CNN Video: Small spaces for Japan’s Net Room Refugees
We are not quite sure what to think of Japan’s “net rooms.” They are small (the size of a closet,) short-term rooms to live in while job searching that are quickly becoming a booming business in Japan. A Tokyo real estate developer saw a new need to provide Japan’s “underemployed” with an address to put on a job application. Occupancy is nearly 100% every single day. Apparently almost one-third of Japans workforce is part-time or temporary which the low unemployment rate conceals.
The video scratched the surface of a nightmare I have always dreaded. Most interesting. I hope this was not a window into the future.
We are not sure what to think of this one. It is definitely not black and white. On the one hand people who need help are getting it. On the other, it is pretty inhumane and unfortunate that people need that kind of help. I’m still one of the fools who thinks that we have the capacity to enable everyone to be fed clothed, sheltered and educated – while we explore inner and outer space – together in peace.
I don’t really get how they work, though. Do these people actually sleep there or is it a sort of office/day room?