<http://www.nytimes.com/2001/02/02/world/02JAPA.html>
Through 10 years of economic ills, Japan has clung tightly to a number of cherished national myths, from the idea that an economy that rose to greatness so quickly after World War II couldn't possibly be fundamentally broken, to the notion that all Japanese people are essentially middle class.
In Osaka, where the number of homeless — the largest in Japan — is increasing swiftly, belief in those myths is becoming strained. The homeless are taking over public parks and straining the prefectural budget to the point where officials who put the number of city homeless at 10,000 — modest by the standards of some American cities — recognize that the real figure may be much higher.
Even by official data, the number of makeshift tents for the homeless in the city's largest park alone rose to 458 last summer, from 159 a year earlier.
Citizens' groups, meanwhile, have been protesting about the problem, demanding that Osaka clear the homeless out of public areas and protect people better against a population viewed as dirty and dangerous. Many of these groups have also campaigned against having public shelters in their neighborhoods.
"People are always complaining, why don't we find a vacant lot to house these people in far away from the city center, or why don't we just keep them all by the port," said Yukata Izumi, an official in the Osaka Welfare Bureau. "We have replied that the homeless have a right to a proper living area of their own, too, and have begged for the public's comprehension.
"These people have become economic refugees, and the basic problem is that when the economy is bad, there is no work, and people without work will eventually become homeless."