more genuine process can
start.
This is based on the local experience, where local government
establishes some shelters, and this leads to homeless people being just
isolated from society, forcibly accommodated in what they call shelter,
without any freedom of choice.
From
my point of view, where the government has no national level provisions
for homeless people, perhaps there could be some new steps for homeless
people, to make use of such new opportunities and resources, for new
strategies to get out of homelessness.
As long as human rights are not violated.
One
homeless fellow from Hong Kong, in Japan he saw the situation and
- from childhood, he has been living on the street, and has felt
always like he is doing something wrong by living on the street.
And in Japan, he felt that while this was not something to be
proud of, it is also not something to be ashamed of.
Same words I recalled from earthquake victims in Kobe in 1995,
when we did the FFM in Kobe after the earthquake, with Scott and Bimbo
and Nandasiri...
