HIROKO TABUCHI小姐在紐約時報上的日本社會觀察報導一直很吸引我，雖然日本通友人告訴我，像Tabuchi小姐這樣受外國教育的記者所作的報導，常招來一些(日本)國內的批評，說他們總是報導ㄧ些較為負面、黑暗或不正常的事情，讓外國人以為日本是個奇怪的社會。
日本的景氣真得很不好，很難想像在80年代，日本的企業幾乎要征服全世界了！記得那時，光是位於東京的皇宮的價值就足以買下整個加拿大的所有土地了。而現在正經歷著二次大戰以來最嚴重的蕭條，政府也趕緊在這新年假期期間開設臨時遊民收容所，來安置無家可歸的人。政府估計有15,800人流落街頭，而東京市就有一萬人。失業率5.2%是歷史高點，15.7%的家庭為貧戶，這也是所有工業化國家裡最嚴重的之ㄧ。
原本針對錯過最後ㄧ班電車的上班族所設計的膠囊(Capsules)旅館，這幾年出現了許多常住的房客，他們大多是ㄧ些失業的人。政府甚至特別允許這些人，把膠囊旅館登記成法定住所，好讓他們方便找工作。
民主黨的政府提了破紀錄的上兆美元的年度預算通過了，這當中有不少是用來補貼有小孩子的家庭，與公立高中免學費...等短期措施。長期的目標包括在2020年以前在亞洲組成自由貿易區，使羽田機場成為24小時營運的國際轉運站...等等。
九月下台的自民黨被指為親商的政黨，民主黨的鳩山首相雖矢言振興經濟，他的政府卻花不少力氣在擺脫政治獻金的調查，以及解決與美方的ㄧ些歧見。
For Some in Japan, Home Is a Tiny Plastic BunkBy HIROKO TABUCHIPublished: January 1, 2010 TOKYO — For Atsushi Nakanishi, jobless since Christmas, home is a cubicle barely bigger than a coffin — one of dozens of berths stacked two units high in one of central Tokyo’s decrepit “capsule” hotels.
decrepit of a thing or person 物或人 very old and not in good condition or health 衰老的；老朽的；破舊的
“It’s just a place to crawl into and sleep,” he said, rolling his neck and stroking his black suit — one of just two he owns after discarding the rest of his wardrobe for lack of space. “You get used to it.”
When Capsule Hotel Shinjuku 510 opened nearly two decades ago, Japan was just beginning to pull back from its bubble economy, and the hotel’s tiny plastic cubicles offered a night’s refuge to salarymen who had missed the last train home.
Now, Hotel Shinjuku 510’s capsules, no larger than 6 1/2 feet long by 5 feet wide, and not tall enough to stand up in, have become an affordable option for some people with nowhere else to go as Japan endures its worst recession since World War II.
The capsules have no doors, only screens that pulldown. Every bump of the shoulder on the plastic walls, every muffledcough, echoes loudly through the rows.
Photo: Ko Sasaki for The New York Times
Once-booming exporters laid off workers en masse in 2009 as the global economic crisis pushed down demand. Many of the newly unemployed, forced from their company-sponsored housing or unable to make rent, have become homeless.
The country’s woes have led the government to open emergency shelters over the New Year holiday in a nationwide drive to help the homeless. The Democratic Party, which swept to power in September, wants to avoid the fate of the previous pro-business government, which was caught off-guard when unemployed workers pitched tents near public offices last year to call attention to their plight.
“In this bitter-cold New Year’s season, the government intends to do all it can to help those who face hardship,” Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama said in a video posted Dec. 26 on YouTube. “You are not alone.”
On Friday, he visited a Tokyo shelter housing 700 homeless people, telling reporters that “help can’t wait.”
Mr. Nakanishi considers himself relatively lucky. After working odd jobs on an Isuzu assembly line, at pachinko parlors and as a security guard, Mr. Nakanishi, 40, moved into the capsule hotel in Tokyo’s Shinjuku district in April to save on rent while he worked night shifts at a delivery company.
Mr. Nakanishi, who studied economics at a regional university, dreams of becoming a lawyer and pores over legal manuals during the day. But with no job since Christmas, he does not know how much longer he can afford a capsule bed.
The rent is surprisingly high for such a small space: 59,000 yen a month, or about $640, for an upper bunk. But with no upfront deposit or extra utility charges, and basic amenities like fresh linens and free use of a communal bath and sauna, the cost is far less than renting an apartment in Tokyo, Mr. Nakanishi says.
amenities 1.(環境等的)舒適,適意,優雅 2. (性情等的)愉快
3.(常用複)便利設施,文化設施,福利設施 4. (常用複)禮儀,禮節
Still, it is a bleak world where deep sleep is rare. The capsules do not have doors, only screens that pull down. Every bump of the shoulder on the plastic walls, every muffled cough, echoes loudly through the rows.
Each capsule is furnished only with a light, a small TV with earphones, coat hooks, a thin blanket and a hard pillow of rice husks.
Most possessions, from shirts to shaving cream, must be kept in lockers. There is a common room with old couches, a dining area and rows of sinks. Cigarette smoke is everywhere, as are security cameras. But the hotel staff does its best to put guests at ease: “Welcome home,” employees say at the entrance.
The hotel's cafeteria is equipped with vendingmachines. The smell of cigarette smoke is everywhere, as are securitycameras. But the hotel workers do their best to put guests at ease:"Welcome home," they say at the entrance.
Photo: Ko Sasaki for The New York Times
“Our main clients used to be salarymen who were out drinking and missed the last train,” said Tetsuya Akasako, head manager at the hotel.
But about two years ago, the hotel started to notice that guests were staying weeks, then months, he said. This year, it introduced a reduced rent for dwellers of a month or longer; now, about 100 of the hotel’s 300 capsules are rented out by the month.
After requests from its long-term dwellers, the hotel received special government permission to let them register their capsules as their official abode; that made it easier to land job interviews.
abode n. the place where somebody lives 住所；家
At 2 a.m. on one recent December night, two young women watched the American television show “24” on a TV inside the sauna. One said she had traveled to Tokyo from her native Gunma, north of the city, to look for work. She intended to be a hostess at one of the capital’s cabaret clubs, where women engage in conversation with men for a fee.
The woman, 20, said she was hoping to land a job with a club that would put her up in an apartment. She declined to give her name because she did not want her family to know her whereabouts.
“It’s tough to live like this, but it won’t be for too long,” she said. “At least there are more jobs here than in Gunma.”
The government says about 15,800 people live on the streets in Japan, but aid groups put the figure much higher, with at least 10,000 in Tokyo alone. Those numbers do not count the city’s “hidden” homeless, like those who live in capsule hotels. There is also a floating population that sleeps overnight in the country’s many 24-hour Internet cafes and saunas.
The jobless rate, at 5.2 percent, is at a record high, and the number of households on welfare has risen sharply. The country’s 15.7 percent poverty rate is one of the highest among industrialized nations.
These statistics have helped shatter an image, held since the country’s rise as an industrial power in the 1970s, that Japan is a classless society.
“When the country enjoyed rapid economic growth, standards of living improved across the board and class differences were obscured,” said Prof. Hiroshi Ishida of the University of Tokyo. “With a stagnating economy, class is more visible again.”
The government has poured money into bolstering Japan’s social welfare system, promising cash payments to households with children and abolishing tuition fees at public high schools.
Still, Naoto Iwaya, 46, is on the verge of joining the hopeless. A former tuna fisherman, he has been living at another capsule hotel in Tokyo since August. He most recently worked on a landfill at the city’s Haneda Airport, but that job ended last month.
“I have looked and looked, but there are no jobs. Now my savings are almost gone,” Mr. Iwaya said, after checking into an emergency shelter in Tokyo. He will be allowed to stay until Monday.
After that, he said, “I don’t know where I can go.”A version of this article appeared in print on January 2, 2010, on page A1 of the New York edition.http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/02/business/global/02capsule.html?ref=asia
The story was taken from The New York Times. The copyright remains with its original owner. The author, Mr. Hiroko TABUCHI and The New York Times are not involved with, nor endorse the production of this blog.
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