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Mar 04 2010 7 Comments

Homelessness in Japan

When it comes to the street photography seen on so much of this site, I generally have no qualms in quite often surreptitiously snapping people as they busily go about their business, but in regards to Tokyo’s increasingly visible homeless, picture taking seems somehow exploitative, or at the very least invasively voyeuristic.

And yet at the same time, with the number of those living on the streets rapidly growing, combined with very little support or assistance — and sometimes even a hindering of what help there actually is — it feels like to not photograph them, and therefore their plight, is to be equally culpable in what could easily be classed as a cruel and uncaring cover up.

So here, for what they are worth, are a few,

Tokyo homeless

of the unfortunately not so very,

Tokyo homeless

few.

Tokyo homeless

Categorized: Current Affairs, Photography

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. zichi says

    3/4/2010 at 2:09 pm

    I think if it helps to bring public attention to the problem of homelessness in Japan then they should be used. Recently, there was an article stating that at least 30% of the homeless suffer from mental problems so they need a lot more than just shelter.

    Reply
  2. Tornadoes28 says

    3/4/2010 at 2:17 pm

    None of these people would be an unusual site here in downtown Los Angeles. The plastic bag guy would be no different than many other people I see here.

    Reply
  3. Lisanna says

    3/4/2010 at 2:54 pm

    Poverty looks the same everywhere. =/ I live in Montréal, Canada and homeless people mostly look like those in Tokyo. And in winter, the snow, strong winds and even some nights around -30Celsius, it’s simply heartbreaking. There is shelters, but still.

    Reply
  4. Kafkaesque! says

    3/4/2010 at 7:51 pm

    I guess you bring awareness to the issue…

    Reply
  5. Lizzy says

    3/5/2010 at 2:44 pm

    The first image reminds me of a video I saw on the pollution problem in China. There were people who would ride around on bikes buying people’s recyclables for 1/2 of what they would get at the recycle center, then take the recyclables to the center and double their money. If this is that man’s case at least he is doing something to help himself. It may not be . . . I just noticed most of his bags have opened cans in them.

    Reply
  6. The Envoy says

    3/6/2010 at 1:43 am

    Seems like some of my friends have migrated to this site…

    Reply
  7. Gabi says

    4/5/2010 at 4:46 pm

    I know! I went to Japan this past summer and in the alley-ways there were like little hobo towns. They all had their little cardboard houses. I didn’t expect to see very many homeless people in Japan. I must say, they are very neat hobos compared to the ones in Atlanta.

    Reply

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