Home is a 'coffin' as Japan reels from recession

Published on Saturday 23 January 2010 18:18

JAPAN's space-age solution to solving the pressing problem of providing busy commuters with overnight accommodation has now become a social necessity.

When they were launched 20 years ago to offer exhausted businessmen a temporary bed, the capsule rooms were viewed in the West as quirky.

But the country is experiencing its worst recession since the Second World War and the coffin-shaped chambers are now providing people with homes.

For Atsushi Nakanishi, jobless since Christmas, home is a cubicle – one of dozens of berths stacked two units high in one of central Tokyo's decrepit "capsule" hotels.

"It's just a place to crawl into and sleep," he said, rolling his neck and stroking his black suit – one of just two he owns after discarding the rest of his wardrobe for lack of space. "You get used to it."

Hotel Shinjuku's 510 capsules, no larger than 6.5ft long by 5ft wide, and not tall enough to stand up in, have become an affordable option for people with nowhere else to go

Major companies laid off workers en masse last year as the global economic crisis pushed down demand. Many of the newly unemployed, forced from their company-sponsored housing or unable to afford rent, have become homeless.

The Democratic Party, which swept to power in September, wants to avoid the fate of the previous pro-business government, which was caught off-guard when unemployed workers pitched tents near public offices last year to call attention to their plight.

"In this bitter-cold new year's season, the government intends to do all it can to help those who face hardship," Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama said. "You are not alone."

But Nakanishi considers himself relatively lucky. After working odd jobs on an Isuzu assembly line, at pachinko parlours and as a security guard, the 40-year-old moved into the capsule hotel in Tokyo's Shinjuku district in April to save on rent while he worked night shifts at a delivery company.

Nakanishi, who studied economics at a regional university, dreams of becoming a lawyer and pores over legal manuals during the day. But with no job since Christmas, he does not know how much longer he can afford a capsule bed.

The rent is surprisingly high for such a small space: 59,000 yen (400) a month for an upper bunk. But with no upfront deposit or extra utility charges, and basic amenities like fresh linens and free use of a communal bath and sauna, the cost is far less than renting an apartment in Tokyo, he says.

Each capsule is furnished only with a light, a small TV with earphones, coat hooks, a thin blanket and a hard pillow of rice husks.

Most possessions, from shirts to shaving cream, must be kept in lockers. There is a common room with old couches, a dining area and rows of sinks. Cigarette smoke is everywhere, as are security cameras. But the hotel staff do their best to put guests at ease: "Welcome home," employees say at the entrance.

"Our main clients used to be salarymen who were out drinking and missed the last train," said Tetsuya Akasako, head manager at the hotel.

But about two years ago, the hotel started to notice that guests were staying weeks, then months, he said. This year, it introduced a reduced rent for those who stay a month or longer; now, about 100 of the hotel's 300 capsules are rented out by the month. After requests from its long-term dwellers, the hotel received special government permission to let them register their capsules as their official abode – which makes it easier to land job interviews.

The government says about 15,800 people live on the streets in Japan, but aid groups put the figure much higher, with at least 10,000 in Tokyo alone. Those numbers do not count the city's "hidden" homeless, such as those who live in capsule hotels. There is also a floating population that sleeps overnight in the country's many 24-hour internet cafes and saunas.

The jobless rate, at 5.2 percent, is at a record high, and the number of households on welfare has risen sharply.

These statistics have helped shatter an image, held since the country's rise as an industrial power in the 1970s, that Japan is a classless society.

"When the country enjoyed rapid economic growth, standards of living improved across the board and class differences were obscured," said Professor Hiroshi Ishida of the University of Tokyo. "With a stagnating economy, class is more visible again."

Naoto Iwaya, 46, is on the verge of joining the hopeless. A former tuna fisherman, he has been living at another capsule hotel in Tokyo since August. He most recently worked on a landfill at the city's Haneda Airport, but that job ended last month.

"I have looked and looked, but there are no jobs. Now my savings are almost gone," Mr Iwaya said, after checking into an emergency shelter in Tokyo. He will be allowed to stay until tomorrow.

The New York Times