WITLife #12: Net Café Refugees and More Auto Protests
Career, Japan Trends, Translating/Interpreting, WIT Life, Writers 
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WITLife is a periodic series written by professional Interpreter/Translator/Writer Stacy Smith (Kumamoto-ken, 2000-03). In her recent posts, she’s been watching the news in Japanese and sharing some of the interesting tidbits and trends together with her own observations.
The phenomenon of “net café refugees” became a hot topic in Japan last year, when it was estimated by the Health Ministry that 5,400 people with no fixed addresses, mostly those in their 20s, slept at 24-hour Internet cafes for as little as 1,000-2,000 yen per night. These legendary facilities house small cubicles equipped with reclining chairs, computers and TVs, and many cafés allow free soft drink refills. Some even have showers.
In this dismal economy, usage of net cafés has been on the increase. A café profiled in this morning’s news said that it offers a rate of 59,520 yen per month for those staying longer than 30 days, and that out of its 58 rooms, 50 were occupied long-term.
One such resident who volunteered for an interview said that he had been there for over six months. After losing his real estate job two years ago when his company went bankrupt, he has been struggling to make ends meet as a day laborer. However, being 39 prevents him from competing with those younger, and it is difficult to find work. Around the perimeter of the computer in his cubicle was an empty ramen container and small stuffed toys.
In an attempt to address this social problem, the Health Ministry announced the “Tokyo Challenge.” With this measure, the government will help provide places for people who have jobs but nowhere to live. It targets those who have spent more than half a year in a net café and offers them up to a 600,000 yen interest-free loan so they can get on their feet and find an apartment. Additionally, a new employment law regarding issues such as hiring has been proposed in the Diet and will be decided on the day after tomorrow.
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In a recent post, I mentioned worker protests at an Isuzu factory that was shutting down. Now comes news that contract workers at Nissan Diesel carried out demonstrations of a similar spirit. After being fired before their contracts were to end, they decided to fight back. It turns out that even in Japan sometimes it pays to be the nail that sticks out (aka the squeaky wheel)!
Thanks to their efforts, the protesters received a retraction of their dismissals until the completion of their contracts at the end of January. Also, the company dormitories they were to be kicked out of welcomed them back, if grudgingly. According to one employee on the picket line, “We thought it would be impossible but worth a try, and it turned out even better than we expected.”
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