In a previous post,we discovered how the National Police Agency in Japan keeps a detailed account of how many motorcycle gang members there are around the nation. It's important to keep an accurate score in Japan, so I was not so surprised to read that according to a recent article related to homeless people, the Japanese government's Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare was quoted as saying that there are 8,265 homeless people in Japan. Not wanting to take this report from the Times of India at face value, I checked on the Ministry's website and found that in 2009 they calculated that there were 15,759 homeless people in the nation, down from 25,296 in 2003.
As with the motorcycle gang members, the data seems incredibly precise, so – as a hard-hitting news hound – I thought it would be important to find out how they were able to get such accurate data.
I called in and made an appointment at the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare to talk to someone about this question. They set me up with a Mr. Chosa, Sub-Assistant Databank Controller.
His secretary escorted me to his office and introduced me.
Mr. Chosa: Oh! They didn't say anything about a foreigner.
Me: Uh... should I come back as someone else later?
Mr. Chosa Ha ha! No, please sit down (points to a large, overstuffed chair in front of his desk). What can I do for you?
Me: I have a question about the number of homeless in Japan.
Mr. Chosa: Sure, sure... go ahead!
Me: A recent article stated that there are 8,265 homeless people in the whole country – this in comparison to more than 600,000 in the US which only has about 3 times the population of Japan.
Mr. Chosa: Yes, it is a serious problem in the United States.
Me: But what I was wondering is how you can come up with such a precise figure. I mean, why is it 8,265 homeless people and not 8,264 or 8,266 people?
Mr. Chosa: (looking at me like I have a learning disability) We know how to count here in Japan. Our students regularly score at the top of the ratings in international comparative math examinations. (He looks at me as if that answers the question.)
Me: I see... so how DO you actually count them to get such a precise figure?
Mr. Chosa: With counters. Maybe you have seen people using these at sports events and so on? They stand outside the entrances and click the counters for each person who enters? It's not a high-tech thing (he raises his eyebrows as if I might think they were).
Me: So you send people out to count them?
Mr. Chosa: Sure. It's a very demanding job, and we have to hire a lot of people to do the work.
Me: But there are homeless people everywhere. I have seen them, living along the river in my rural community. How can you possibly count them all?
Mr. Chosa: Like I said, it's very demanding. We need to canvas all of the likely places and cross-check and so on... it's not easy (he bowed his head as if he – personally – had suffered from the difficulty of it).
Me: Cross-checking! I was going to ask about that. How could you be sure you weren't counting people more than one time.
Mr. Chosa: Yes, that is a very important part of our work.
Me: So who do you hire to do this work of counting all the homeless.
Mr. Chosa: (looking at me like I was deprived of oxygen as a fetus) The homeless, of course.
Me: You hire homeless people to count homeless people?
Mr. Chosa: Who better?
Me: So how do you cross-check their results to make sure they are not counting people several times.
Mr. Chosa: It's easy. We have them all come into one of our public facilities and compare notes. It takes days.
Me: Do they count themselves then too?
Mr. Chosa: Of course not. While they are in the public facilities they are not homeless, so they do not count themselves. That's part of the deal.
Me: Ah... so Japan's homeless rate is so low despite a struggling economy.....
Mr. Chosa: What are you implying?
Me: Nothing... nothing.... thank you very much for your time.
Mr. Chosa: We here at the Welfare Ministry are always happy to help.
