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Homelessness in Osaka: Globalisation, Yoseba and Disemployment

Urban Sociology Research Centre, 21-17 Nakayama-Nakamachi, Higashi-ku, Hiroshima, Japan. kurokami{at}hicat.ne.jp

Homeless people have increased and become visible socially in Japan since the mid 1990s. There has also been a corresponding increase in sociological studies of homelessness. These studies have sought to analyse the unique characteristics of homeless people: rough sleepers, ex-day-labourers, single men, the elderly and so on. The life conditions of homeless people have also been analysed: how they get jobs, foods and shelter; how they make networks among themselves; how they resist violence from the mainstream citizenry and so on. However, in order to understand the observed situations of homeless people correctly, the economic, institutional and structural backgrounds of homelessness in Japan must be analysed on a macro and historical level. To date, no such study has been undertaken. This paper seeks to fill that gap. It analyses the processes through which homelessness has appeared in Japan. It has three specific aims. The first is to analyse the economic background of homelessness by focusing on two phenomena brought by globalisation to Japan: deyosebisation, which means the gradual disappearance of day-labourers from yoseba (the day-labour market); and the disemployment of casually employed unskilled workers in the general labour market. The second is to analyse the institutional background of homelessness to regulate the homeless population, especially by focusing on social welfare. The third is to analyse the structural background of homelessness to regulate the homeless population by focusing on two affiliate groups: company and family/relatives. The research field of this paper is Metropolitan Osaka in the 1990s.

Urban Studies, Vol. 40, No. 2, 361-378 (2003)
DOI: 10.1080/00420980220080311


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