Playback ’96] Kerosene was sprayed and fire extinguishers were used to fight back… Shinjuku West Exit was in turmoil: “Forced Exclusion of Homeless People.

What did “FRIDAY” report 10, 20, and 30 years ago? In this edition of “Playback Friday,” we revisit topics that were popular at the time. In this issue, we look back 30 years to the February 9, 1996 issue, which reported “Fireworks, Fire Extinguishers, Soy Bombs, Shinjuku Burns! 　 Police Forcibly Remove Homeless People from Shinjuku”.

The collapse of the bubble economy in 1991 deprived many workers of jobs and led to an increase in the number of homeless people. In 1994, the Tokyo Metropolitan Government began to forcibly remove these “cardboard houses” from the underground passageway leading from Shinjuku Station to the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building, and it is said that more than a hundred people were living in these “cardboard villages.

Around the end of 1995, the metropolitan government began forcing the residents of the cardboard village to leave because of the construction of a “moving sidewalk” in the underpass. The homeless and their supporters protested. After numerous skirmishes, on January 24, 1996, the Tokyo Metropolitan Government finally decided to remove them by force (the descriptions in parentheses are taken from past articles, ages are those of the time).

Homeless and Police Clash

It was a scene akin to a university dispute in the 1960s.

In the early morning of January 24, when the weather was even colder, homeless people and their supporters, Tokyo metropolitan government officials, and police officers engaged in a spectacular standoff in the Shinjuku West Exit underpass.

The Tokyo Metropolitan Government had decided to remove all of the “cardboard houses” that have become a West Exit landmark, and the homeless resisted by building a “barricade” of plywood. When staff members approached, they threw eggs, garbage, fireworks, salad oil, and even shoyu at random. When the removal of the barricade began, kerosene was sprayed, fire extinguishers were set off, smoke filled the air, and chaos ensued.

The Tokyo Metropolitan Government deployed more than 500 employees and guards, as well as 250 police officers, in an all-out effort to clear the area. Some of the homeless resisted by chaining their bodies to pillars, but the overwhelming numbers of people in the area led to them being taken out one by one. Thus, by 8:30 a.m., all the homeless had been removed.

However, it seems that the homeless were not necessarily a monolithic group.

It was like a “Shinjuku Burning! In fact, there were many homeless people who sat and drank shochu or simply stood by and watched. On the other hand, those who resisted to the end by violently throwing things at them, were removed by being hung up by their hands and feet, or were arrested for obstruction of justice were notably young, neatly dressed people.

While supporters shouted, “This is nothing more than an appeal to violence on the strength of a formal law,” some homeless people disappeared, saying, “I have nothing to do with this,” while others went to a nearby reception area to apply for temporary shelter provided by the Tokyo Metropolitan Government.

The temporary shelter is only available for two months. It was unlikely that this forced removal would solve the problem of homelessness.

Rebuilt cardboard village

While the homeless and their supporters fought the forced removal of the “cardboard village” from the underground passageway, they occupied the area that would later become the Shinjuku Station West Exit Underground Plaza Event Corner to prevent the fence from being erected. Some of the homeless excluded from the underground passage moved to this “emergency shelter. Dozens of people slept and woke up in a place surrounded by plastic sheets, and soup kitchens were set up every day.

After about two weeks, some people began to build cardboard houses, which eventually spread to the entire West Gate Underground Plaza, where 300 people, more than in the former cardboard village, were living.

After the cardboard village was rebuilt, photographers, artists, journalists, and others began to visit and interact with the residents, and at the end of 1997, volunteers held a New Year’s Eve concert, said to be the largest event held at Shinjuku’s West Exit since the “folk guerrillas” of the 1960s. It was said to be the biggest event since the “folk guerrillas” of the 1960s.

However, the end of the cardboard village, where residents lived in constant fear of forced removal, was sudden and unexpected: a fire broke out before dawn on February 7, 1998, destroying more than 50 cardboard houses and killing four residents. The cardboard village was voluntarily dissolved, and many of the residents moved to facilities run by the Tokyo Metropolitan Government.

The number of homeless people in Tokyo’s 23 wards continued to increase, and corrugated fiberboard houses and tents were set up in parks throughout the city. At its peak in 1999, there were 5,798 people. In 2004, the Tokyo Metropolitan Government started the “Homeless Community Life Transition Support Project” to secure housing for homeless people living in parks and support their employment, and the number of homeless people has been steadily decreasing. Statistics for 2012 show that the number has dropped to 342. However, people living in Internet cafes and simple lodging are not included in this number.