Homeless in Tokyo: Fallen through society's cracks and frozen out

In Japan the homeless are ignored, not just by the government but also the public, and this sets off a vicious cycle. It is left to volunteer groups to provide food and essentials to the homeless population of Tokyo. “Twenty million people live below the poverty line within Japan. The poverty line is defined as one half of the national average income, so if you have a household income of less than ¥2.3 million you are considered to be relatively poor. Out of that, there are 13 million households who live on roughly ¥100,000 a month,” says McJilton.