In Japan, the success of videos denigrating the homeless outrages associations helping the poor

In Japan, the homeless are reproached for transgressing this permanent requirement of excellence and performance.

(Photo: AFP)

Text by: Bruno Duval

3 mins

It's the latest fashion in Japan.

On Twitter or YouTube, there are countless videos that ridicule the homeless, make fun of them.

A phenomenon that outrages the associations helping the poorest.

Advertising

Read more

From our correspondent in Tokyo,

In one of these videos, we see homeless people sleeping at night in a park and who, suddenly, are knowingly aroused from their sleep by concerts of cooking pots or chants sung at the top of their voices.

Close-ups of the frightened and bewildered faces of these poor people.

In another video, a young man offers a homeless person to buy him some food.

They enter a convenience store, take a small basket, go around the shelves.

The homeless person chooses what pleases him: a sandwich, a packet of cakes, instant noodles, etc.

Then the two men go to the checkouts, but when it's time to pay, the alleged benefactor takes to his heels and leaves the homeless man completely crestfallen since he doesn't have enough money to pay.

Accomplices, hilarious, film his reaction.

Variation: A homeless person is offered an

, a small dumpling of cooked rice.

But, in exchange, he is asked to do a bow of thanks so emphatic that it borders on ritual prostration.

Which is obviously not justified at all, because an o-nigiri only costs a hundred yen, less than a euro.

But now, the homeless runs because he is hungry.

The cult of performance

All these videos are presented by their authors as "schoolboy jokes", not very bad.

And they are wildly successful in Japan, they are the most liked and the most shared of the moment, which outrages the associations that help the most disadvantaged.

These videos also reinforce their conviction that in Japan, the homeless are particularly discredited.

By virtue of a basic rule, in the country, everyone is asked to redouble their efforts, to give the maximum of themselves, to surpass themselves in all circumstances and whatever the cost.

Here, it's very simple, giving up is inconceivable.

The homeless are reproached, in short, for transgressing this permanent requirement of excellence and performance.

They are considered asocial, and denigrating, even hateful remarks towards them are all day long on social networks in Japan.

They are held, including by very well-known people, influencers, for example.

► Also to listen: When exams arrive, sexual aggressors return to the Tokyo subway

A climate of hatred towards the poorest

In August 2021, one of them, Daïgo, who calls himself a "mentalist", posted a video in which he protested that part of the proceeds of his taxes should go to help the most deprived.

Because for him, "

".

This caused an uproar at the time, but this Daïgo's YouTube channel still has over 2 million subscribers.

For charities, videos that make fun of the homeless are as cruel and dangerous as such statements, because they fuel a climate of hatred towards the poorest.

However, in Japan, it is not uncommon for homeless people to be victims of verbal, but also physical violence.

In recent years, many have even died.

They were murdered by people - young people in particular - who found their presence unbearable and felt that they did not deserve to live.

► Also to listen: Why don't the Japanese have – or no more – children?

Newsletter

Receive all the international news directly in your mailbox

I subscribe

Follow all the international news by downloading the RFI application

• Japan

• Company

• Poverty

• Social networks

• our selection