Even with terminal cancer, people are sleeping in Internet cafes… “Foreign Homeless” are rapidly increasing, and some are even dying!

We would like to look at the social background of the increase in the number of foreigners who are homeless in Japan, following on from Part I: Some Lose Their Lives… Background to the Rapid Increase in the Number of “Foreign Homeless”].

Tsukuroi Tokyo Fund is a general incorporated association that supports needy people mainly in the Tokyo metropolitan area. Its staff member, Yuma Osawa, is mainly involved in support projects for immigrants, refugees, and other foreign nationals.

Osawa points out that since the spread of the new coronary disease, the power of mutual assistance, in which foreigners help other foreigners in need, has been weakening.

There have been times in the past when foreigners have been stuck in their lives,” he says, “but because of the help of their peers, they have become homeless. But because they had the help of their friends, they did not often become homeless.

However, after the spread of the new Corona, the recession became serious and the economic power of foreigners as a whole declined. As a result, we were unable to reach out to our fellow citizens even when they were in need. And so we began to see serious situations starting with those who were in the weakest positions.”

What must be considered here is who are the “most vulnerable” among foreign workers.

If a foreigner owns a visa that allows him or her to work, he or she can change jobs even if he or she loses his or her job due to the recession. If they do not choose a job, they can get some kind of job.

“I will only allow you to stay in Japan.

But some foreigners do not have such visas. A typical example is the refugees that Osawa supports. They fled for their lives from their home countries, but were not recognized as refugees by Japan, and are now residing in Japan under the status of “provisional release.

To put it simply, provisional release means that they are not allowed to work or receive social security benefits, but are only allowed to stay in Japan for the time being. However, it is difficult for refugees who have fled their home countries, leaving their personal belongings behind, to make a living in Japan, a developed country.

There are two things they can do. They can either work illegally by evading the Immigration Bureau or rely on the foreign community for financial support.

However, due to the recession caused by the new Corona, the businesses where they were illegally working have become more difficult and they have lost their jobs, and their supporters have become economically impoverished. This caused some of the refugees to lose their housing.

Some readers may think that it is their own fault that they are not recognized as refugees. However, Japan is known as one of the countries with one of the lowest refugee claim recognition rates in the world.

As an example, here are the refugee status rates (2019) for developed countries. Canada has 51%, the United Kingdom 39%, and the United States 22%. In contrast, Japan’s rate is only 0.29%. Even among developed countries, Japan treats refugees this lightly.