Comments on: Japan’s Internet homeless – living the dream?

By: Mutantfrog Travelogue » Blog Archive » Word of the year - English edition

Thu, 13 Dec 2007 06:11:23 +0000

[...] stick. The phenomenon has been reported on at least twice on this blog including personal anecdotes, first by Adam just over one year ago and then far more negatively by myself, just a few months [...]

By: Ken

Ken — Tue, 04 Sep 2007 01:16:59 +0000

...[M]ost of the overnight patrons of the ‘net cafe seemed to kill the time not by sleeping, but by chain smoking and indulging in vigorous self-pleasuring (at least that’s what it sounded like)

What does smoking sound like?

By: camera-otoko

camera-otoko — Wed, 29 Aug 2007 05:19:49 +0000

“What I don’t understand is why these establishments don’t offer proper beds in the first place when it’s clear a good portion of their customers use the facilities that way. There must be some kind of regulation they’re bumping into.”

I heard that the Japanese laws on hotels are very strict. You can’t offer beds unless you fit it specific categories (hotel, minshuku, ryokan etc). And they you get hit by all sorts of regulations on the number of toilets, exits etc.

By: Sharp&Sound - » Internet Cafes in Japan: hotels for homeless?

Sharp&Sound - » Internet Cafes in Japan: hotels for homeless? — Wed, 22 Nov 2006 23:48:50 +0000

[...] Here is another interesting idea from that blog: I myself have used net cafes as hotels before and have enjoyed my stays, even if the chairs weren’t ideal for sleeping. From my standpoint, living in an Internet cafe with endless free drinks and fast Internet is almost like living the dream. But this can hardly be an ideal situation for people who have run into hard times. What I don’t understand is why these establishments don’t offer proper beds in the first place when it’s clear a good portion of their customers use the facilities that way. There must be some kind of regulation they’re bumping into. If there really is a growing trend of semi-homeless people living in the Internet cafes, I’m not sure I see a big problem with this. It’s better for them to have a cheap place to stay rather than rot in the streets like the day laborers in Nishinari, Osaka. [...]

By: Julia

Julia — Wed, 22 Nov 2006 09:45:34 +0000

i think the main problem is to get out of the vicious circle again, because you will not find a job without a proper address and on the other hand it is nearly impossible to find an appartment without a regular income… also all these other things like bankaccounts, healthinsurrances etc, which are so important to take part in a “normal” life are out of reach without job and proper address. So it is urgent that the problem is made public and that those people get some help. Thank you for that interessting article..

By: Global Voices Online » Blog Archive » Japan: internet homeless

Global Voices Online » Blog Archive » Japan: internet homeless — Wed, 22 Nov 2006 03:29:45 +0000

[...] Adamu at Mutantfrog Travelogue comments on the growing phenomenon of people living in Internet cafes. Oiwan Lam [...]

By: Garrett

Garrett — Tue, 21 Nov 2006 15:54:30 +0000

I stayed in an Internet cafe in Shinbashi for a few nights after returning to Japan from a five-month trip abroad in 2003 and was pleased to find a loveseat in the booth, but there was no shower. Looks like things are improving. The thing that drove me nuts, though, was that, at that time, most of the overnight patrons of the ‘net cafe seemed to kill the time not by sleeping, but by chain smoking and indulging in vigorous self-pleasuring (at least that’s what it sounded like), which made the sleep I got less than restful.