Japanese Homeless versus Indonesian Homeless

Japanese Homeless versus Indonesian Homeless

                Looking around people without permanent house on the street lead me to raise this issue. Homelessness, the major problem in Indonesia likes the problem which cannot be solved passing time by time. However, homelessness is not only the problem of this country, but also the developed country likes Japan have been trying to decrease this problem by promoting various solution to the homeless people. Based on the situation of homeless, I want to contrast the differences between Japanese and Indonesian homeless regarding their social background, the places of stay and their activities.

Japanese homeless and Indonesia homeless are different in terms of social background. Japanese homeless are from middle class while Indonesian homeless are from social lower class. The social background around Japanese people is supported by the government’s rules. However, since Japan had encountered the economy recession, many Japanese decide to be homeless. Thus, they commit to be homeless to avoid the expensiveness of necessities. More importantly, the existence of homeless in Japan cannot be underestimated because Japanese homeless is also protected by the law and they cannot be evicted to the other places since they had not any instruction from the central of the government. Unlike Japanese, homeless in Indonesia appears in the lower status from another regions who trying to find their fortune in metropolitan city.They move to the metropolitan city without sufficient skills by hoping they can get the appropriate job. When they stay in the city first, they begin to build their house in the roadside and some of them choose to stay with other homeless who have same background including ethnic or villages. Some of them are evicted by the police to be cared by the officials in the social service house.

Places to stay between Japanese homeless and Indonesian homeless are also different in forms. Around Japanese homeless communities, they make various efforts to get the small houses. First, They get the houses by creating cardboards on the roadside and painting them to beautify the places and also to get people’s attention to the cardboard houses. Second is homeless who stay inblue tents. Since the economy had challenge Japan in the 1990. Many blue tents appear around public places near of the busy street. Surprisingly, they also facilitate their blue tents with internet access. Third is living in the capsule hotel. The hotel size is just 6,5 feet long and 4-5 feet wide. This hotel has facilitates such as TV, pillow, bathroom, kitchen, and washer or dryer. Fourth is living in the internet café. In Japan, people can stay in the internet café for 24 hours provides free beverages, shower bathroom, internet access, and rest room. On the other hand, places to stay for Indonesian homeless are built to stay and use to earn money. This effort likes building houses by cardboard on the roadside. Unlike Japan, they build the cardboard with scratch form and ignore the aesthetic aspect. On the other places, Indonesian homeless stay in the box cart. Not only staying there, but also they use the cart to seek reused garbage to resold to the garbage collector. Under the flyover,some homeless also build their houses by plywood, cardboard and fabrics. They space one room to the others with fabrics without using roofs likes the usual house. For roofs, they rely under the surface of the flyover to protect themselves from the bad weather.

Comparing to the social background among Japanese homeless and Indonesian homeless, both of those countries are also contrast in activities. Japanese homeless help the government supporting the environment beautification by painting cardboard house along the street. They also buying and seeking foods around the convenience store. In addition, Japan has the regulation to manage the hygienic and fresh foods to limit foods just for 15 hours in allowance. However, these foods actually are still in good condition for daily consumption. Japanese homeless also seek the job as labor or part time job worker to earn money. Nevertheless, they never asking for money to the public people even they have not enough money. In contrast, Indonesian homeless do the activities that deal with the hardness of life on the city street . They work by gathering reused garbage and seek the foods from dumps. On the good condition, their relatives also help them to build the house near each other. To earn money, they work as the beggar, the scavenger, and the busker. They work in communities on the busy street. Unfortunately, they have to divide their earned money to their boss. If they cannot get enough money, they are not doubt to ask for money to the public people.

                In the conclusion, Japanese and Indonesian homeless are very different regarding their social backgrounds, places of stay, and their activities. However, even the conditionsare different between two countries, the government of both countries has been trying to decrease and reduce the parallel problem of the homelessness. 


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