Brain dump

I was on the train this morning when a homeless person got on. She smelt. Very bad. In fact, the smell lingered for about 10 minutes after she left the carriage. Yes, it bothered me. But what bothered me more was the reactions of the other passengers. Almost without exception, they all spent a fair amount of time screwing up their faces and waving their hands in front of their noses. Firstly, this doesn't work to get rid of the smell. Secondly, this homeless person doesn't have a place to wash herself and in my opinion, deserves our sympathy more than our derision.

....here's where it all gets a little contemplative (if anyone knows me at all, this could be a rough ride)...

Japan prides itself on the ideal that the distinctions between rich and poor are not great. When you compare Japan to say, the States, or even Australia, this is probably true, but its not the whole story. Japan has a huge middle class, but the gap between this middle class and the homeless is immense! And although it is slowly improving, Japan doesn't have the same volunteerist culture to help these guys out as Australia and the States, but it does have the same homeless problem. The volunteers come out in force around Christmas time, but then come the 3rd January, seem to fall deflatedly into the Sumida River. In fact, since living in Tokyo, I've found the homeless far more visible. Just take a walk through some of the parks in Shibuya, Takadanobaba and Ueno and you'll see what I mean.

The general attitude toward homeless people in this country is no doubt complex, and as an outsider, I don't understand the issues of shame and pride that dictate the way people act toward those who no longer have familial support for whatever reason and are forced to live in gutters. In fact, I'm glad I don't understand it. It would do my head in.

From what I can tell, the fault lies with two forces: 1) the government, made up of ageing bureaucrats with more concern for the tax-paying bourgeoise (why am I choosing such difficult words to spell today?) than humanity - certainly no different to any first world government. Just take a look at the way the Osaka government dealt with the homeless during last year's World-Cup. Rather than actually addressing the problem in their own backyard, they ousted them from the only home they knew and dumped them outside the city precincts so the international dollars would be spared from seeing such poverty.

I also think part of it lies with 2) the culturally-conservative attitude that the family-unit is everything, they support you and if you lose your family, you lose everything. So many elderly people in Japan, for example, are completely dependent on their families for support. Children live at home until they are, like, 40. What this cultural dependency has to do with homeless people, I'm not entirely sure, but I think it goes part of the way to explaining how Japanese people deal with poverty with expressions of shame rather than positive action. The homeless have become The Disassociated, and no-one wants to know about them.

I'm sure this attitude exists in most other countries, but I think it is more visible in Japan. Perhaps because I am looking at it from the perspective of one of the "outsiders" (albeit a more affluent one) and Japanese people in general fear what they don't understand more so than people from multi-cultural countries who are used to mixing with people of different races, family structures, sexual orientations and financial situations.

They say the "gift-giving" mentality is instilled into the Japanese. It's true - if you're a foreigner you get gifts "for your travels"; if you're the boss, you get gifts for being the boss. In fact, the reciprocation of gifts and the overall generosity of the Japanese is one thing I f!@#ing love about this country. But where are the gifts being given to fellow country-men who, probably through no fault of their own, have been shunned by their families, their own government and forced to live in blue-tarp communities?