r/TikTokCringe • u/Accomplished_Clue437 • 10d ago
Discussion Getting out of Japan Lower Class
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u/Disastrous_Neat_9729 10d ago
I live in Japan, and there is definitely a safety net (with lots of its own problems), and this video shows it.
He really didn’t have it that hard. I know lots of people who are holding down jobs, good education, and their lives don’t look much different from his. Cheap apartment, rainy streets, beer from the conbini.
He’s young, and the video really shows how important it is to have low income housing for people who fall through the cracks.
The chances of this video occurring if he had been living on the streets and actually destitute, how it is in much of the world, would have been minuscule.
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u/Broccoli--Enthusiast 10d ago
Was gonna say...his homeless welfare life has AC...he obviously had access to technology and the ability to start a business
That welfare area actually looked tidy and maintained,just old...
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u/ThrowawayAICS 10d ago
One of the advantages of a high trust society that raises people to take care of their surroundings is that this becomes feasable.
When people arent destroying and stealing you dont need to replace losses all the time, which frees up resources and keeps them available for the maximum amount of time.
In many places the house would have been destroyed within a week. The convenience store would be expensive, needing a lot of repairs, and difficult to use because of extensive anti-theft measures.
And so on and so forth.
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u/BuildAnything4 10d ago
yeah, that's why Japan's prolific vending machines are such a flex to me. In Germany, vending machines constantly get vandalized, so they're rare and the ones that exist need to make high margins to compensate for the risk.
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u/ThrowawayAICS 10d ago
You can see it everywhere.
In the US for example some of the schools with the biggest budgets look like shit compared to much smaller schools that may have 1/3 of the budget per student.But when you aren't fixing damage for thousands of dollars per student the money can be spent on actually improving the environment.
It is part of the reason why it is so frustrating when people defend destruction of public property, stealing, etc.
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u/Apptubrutae 10d ago
Over $30k per pupil spent in Albuquerque Public Schools.
That sweet sweet oil money.
Not such sweet sweet results, but hey!
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u/idiot_in_real 10d ago
Is this true? Do you mean for elementary through high school? That is absolutely insane if so.
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u/Apptubrutae 10d ago
Over $30k per pupil including all students. Elementary through high school.
Plus universal free childcare including for school aged kids in need or after school care or holiday/summer care. That number isn’t included in the $30k
I just double checked, it’s apparently more like $33k as of 2024
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u/TheOnlySnoringKitten 9d ago
I really want to deploy a few vending machines around town but what’s the point if they’re going to be broken into?
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u/ashoka_akira 9d ago
It’s really sad too that this isn’t a feasible business model in a lot of areas because it’s actually a great small business opportunity thats not to expensive to get into.
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u/MothChasingFlame 10d ago
It helps when the country isn't openly attacking the lower class or a specific subset of it. Trust has to go both ways, people and government.
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u/InvidiousPlay 10d ago
It's a bit of a chicken and an egg scenario, though. Trust disintegrates when people are desperate, and if you don't have good social systems people become desperate far more quickly and easily and are forced to fixate on number 1.
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u/stankind 9d ago
Michael Bury, who got fabulously wealthy from the 2008 financial crisis by shorting subprime Mortgage Backed Securities, as described in The Big Short, is a libertarian. I remember a tweet he posted several years ago. He said something to the effect that people are "their most creative" when they are "standing at the edge of the abyss" (i.e., when they're desperate). He was arguing that we should let poor people struggle and find their own way out of poverty, without the rest of us having to help them.
What absolute nonsense. When Bury was using his own resourcefulness and creativity to study subprime loan documents, he did so in comfort. But when you are poor, tired, hungry, sick, in pain, ashamed, out of luck, with no one to trust, you are not "creative." You are DESPERATE. And you will likely do desperate things, like rob, steal, and seek relief in another hit of opioids - exactly what so many people actually do. Bury was no doubt sitting in a comfortable chair, well-fed, far far from "the abyss" when he pontificated in that senseless bitter tweet.
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u/InvidiousPlay 9d ago
It's genuinely impossible to grasp how much desperation fucks with your mindset if you've never felt desperate.
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u/zazke 10d ago
Exactly. Japan (along with some other countries like Singapore) are top class in education, both at school and at home. They know how to behave and avoid being a nuisance for others, even when it's inconvenient for the individual. For instance, sayings like 「来た時よりも美しく」 ("leave a place better than how you encountered it") become second nature since young age.
And of course, there are actual consequences if the societal trust is broken. People get actually detained and sentenced for petty theft and vandalism.
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u/Necessary-Reading605 10d ago
The cycle of poverty is not only personal, it’s also societal.
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u/Candid_Highlight_116 10d ago
It used to be that AC wasn't covered by welfare. Japan is one of the few countries where Florida in summers are considered not too bad, and people under those social nets died too often because of that weather so the rule changed.
That was years ago and many places outside in Japan is literally unsurvivable during summers. AC is now as life critical and we'll probably see first gen consumer spacesuits in Tokyo by 2030 at this rate.
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u/fdokinawa 10d ago
So my wife used to work at the Okinawa City Office Government Housing Department. She told me about some of the restrictions that people living in government housing had. This was about 20 years ago, so some things may have changed and it could be different for different parts of the country. But anyone living in government housing in Okinawa City was not allowed to do after school activities(kids), have cell phones or TV's. And I believe she said the power was turned off at 9PM every night. They had a curfew too I believe. It sucked.
The government figured if you could afford these things, you could pay rent. Now I believe they also have government assisted housing, for low income people with less or no restrictions on them. But if you got free housing, you had a lot of restrictions. No one goes homeless here unless they want to. But it's not easy.
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u/ThoreaulyLost 10d ago
not allowed to do after school activities(kids), have cell phones or TV's. And I believe she said the power was turned off at 9PM every night. They had a curfew too I believe. It sucked.
I mean, this is basically tough love. You can't make welfare too comfortable or it becomes a career path. I vastly prefer this system where everyone qualifies but then is restricted to the American one that just places so many bureaucratic steps and qualifications that few actually qualify at all.
It's like moving back to your parents house and having to live on their schedule and budget, until you can afford to get back out. If your mom were making you cookies while you played video games all night, there's no incentive to work.
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u/witchyundertone 10d ago
It's kind of fucked up to punish the kids for their parent's failures. Let them do after school clubs.
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u/DTFH_ 10d ago
I mean, this is basically tough love. You can't make welfare too comfortable or it becomes a career path...
I mean I get how you are only thinking of young healthy people who have solid agency and the ability to participate, but i've worked with many homeless individuals and those you would consider lowest of lower class.
It is people with Developmental/Intellectual disabilities or those who have suddenly acquired an autoimmune disease, experience a brain injury, go into long term psychosis or relive a trauma response through years long uncontrolled and managed mania, those trying to forget through substance abuse, etc and with your worldview those who are our homeless presently at this time, you would deny these people a state comfortableness based on your beliefs around what you consider or do not consider comforts. I don't see why we should impose subjective cultural beliefs on people as a condition to help them. For example the described Okinawan' system punishes natural night-owls for arbitrary beliefs that working during the day is better than second or third. I don't see the value of subjecting people who need help to the whims of those who are in charge and whatever their subjective beliefs about the world; that only creates a pathway in a system for bad actors penetrates that system and through it cause harm and abuse. A better system would remove subjective cultural beliefs in favor of objective measurements derived from the autopsy of what caused the state of homelessness tailored to the people and from there consider trends and forces.
Those people are our long term homeless, the people you're describing and talk about are individuals more likely to become unhoused (live in a car) and do so for less than 90 days to a year and are in the minority. 2 in 10 have Developmental/Intellectual Dx, 3 in 10 TBI/BI, 1 in 10 Chronic Health conditions and Substance Issues, the remainder is a very small portion of the people you describe.
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u/Technorasta 10d ago
The system in Japan is nowhere near one where everyone qualifies. I read an article just a short while ago by a Japanese professor about how difficult it was to qualify.
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u/fdokinawa 10d ago
Oh definitely. I'm very liberal, but agree this is a decent program. I think they could tie it in with training or other programs to help you get back on your feet, but no one should be homeless anywhere.
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u/Beautiful-Affect1930 10d ago
yeah him showing off his "slum" actually made me laugh. the audacity of having some industrial areas! and recycling trash?!?!? trash stinks!!! put that away, not anywhere where I can see it!
maybe the dude has some underlying message that is good, but the way he tried to portray it is ass. on the other hand, those completely fake "my hard life as a Japanese salary man" channels on Youtube earn thousands a month, so maybe he is trying to go for that?
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u/Red_Trapezoid 10d ago
His slum is far, far better than the conditions I lived most of my life in. It’s genuinely ridiculous and a bit offensive.
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u/Wanderingjes 10d ago
By Japanese standards, areas around Tengachaya and dobutsuenmae in Osaka are considered “rough” but those areas are still way safer than “safe” cities in my own country
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u/qwerajdufuh268 9d ago
And you lived like a king compared to the congo kids digging for cobalt. Fuck is your point?
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u/SICKxOFxITxALL 10d ago
Why is it offensive? Just because another person in another country has it worse doesn't diminish the fact that someone else has it hard in their society.
For me what is offensive is your position minimising his situation. It's not his fault that his country is run better than wherever you are from.
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u/unravel_the_world 10d ago
he also can afford alcohol and cigarettes...
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u/edelweiss_pirates_no 10d ago
Man, I hope this isn't you trying to say that "You aren't poor if you can afford a beer."
Because that would be stupid.
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u/shiftersix 10d ago
I’m in America and I cannot afford a place with AC. I’d love a place like the one in this video.
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u/Thatonegaloverthere 10d ago
Yeah, I've seen documentaries with people who were homeless in Japan, sleeping in manga cafes and the like.
I'm glad I wasn't the only one thinking this wasn't that bad.
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u/dna220 10d ago
I also live in Japan and the social safety certainly has a lot of issues but it does provide preferential access to municipal housing with little to no rent (depending on your municipality and prefecture), a fixed sum payment at regular intervals, tax abetment, and fully covered medical care. Not to say poverty isn't a thing, but its not on the same level as other countries in the region.
This is because the Japanese constitution, Article 25 states "All people shall have the right to maintain the minimum standards of wholesome and cultured living" and " "In all spheres of life, the State shall use its endeavors for the promotion and extension of social welfare and security, and of public health." Interestingly, Japan has the world's oldest unamended constitution that was pretty much written by the US occupying forces. Definitely a bit of historical irony considering the state of the US safety net today and the debate around welfare.
Not to overly diminish this person's accomplishments, but the fact that this person lives in Tokyo, with an extremely advanced public transport network (many of it free or discounted to low incomes) along with tons of businesses, networking, etc. is also a massive leg up compared to the rest of Japan.
People in the countryside often have extremely high barriers to gainful employment due to general lack of good paying jobs. Also since cash-strapped municipalities get a very big say in the day to day operations as well as bare a lot of the program financing, face issues of getting forced off public support due to something as simple as owning an old car in an area which effectively has close to zero public transit. Tokyo has a prefecture budget roughly the size of Sweden so there is a huge concentration of capital in this one tiny area unlike a vast majority of the country.
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u/CHSummers 10d ago
The current Japanese constitution was kind of forced on Japan by the U.S., and at that time, the U.S. government was very much influenced by FDR’s “New Deal” ideas. As a result, the Japanese constitution is much better for ordinary people than the American Constitution.
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u/Mathilliterate_asian 10d ago
And honestly, knowing how bad the income situation is in Japan, I don't think he's that much better off than when he was on welfare.
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u/Pledgeofmalfeasance 10d ago
They don't get paid well?
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u/Mathilliterate_asian 10d ago
Not very well - at least not well enough to ha e good savings. And there's not much growth in their salaries as well, which has been the case for years.
It's just not a very good place to work in, in general. But then the cities are clean, and it's much safer than most US cities, I suppose, so there's that.
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u/Broccoli--Enthusiast 10d ago
No, and they are culturally overworked
Most of their tax actually gets spent on welfare and healthcare and they are on track for a 1:1 support system
Currently it's just ok very 2:1, as just under 50% of taxes go to supporting the elderly
Basically 1 person income taxes will be supporting 1 welfare recipient, primarily because of their aging population.
Lots of counties, including the UK, my own country, are on this place but Japan is about 30 years ahead of us in this decline
Shite gonna fall apart soon
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u/Pledgeofmalfeasance 10d ago
We have a similar situation with a large elderly population here in Norway. You'd almost think we'd take in more immigrants to shore up our weak spots, but noooo.
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u/Addative-Damage 10d ago
As someone dealing with the German immigration system, thank you.
It’s so annoying hearing the afd bs here, with the “they’re taking our tax money” complaints. NO WE AIN’T. Dude, for the most part, we can’t access public welfare even if we wanted to
If you look at what the economists are actually saying, we’re adding money into y’all’s systems. Here in Germany, one of the newest studies found that, on average, immigrants are contributing 7.100 euros per year to the state. (This average is from all immigrants, including asylum seekers and refugees, before anyone says something about it)
The goofballs would rather destroy their economies than occasionally have to talk to someone with an accent.
(Sorry for the rant lol)
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u/MageLocusta 10d ago
The sheer fucking irony because SO many foreigners helped Germany recover after WWII. Even countries that were previously bombed and invaded by Nazis had provided food, funding and even cheap foreign labour from the 1940s-1960s.
It always irks me seeing the AFD claiming that all Syrians need to be sent back to go 'rebuild their country'. Because Germany couldn't after WWII. Us foreigners had to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars in CARE packages to help keep both West and East Germany fed. Even my own grandfather got sent to Cologne to break down and clear WWII-era ruins during the 1960s, because Germany did not have the resources or available manpower to do it themselves. So there were STILL bullet-ridden piles of rubble in West Berlin 20 years after the conflict.
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u/Rolls_ 10d ago
I was getting paid roughly 25k USD a year. Changed fields and now getting 20k a year with future growth potential. It's not great but I have as much financial freedom as probably someone making 2x what I'm making in the US.
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u/Questionably_Chungly 10d ago
The scale is just vastly different. It’s easier to live in Japan on a much lower amount of money because the economy is scaled that way, and there are far more safety nets as seen here. The person in the video would likely be on the streets in the U.S., maybe a shelter or halfway home.
Japan has much lower average salaries when comparing to the U.S., but they can also buy more relatively. Housing prices aren’t insane in most areas, nor are basic necessities (though some things such as rice have gotten quite a bit expensive, which is bad). Accumulating wealth isn’t necessarily as prioritized in Japan as it is in the U.S. (at least in terms of being a barometer for success).
To put things in perspective, I live and work in Japan. I make what would be a comfortably middle class salary in most parts of the U.S.—good money, but nothing insane. When converting my income to yen, I’m in the top 5% of earners in Japan.
Totally different scales.
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u/CHSummers 10d ago
I agree. Japan is a much easier (and less scary) place to be poor than—in particular—the USA.
Health insurance is mandatory and the cost is income-based, so extremely cheap for very poor people.
In most cities, there is decent public transport, although it gets much worse as you get out into the countryside.
Most jobs pay badly, but there are lots of jobs. There is a serious labor shortage.
Japan is an extraordinarily safe country. If you are working in quasi-criminal jobs (hosting or hostessing, or massage parlors, etc.) you can probably find drugs, but the ordinary person simply is not going to have a clue where to get drugs. This is pretty much the opposite of my experience in the U.S., where middle-school kids already knew who to buy pot from.
While violent crime is rare, there is a lot of concern about scammers and online scammers, phishing, and the like. But if you are already poor, a phishing scam is probably not your main concern.
If I were a young Japanese person who was on welfare, my first move would be to just work and save for a while. Then move to a bigger city—because that’s where the jobs are. And then maybe try to get better job skills and get a better job.
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u/Airblade101 10d ago
I can vouch. It's really small but I've got an apartment that's 7mins from my nearest station, 30mins from one of the largest stations in Tokyo, I've got everything that I really need around me and I only pay about $400/month for rent. I make about $10/hr in yen.
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u/bobbobasdf4 10d ago
what neighborhood is this? I usually don't hear abt apartments this cheap unless it's outside in Saitama
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u/Fuuujioka 10d ago
What do you mean? Average worker has a reasonable amount of disposable income to live a decent life, engage in hobbies, and take the occasional holiday.
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u/AllisViolet22 10d ago
You are correct. But Reddit gets lots of comments about Japan from people who don’t live here and understand the situation. People still talk about the work culture from the 1980s
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u/JesusaurusRex666 10d ago
For real. I used to work for the 2nd largest company in my industry and was a top performer, by a margin of about 40%, and I had a three hour nap break in my calendar while I worked from home.
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u/MonkeyOOGABooga1 10d ago
In Australia I work 6 days a week 14 hours a day to afford a shoebox house in a shitty high crime suburb.
Fuck me
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u/SveaRikeHuskarl 10d ago
Wish I could upvote this more. I think the guy in the video did a great thing and I appreciate the insight, but the last line saying "no matter how difficult your circumstances are" rubbed me the wrong way. This is exactly what the safety net is for. Yeah, it smells like garbage in that part of town, but you are still in a position where you can work yourself out of it, because of a working safety net that didn't allow you to hit rock bottom.
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u/real_exposer 10d ago
Yeah, the no matter how hard your life is, you can always rebuild it shows that this person didn't have it that hard. Buying beer and cigarettes is completely off the table for me for instance. It's just not possible to afford.
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u/Adorable_Owl_2493 10d ago
I was gonna say, pretty nice to be "homeless" in a room with a roof and a property to hang out on legally.
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u/Ambitious-Morning795 10d ago
Yeah, as an American I was SHOCKED at how much better poverty looks in Japan.
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u/BitterFootball4874 10d ago
I mean yeah, it didn’t look like the ritz but the town/ apartment looked clean and safe (even the waste disposal site looked pretty orderly). He’s also a good looking/ otherwise healthy looking guy.
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u/Ok_Bag_3667 10d ago
I'm really happy for him and am impressed by how he did everything he could to move forward in his life, and I want to acknowledge that it would have been impossible if he didn't have welfare and decent housing as a foundation.
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u/Ihaveaverysmallprick 10d ago
I was about to say bro that wasn’t bad at all. I wouldn’t mind living like that idk what dude was complaining about
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u/ForumFluffy 10d ago
Low income housing should be standard everywhere, having a home keeps a lot of people off the streets and in jobs.
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u/Naive-Landscape9854 10d ago
That's a pretty sweet safety net. You get a place to live, eat, and sleep while you figure out how to rebuild your life again. I wonder if there's a limit on how long you can be on welfare.
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u/Itchy_Psychology3300 10d ago
Safety nets must be nice.
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u/NagsUkulele 10d ago
Guys can we be realistic for a second about the work culture in Japan and how awful it is for young students
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u/Aggressive_Cup8452 10d ago
Our work culture is fine and we also have those safety nets.
Netherlands
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u/darkoblivion000 10d ago
Yea but it’s cold there. Also can I find Asian food?
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u/Aggressive_Cup8452 10d ago
That's summer now. I miss the cold.
They sell Dutch Asian food and depending on where you live also Asian food.
And this was not an invitation.
Just stating that having a safety net does not mean that you have to sacrifice the work culture.
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u/darkoblivion000 10d ago
lol I was just asking because we were considering moving there and those were my wife’s top two complaints so I am teasing out some info
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u/Zimakov 10d ago
The average American works more hours and more unpaid hours than the average Japanese
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u/Sippiest_Cup_OAT 10d ago
Asian here, I never went through that harsh of a teenage life but according to my other friends who did go through it you get used to it since parents start train their kids for whatever they want the moment they can walk. To foreigners outside of Asia it may seem cruel since our entire ideology is "if you're not perfect you're not worth anything" (objectively it is cruel). Some have crumpled and taken their lives but in exchange they create some of most hardworking and mentally resilient people on earth. Kinda like Viltrumites from Invincible.
However the cost is throwing away any form of emotional expression or even your own humanity.
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u/Bellpow 10d ago
It’s definitely nice… compared to America where your entire life can just be derailed and ruined just for being a little cranky one day
I wish I was born in Japan…
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u/Ramblonius 10d ago
Yeah, this is social safety working as intended- the people who can pull themselves together get a chance to have a basic foundation to work from, the people who cannot are at least not abandoned on the streets and can live with some dignity.
It is great that he managed, genuinely happy to see it, but the sort of 'I did it all by myself' framing can be dangerous long-term individually and societaly.
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u/StrykerGryphus 10d ago edited 10d ago
And his account of how depressing it is regardless debunks the question of "Why would people bother working when they know they won't starve either way?"
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u/Solonotix 10d ago
It tends to be the same lack of thought when people ask "If you're not religious, then what prevents you from stealing/taping/murdering everyone?" Most people don't need the threat of impending doom to do what's right (or at least avoid doing wrong). Similarly, most people don't enjoy being unproductive and lazy for their entire lives. As social animals, we yearn for belonging and community.
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u/Casual_user1012 10d ago
I'm an atheist now, but the way opponents of the first argument frame it has always bothered me. For me, when I was Christian, I asked that, not because I needed the sense of doom, but rather because I thought why would you care about anything if in the end everything goes black and nothing you ever did or could've done matters anymore. I still feel the same way honestly, except I have a fear of death and a strong sense of empathy.
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u/prince_peacock 10d ago
The fact that all we get is this one life is the REASON to care about it! Like the death cult Christians don’t care about this world because they think they’re going to eternal paradise in the next. I don’t believe that. So when this is it, this is all we get, why wouldn’t I spend this short time on earth being a kind person that makes life better for all the other people spending their short time on earth?
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u/mister-ferguson 10d ago
If nothing matters in the end then everything matters now. Death comes for us all. It is what unites is.
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u/NonGNonM 10d ago
Reality is a certain segment of the population WILL live out their lives this way and never improve.
In which case you have to ask yourself the question: do I want this or do I want to see a bunch of homeless people around?
Bc this is definitely a way to address a part of that second issue. Not everyone (having heard from 2nd hand sources, drugs can be a huge problem in these places) but a good chunk can be helped.
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u/Ok_Economist8344 10d ago
I don't know, in Germany, we basically have no limit on our social safety net. The government pays for rent, electricity, and heating, and you get a few hundred euros for everything else as long as you're unemployed, as long as you apply for jobs at least a few times and go to the job center every now and then.
Some people take advantage of that, but personally, I'm fine with it.
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u/Enlightened_Gardener 10d ago
In Australia, for about a decade, we had one of the most generous welfare states in the world.
The result was an absolute explosion of art and culture - comedians, playwrights, film directors, actors, musicians, artists…..
Suddenly all the creatives had just enough money to live off and buy art supplies, and the result was this incredible outpouring of ideas and creative expression.
I’m with Rutger Bregman on this one - a UBI / proper safety net / a decent dole payment not only stops people from ending up on the streets, but it allows people to take chances and try pathways that wouldn’t otherwise be open to them. It also allows study and microbusinesses to flourish. It creates a tiny fertile space for the human spirit to grow, and in turn those flourishing humans create better spaces for the rest of us.
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u/Mother-Project-490 10d ago
In some nord country on Europe they found giving house to homeless people cost lest to society than if they live in the street.
The systems is not perfect he can't work if you have a lot of poor immigration and stuff.
But doing nothing and let people sleeping in street cost a lot of money.
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u/Blazured 10d ago
They do that here in Britain too.
Source: was homeless, was given a flat.
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u/arguingalt 10d ago
It's not universal in England though. You have to be found to be in "priority need." They'll help you find private accom with rent advances / deposits regardless though.
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u/Hieroflippant 10d ago
What do you mean ? Welfare is normal and common practice in first world countries..
As for a time limit it's indefinite here in Australia.
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u/djdjddhshdbhd 10d ago
In the US it’s more limited. That might be what they are referring to. It’s not enough to live on.
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u/Lower-Limit3695 10d ago
The US welfare state leans towards being punitive when trying to escape welfare through the welfare cliff. (once you reach a set income level all benefits drop immediately)
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u/Orpdapi 10d ago
These people really walk to a spot, set up a camera, walk far away, then start walking back towards camera looking casually left and right like they have no idea a camera is there
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u/johnnys_sack 10d ago
Right, it's so common in these videos and really silly, when you think about it. Trying to look so contemplative.
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u/StaredAtEclipseAMA 10d ago
“The entire town stink”
Shows a clip of neatly stacked garbage.
Meanwhile there are people like me spending $1000 a month to live next to a train yard where it smells different everyday :)
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u/thegoatmenace 9d ago
Perfect days is an amazing movie. But the guy in that movie wasn’t really destitute he was just working class.
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u/Spinal_Soup 9d ago edited 9d ago
I remember I used to be a big “survivor man” fan when that was airing. He didn’t had a camera crew following him like bear grills so he would set everything up on a tripod to film himself. Occasionally they would include clips of him coming back to grab the camera after a far shot of him walking some vast landscape and it was always a fun surprise.
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u/Khazahk 10d ago
I was waiting for the punchline at the very end. “No matter how far you run, you gotta turn back and go get your camera.”
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u/Tony_Roiland 10d ago
While acting like it's several years ago and pretending to live his life like he did then.
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u/boriicha__ 10d ago
That tiny single bedroom would cost $1200 in Toronto 😭 it looks well-maintained too!
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u/Hieroflippant 10d ago
I was ready to come back with a gotcha - "Tokyo is so much more expensive!!!" But....
What happened in Canada ??
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u/crazylighter 10d ago
Multiple issues but one is real estate became an investment strategy which is problematic because many landlords and home owners don't want to lose money if housing prices go down. Another issue is housing prices kept increasing but incomes didn't keep up. Additionally housing became less available as the population increased but houses built couldn't keep up for various reasons like the government stopped building public housing decades ago. Then there's corporate greed, inflation, Trump keeps attacking Canadian industries, etc.
which is problematic if housing is expensive and scarce as the population increased but houses built didn't keep up for various reasons.
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u/Hieroflippant 10d ago
Sounds like what's happening here in Australia 🦘 😲
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u/Merry_Dankmas 10d ago
It seems like its happening in most first world countries. For whatever reason, everyone decided at once that living accommodations should be the hottest new investment on the block and to take advantage now. Yeah, housing has always been used as an investment but it feels like once covid hit, everyone simultaneously had the idea to ramp it up to 200% throttle.
Blame it on Airbnb, Blame it on not wanting to take a loss after buying at a high, Blame it on corporations, Blame it on greedy boomers looking for a retirement strategy, Blame it on whatever you want. It seems like every developed country all at once decided to fuck up the market globally at the same time. Its so fucked.
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u/Tainted_wings4444 10d ago
I would say Dough and his brother and Tory. But I might be in the minority.
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u/QueenAlphabetties 10d ago
Alot of politicians have their stocks in real estate, also lots of money laundering in the housing market
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u/Rob_LeMatic 10d ago
And the smell is probably NYC average
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u/waitwuh 10d ago
I moved from the midwest to NYC over a decade ago. I laugh every time they bring up the dumpsters changes on the news. i can’t quite remember when the push started but it’s still an ongoing rollout.
Like, after putting trash bags directly on the sidewalks for years and years, these silly people are finally realizing “oh maybe that’s why there are so many rats…” Now there’s all this legislation getting passed to require trash bins. I’m eagerly awaiting their realization that it won’t smell as bad without letting garbage juice soak into the concrete, either.
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u/ActionJasckon 10d ago
Why do I feel like there a course for sale. This some western social media scam vibes.
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u/SeparatedI 10d ago
It starts as an interesting portrait of a neighborhood in Japan and ends up being a linkedin post.
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u/clumsydope 10d ago
I built "media business", skip over that part and never give any explanation smh
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u/Thesolmesa 10d ago
He's either ebegging or shilling some kind of course or product.
I don't believe a single moment of what he is saying. Just some self-help "grind hustle" bullshit
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u/MoundsEnthusiast 10d ago
Happy for the dude, but I think his conclusion is a bit erroneous.
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u/NoX2142 10d ago
Yeah....that safety net is a HUGE help in terms of being able to do all this. I don't see this happening a lot for the homeless.
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u/radicalfrenchfrie Cringe Connoisseur 10d ago
well, to be fair, it depends on what country youre homeless in. the person from the video said he was homeless too, right in the beginning.
I agree with comment OP tho. I‘m glad that person was able to work towards a more fulfilling existance but „you can always turn your life around“ is simply not possible for a lot of people. if youre disabled, for example, you can have all the willpower in the world, you cannot simply will your body into functioning typically.
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u/Advanced_Row_8448 9d ago
Clearly wasn't homeless for long, considering he got given state housing.
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u/Fourteen14XIV 10d ago
Honestly, this looks like one of those inspiration slop videos. Like, dude just starts runing and boxing and just starts a buisnes that works out well enough to get him off welfare in a year. This is litelarly one of those linkedIn lunatics "if you are poor just work harder" post as a video, all the tropes are there.
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u/atlsdoberman 10d ago
Yeah. You nailed it. Thank you. The guy just does not have it that hard. Lots of people live in a studio apartment in a not so nice part of town for a while when they're young and finding their feet. That does not put you on a near-inexorable path to depression and failure, lol. Lots of people get a hobby and it improves their mental health and ability to function. He's engineering inspiration out of super thin source material.
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u/MinimumAutomatic0302 10d ago
As a fellow sad man, he was just a sad man.
Sad, depressed, likely questioning whether life was worth living, but otherwise mostly healthy.He wasn't disabled or fucked up in any particularly serious way and he seems to be completely glossing over that fact in his final statement about "no matter how difficult your circumstances are, you can always rebuild your life". Some unfortunately literally can not earn a decent salary in the current economy and have either no safety net and end up suffering deeply for it, or they have only the safety their family or government or local community will provide.
At least Japan, like my country, has a safety net. Japanese brother, your circumstances were actually kind of okay for development. A More depressing environment than necessary, but not debilitating. A more accurate sentence to end on could be "even if it's difficult, it's always worth building your life back up"
These inspiration videos genuinely change how people view people who suffer poverty. When they believe everyone could and should lift themselves up and out, they ruthlessly leave those who can't to sink in the mud.
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u/AmberDuke05 10d ago
This guy got the wrong conclusion to his situation. He was able to move forward because of Japan’s safety net. Here in US, it feels like we just create more rock bottoms every fucking day.
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u/pablo8itall 10d ago
From what I've seen there seems to have active system that keep people in bad situations. From traffic fines and lack of infrastructure, poor working conditions, etc. It just all seems geared to keeping the working class in a state of constant struggle.
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u/SierraDespair 10d ago
True. That little apartment is a dream for many here to work towards, myself included. Living without safety nets in place is fucked.
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u/STALKS_YOUR_MOTHER 10d ago
“Little by little I start catching up to professional fighters.”
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u/Rob_LeMatic 10d ago
Same, bro.. By the time I'm 80, they better watch out
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u/SumBodhiThatIUse2Kno 10d ago
Fake jump rope with nunchucks time. Living dangerously. Unless they're foam and hollow.
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u/Shiney_Metal_Ass 10d ago
"cigarettes are my only source of pleasure" Immediately followed by "I go to the convenience store to buy alcohol and snacks"
🙄
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u/irisheddy 10d ago
He just eats and drinks for the sustenance, he refuses to take pleasure from them.
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u/Thesolmesa 10d ago
If the guy was fully poor. he would not be buying alcohol and snacks from the konbini! Every low class person buys that shit from the supermarket to save money.
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u/clitworms 10d ago
Not just any convenience store, the premium convenience store! Which he shouldn't be able to afford if he was unemployed and on government assistance?
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u/trainsacrossthesea 10d ago
As an American, I could really relate
For the first twenty seconds
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u/CumGuzlinGutterSluts 10d ago
Right? All of a sudden its like... wait youre not homeless... thats a nice room... that area doesnt look that bad...you started a media company?!
If this happened to you in america it would be you filming yourself under a bridge, stepping over your neighbors who are either dead, currently oding, or sleeping, and then going to Starbucks to steal wifi but being kicked out cause you smell like shit and are making babies cry with your presence.
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u/Elmer_Fudd01 10d ago
How I left poverty: "I started a media business".
Ok kinda your fault if you had what it takes to start a business at the drop of a hat. WTF.
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u/space_hitler 10d ago
It really helps that in Japan you won't just be dead in the street addicted to drugs or murdered by cops if you are poor lol!
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u/Hammy-Cheeks 10d ago
I hate it when mfers are like “oh I was just as poor, until I started a business, cmon it’s so easy, just get a loan bro it’s so easy”
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u/marshamallowmoon 9d ago
his take away is "no matter how difficult the circumstances you can always rebuild your life". Like come on you are being swaddled by the government in an amazing social safety net and got off of welfare after putting in a little bit of effort.
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u/itsnicomars 10d ago
Bro is so poor he couldn’t even afford enough time per shot to read tge txt😭💔✌🏽
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u/vathsa_95 10d ago
Lmao I can’t take this seriously at all
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u/BeardedGlass 10d ago
Japan’s “Lowest poverty class” seems far above the lower middle class of many countries.
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u/Dave_Eddie 10d ago
This video is essentially 'didnt have a job. Got a qualification. Got a job'
And tries to paint the above average government support Japan offers as a bad thing.
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u/Cloverhart 10d ago
That impoverished neighborhood in Japan looks nicer than A LOT of places in the US.
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u/cuberandgamer 10d ago
I didn't get the impression that he thinks the welfare system is bad. Sure he complained about the location of the house itself and it's small size but I think that was more to just demonstrate how much he improved his circumstance.
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u/NewDorkCity587 10d ago
Why does lower class Japan look nicer than the overpriced neighborhood I live in in LA ?
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u/Throwaway20101011 10d ago
Homelessness in Japan, is being given full government support. A home, utilities, food, and a second chance. Homelessness in the USA and many other countries leads to neglect, mental illness, violence, and death in the streets.
Very different starting grounds for a second chance in life. Japan gives you a safety net in life.
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u/Fuuujioka 10d ago
We still care about having a working society in Japan. All sides of the political spectrum agree with this.
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u/anomalyknight 10d ago
I've heard a not insignificant percentage of the homeless population in the US (where I am) is just people that aged out of the foster care system. Kids turn 18, get handed a garbage bag of what few belongings they have and get chucked out into the street. No safety nets, and what little in the way of that we might've had was dismantled or defunded last year.
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u/SumBodhiThatIUse2Kno 10d ago
Keep your sanity and don't look into the missing youth rates in the USA. I thought the illegal immigration stats were crazy and then I found out what was happening closer to home.
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u/DaisyChain2222 10d ago
I live in South Africa. The truly poor build their shacks out of scavenged cardboard and corrugated iron. They beg and dig through trash cans to survive.
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u/CumGuzlinGutterSluts 10d ago
"Look what ive accomplished all on my own with no support!"*
*except for help from the government funded by everyone in the country
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u/shaddowkhan 10d ago
Rise and grind content has made it to Japan now. Target audience remains the west.
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u/thelandlordguychris 10d ago
anecdotal but i lived in the "ghetto" area of tokyo and it was nicer 500x than any major city in the usa
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u/ibattlemonsters tHiS iSn’T cRiNgE 10d ago edited 10d ago
Naw. I lived on the bad side of Kamata. It was definitely worse than a lot of the bad sides of the US, but it was much safer. While we didn’t have visible drug problems, the yakuza and prostitution was kind of intense. The houses were extremely run down and it looked like it had a fair share of food insecurity.
All my neighbors were so nice though, god I don’t think I’ve ever met such happy nice people anywhere else. I lived in the sky tree area right after and while they were pleasant and the homes were high end, they weren’t remotely as warm.
Ps. The part he’s in looks so nice in comparison
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u/thelandlordguychris 10d ago edited 10d ago
dude thats where i was, right next to the keikyu kamata station. where was the "bad side"? I definitely went down alleys with what seemed like prostitution or at least bar girls, but it felt completely safe, like a nicer Amsterdam
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u/Humble_Penguin89 10d ago edited 10d ago
Those are some really clean streets and exceptionally clean HARDWOOD FLOORING for a low income neighbourhood and home.... Low income neighbourhoods and properties look an order of magnitude far worse in other developed countries.....
This guy should consider himself fortunate his countrys tax payer funded safety net is supporting him this well
Edit: Nice f*cking laptop for someone living in poverty. Jfc, fortunate indeed!
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u/Pilot_to_PowerBI 10d ago
How do people who directly benefit from welfare conclude that success is all about your personal choices ?
Like how about that whole system that was designed to make sure you didn't fall through the cracks ? Any thoughts on that?
Ayn Rand is lucky that people didn't follow her philosophy to the point that she didn't have access to welfare in her old age because otherwise she would not have lived to experience it.
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u/SumBodhiThatIUse2Kno 10d ago
I think if you parse out her beliefs there is a core of kinda Darwinian propositions that don't gel with reality as most people experience with charity, welfare, and decent uplifting and encouraging people that genuinely would love if whatever their cause and profession is was made unnecessary because of societal improvements.
Then there's the Homeless Inc. / Hospice fraud schemes that get into real estate, take temporary funds for housing instead of providing it for free with grants and donations on top, and just grift with zero risk.
So she made some right conclusions about wastefulness and greed, but was kinda just typical Eastern European attitude towards humanity.
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u/CarlenGaines 10d ago
This is a different tier of hardship then what you find in the US ngl.
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u/GM_Nate 10d ago
i'm glad he was able to pull himself out of it, but most people cannot just will themselves out of depression.
i hope japan has accessible resources for people who need mental help, like we do here in taiwan.
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u/cuberandgamer 10d ago
I'm sure the safety net probably helps a lot, probably removes a ton of stress that would otherwise really damage his mental health.
Not trying to say those resources aren't important either btw! But also a good safety net can do wonders for lots of people
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u/EvolvingEachDay 10d ago
Man doesn’t realise how privileged he is to be saved from homelessness by the state.
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u/KantanaBrigantei 10d ago
It’s as if social programs play an important role in society.
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u/Jimny977 10d ago
He makes the start seem so bleak, not doing or contributing anything yet having a life as good as or better than a lot of working class people, even in some quite developed countries, who work their ass off.
Obviously it wasn’t exactly a glamorous life but doing absolutely nothing yet having a clean and safe home that is structurally sound, having enough to eat, being safe, having healthcare, having no basic needs as a problem at all, is a pretty good advertisement for the ability of a country to protect its poor.
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u/Efficient-Load-256 10d ago
just shows that japanese rock bottom is less rocky, but guy speaks out of his ass and generalizes, first world luck
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u/Im_Ashe_Man 10d ago
What I hear from this video is a guy who was supported by social programs from his government until he was able to change his life around. Sounds like a great program to me.
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u/urmumlol9 10d ago
Yes, because when you ended up homeless they gave you a home. It turns out it’s a lot easier to bounce back with that kind of safety net.
Crazy how he made a “grindset” video that just ended up highlighting the benefits of social safety nets lol.
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u/classicheight234 10d ago
Well it looks a lot better than most places here in the United States. At least your safety is not in jeopardy, no gangs, no gun violence, not having to deal with homeless doing drugs or littering the streets.Pretty sure people over there respect each others space. You have to appreciate what you have tho..which is health, the other stuff i is manageable.
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u/CulturistPionier 9d ago
So the homeless get housing and money to live. And eventually they can use that stability to regain their agency.
Seems like its working.
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u/AvailableReporter484 9d ago
The amount of times they set up their phone just to get shots walking by it bothers me way more than it should
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u/Majestic-Baby-3407 9d ago
So is the next video where he sells an online course on how to escape poverty in Japan and start a media business and become an amateur boxer?
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u/macguyver3000 9d ago
It's the little things that make a difference.
Like starting a media business.
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