Running Away - A Story of Homelessness in Tokyo
There are an estimated 5000 homeless people living in Tokyo. The overwhelming majority of whom are men over the age of 50. There is an orderliness amongst the homeless community which is rarely seen in other large cities around the world and many of the men on the streets have found that the the relative freedom of life on the streets is preferable to conforming to the constraints of life within Japanese society.
Running Away tells the story of Koisou Matsuyoshi - a 71 year old homeless man who has been living on the streets for 8 years.
I befriended Matsuyoshi san whilst living and working in Tokyo and stayed on the streets with him over a period of 2 months in the winter of 2016, documenting his life and getting to know the homeless community in Tokyo.
Matsuyoshi san moved back to Japan in the early 1980s after living in London for 10 years. On returning to Japan he found it difficult to adapt to life in Japan and was unable to hold down a job. After a failed marriage, he found himself on the streets and found that life was in some ways more bearable without the responsibilities of being part of a Japanese society which many who return from living overseas can find quite difficult to settle back into.
“When I was 16 I had a fight with my brother and ran away from home. Around that time, 1973 there was a boom for people travelling to Europe, so I bought a ticket and took the train across Siberia. I travelled around Europe and ended up in London, England.
I just stayed on in England and after 10 years I again ran away from England. I found a Japanese girlfriend and I thought I want to make a life with her in Japan. I went back to Japan first but we lost contact after several months, I didn’t see her again.
I couldn’t readjust to life in Japan when I came back. I found myself very useless. Everytime I found a job I soon get fed up with it and leave it again and my life was a repetition of that style. Every job I found was not really what I wanted to do and then I went for gambling.
I didn’t do much in my life.
I was a fatalist and a bit of an opportunist. Of course I regret a lot..why didn’t I think for the future when I was young? what I really wanted to do...I should have really given it consideration. Definitely I should have gone for marriage because I believe that human life, the ultimate cause of human life is to carry on and hand down the life, but I didn’t do that...
So when I look back at my life, my life was running away, escaping or something. When I became homeless I thought where can I escape from now? I thought the only place is above in heaven...or hell, whichever it is. I thought (about) my life and thought I must make myself something useful. What have I got? I wondered. I’ve got my body, my life, I mean my biological life, so I thought I’m going to use my body and found Sokerissa dancing, I found something to focus on.”