Skid Row, Yokohama: Homelessness and Welfare in Japan

Following the bursting of the bubble economy in Japan at the beginning of the 1990s, demand for casual labor slumped. By the end of the decade, there were so few jobs left that most men had given up the struggle. More and more men were unable to afford the rent on their doya rooms, and slipped into homelessness. This article explains the measures the Japanese Government has adopted to reduce the level of homelessness among older men since 2002, with the passing of the 2002 Homeless Self-Reliance Support Law. Japan’s official homeless population has declined from 25,296 in 2003 to 7,508 in 2014.