Do japan also have slums? What is your impression of Japan, where cities are bustling and prices are high? Or Shibuya Spice Girls, anime paradise? Behind the glamorous beauty of Japan, there is such a place, the price is extremely cheap, the drinks in the vending machine are only 50 yen, the hotel is only 500 yen a night or even free, the health environment here is the worst in Japan, the homeless people wander in the red light district every day, and security cases often occur. This is known as the "slum of Japan" - Osaka's Nishinari Ward.
Nishinari Is not located on the edge of Osaka, but on the contrary, it is very close to well-known attractions such as Tennoji Zoo and Tsutenkaku. Xicheng is synonymous with chaos and danger in Japan, and tourists play here and weigh them at night. There are all kinds of yellow gambling and poison here.
Feitian New Land
Needless to say, how developed this industry in Japan is, all gentlemen understand that Japan's most famous red light district "Feitian Xindi" is in Xicheng District. In addition, there is a street, known as the "gambling street", where good gamblers gather in three or five, and feel that they can open a game anytime and anywhere.
On the wall of the public toilet, instead of "come and go, go and flush", it reminds you not to throw syringes used to smoke contraband into the toilet. Walking on the road, the front foot was snatched away by the car thief, and the back foot had a big man approaching step by step, asking, Boss, buy a dish? These illegal drugs, pirated CDs, and stolen goods were all circulated in a place called "Xicheng Dark Market", and the local police repeatedly cracked down on them, but within a few days, these illegal businesses were revived.
The main reason why Xicheng District has become osaka's "dark continent" is not the above, but the scary homeless people in Xicheng District. In a place called Triangle Park, you can see a lot of houses built of wooden planks and even cardboard, where people live here eat low-security, receive relief, eat and sleep, and are homeless, and every year there are homeless people who are frozen to death in the cold wind.
The whole park is filled with the stench of rotten garbage and the smell of inferior tobacco. Obviously, it is a transportation hub, but few people leave the station, and there are no tall buildings around. There are no pedestrians on the road, and almost all the pedestrians that can be seen are middle-aged men in their forties and fifties. Dressed in crumpled clothes, they walked slowly, their eyes were blank, and they were like walking dead. Women naturally do not dare to go out on the street alone, and the young men who can be seen are also white backpackers, and the young Japanese have disappeared without a trace in this neighborhood.
Due to the large number of floating populations, the Japanese government was completely unable to count the correct population in this area, and eventually developed into an area that could rent houses and open bank accounts even without an identity card. In order not to let these homeless people be too idle and affect the local security, the government also arranged street open-air television sets in this area for the homeless people to entertain.
Street open-air TELEVISION
Prices here are arguably the lowest in Japan, with 50 yen drinks and 200 yen of ramen, which is simply not possible in other Japanese cities. But even so, these homeless people still triggered more than 20 riots before and after, and in order to confront the rioters, the perimeter of the Xicheng District Police Station was equipped with iron fences.
This is the B side of Japan, which seems to be the complete American degree. You may think that these people are the parasites of society, and that this miserable life is miserable, and they are to blame. But in fact, these tramps trapped in the slums are more like the outcasts of the times, because they once single-handedly supported the miracle of the Japanese economy.
The current situation of Nishisei Ward originated in the 1960s, when the Japanese economy rose, with the acceleration of urban construction, coupled with the large-scale construction projects such as the 1970 World Expo at that time, the demand for construction soared, and the demand for labor naturally rose, and the area of Saisei Ward in Osaka, because of its proximity to the city center, convenient transportation, so many developers directly parked a car here to pull people, and then erected a sign to recruit workers, you can recruit a steady stream of construction workers. If placed in the middle Chinese, then this is Osaka's urban village, which is the base for immigrants to come to the city to live.
With money, the original homeless people lived a life of drinking and drinking, drinking and having fun, gambling, and asking for flowers and willows, so the business of izakaya, casinos and pornographic places here was particularly prosperous. In the late 1980s, the Japanese economy entered a period of stagnation, job opportunities were greatly reduced, cutting off many people's sources of livelihood, so they applied to the government for a minimum guarantee, but the local government not only cruelly rejected them, but also pulled down the iron window to ignore them directly, so in the 900s, the homeless people and police in xicheng district and the local government, there were many conflicts. Later, it was discovered that a murderer hid here for 3 years and did odd jobs after torturing and killing an English woman, which confirmed the impression that Xicheng District was full of goons, scoundrels and villains, and since then, the concept of Xicheng District has slipped from the junction of urban and rural areas to the filthy and dark forbidden land.
In 2014, Japanese director Shingo Ota made a film about the slums of Nishinari. But the Japanese government not only banned the film, but also took the initiative to bribe him 600,000 yen, asking him not to tell them about it and tear open their fig leaf. Behind the glamorous beauty of Japan, the reality of the slums is a portrayal of a group of people at the bottom of society who cannot turn over, but have no choice but to live in a mess, and then disappear silently.