On the streets of Japan

I've been struck by the number of homeless people here in Japan and also the accepted attitude towards leaving them on the streets and tolerating cardboard citizens. As a result, some areas in Japanese cities are villages of permanently dwelling homeless people.

Most of them have a lot of posessions, even trolleys to cart their things. I have not noticed any people with visible substance abuse issues, and most of them are old.

I was told by people that some people have to make a conscience choice to be homeless because of the situation with pensions as well as the stress of working life:

I was in a cab in Tokyo last night having a interesting conversation about the recent elections and the future of Japan with a very educated and opinionated cab driver. The conversation turned to the pension system. He told me that he would be retiring soon and because of the of the way that he had done his pension, he would be retiring with a monthly payment less than enough money to pay for room and board. He told me that he was now designing his homeless shack. He figured he could afford an air-conditioner and some real panel, but that the price of the roofing material had gone up so he might have to use those blue plastic sheets. He was serious. He was also considering several different places to locate. He said that until he had found his current cab company employer, he had been homeless so this wasn't new to him.

cites one example.

There's some interesting reading here.