Tokyo faces pressure to house internet cafe homeless

May 07, 2020 | News On Japan

May 07, 2020 (Japan Today) - Japan is scrambling to house an often overlooked group of homeless people who slept in internet cafes now shut due to coronavirus lockdowns, with a petition to open the Olympic Village in Tokyo to them garnering support.

At least 4,000 people without secure housing use cyber cafes to sleep, according to the Tokyo Metropolitan Government, with 80% of those employed.

These cafes originally only provided internet services, but now have showers and private booths rentable by the hour, and have become popular with commuters who miss the last train home and the homeless, particularly women, according to charities.

Authorities have got hotel rooms for about half of them, said Ren Ohnishi, chairman of Moyai, a housing non-profit.

"But many of them are unaware that authorities have secured hotel rooms due to limited communication by the city, and the application process is also very confusing," he told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

Ohnishi has called on city authorities to open up the Olympic Village for all homeless people now that the 2020 Summer Olympics has been postponed, launching an online petition which has got more than 53,000 signatures.

The Olympic village was to house 11,000 athletes during the 2020 Games, that are now scheduled to be held in 2021.

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