A Chinese Homeless Died in Tokyo
(Ikebukuro is one of the most popular commercial districts in Tokyo, full of restaurants, bars, Japanese-style pubs, amusement facilities, etc. where many Chinese, Koreans, and probably gangsters work and live.)
He was in his 50s but looked like an old man at his 70s partly due to alcohol poisoning. He could not walk due to fragile physical conditions.
So, the sick Chinese man asked a certain Japanese volunteer working for homeless people to take him to a hospital. The kind young Japanese took him to public welfare office though he thought the fragile man was Japanese. In the office, the Chinese man said that he was not Japanese but Chinese. It surprised the Japanese helper.
An official in the pubic office asked the Chinese where he had filed foreign resident registration. It was a certain ward in Tokyo but not Toshima. So the official told the Japanese aid that the Chinese man could receive public aid in the ward he had registered his status as a foreigner.
But the Chinese sick man refused to go to the ward office where he could be officially identified. He said that he might be arrested if he had made an appearance there. So, the two persons went back to the public park in some gloomy mood. As it was Friday the Chinese man asked the Japanese helper to give him time to decide what to do. He said he would make a decision on Monday. So, the Japanese man left him in the park.
When the Japanese volunteer came back to the public park on Monday, he found that the sick Chinese had collapsed night before to be taken to a hospital by an ambulance. So, he hurried to the hospital to see the homeless Chinese lying in bed in a critical condition. He was suffering sever pneumonia.
The Chinese homeless man was hospitalized, using a false name. Staff of the hospital could not find his identification, so that they did not apply full treatment to him. But as the Japanese visitor could tell the real name and status of the poor patient, the hospital found where to request medical costs. They started to apply full treatment to the almost dying Chinese man.
In Japan, a foreigner can receive public aid and welfare if he or she meets certain conditions. Public livelihood subsidies a Japanese poor man or homeless man could receive can be applied to a foreigner. But it is no wonder that a homeless foreigner who is afraid of arrest by the police would not reveal his name like in this case.
Anyway, this Chinese man was accepted by the hospital in Tokyo. But later he was sent to other hospital which could provide him with long-term care in Utsunomiya City, 100 km north of Tokyo.
Then half a year passed. It was August that the Japanese volunteer was informed that the Chinese sick man came back to the public park of Ikebukuro, again, but looked like dead. The Japanese hurried to the park. The familiar Chinese was in a wheelchair, looking dead. Some people said that he had run away from the hospital in Utsunomiya night before, taking a bus while being in a wheelchair. An ambulance was called soon, but it was confirmed that this unhappy Chinese homeless man died already.
So, the Japanese volunteer thought that this Chinese man wanted to die in a familiar place in Tokyo.
(http://www.asahi-net.or.jp/~kg8h-stu/gaikou-homeless.htm)
It is very rare to see homeless foreigners in Japan. Absolutely no European or American homeless men look like existing in Japan. But it is difficult to judge if a homeless person is Japanese, Chinese, or Korean by appearance.
It is said that there are 30,000 homeless people in Japan. And there are about 12,000 registered Chinese in Toshima ward, Tokyo.
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