Japan's Homeless

There's a very interesting article in Businessweek about Japanese Homeless.

Japan's 24 hour internet cafes often double as places where revelers can hang out before the first bus or train home in the morning. With food, drink, showers and other amenities on hand, the cafes often a cheap alternative to a hotel. Yet for some Japanese, internet cafes are a low-cost substitute for a home. According to a survey by the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare, 5,400 people in Japan who have no fixed address spend their nights sleeping in internet cafes.

Depressingly, many of the café dwellers, known as Net Café
Refugees, are part of Japan's Lost Generation that saw their prospects hurt during the long downturn in the 1990s but are yet to benefit from the economic comeback of the last few years.

Over half work casually on a day-to-day basis. In Tokyo, the average monthly income is just $950--insufficient to rent a one room apartment--and 40% said they had experienced sleeping on the street.