There are probably more than 3000 people just trying to live out of net cafes. Pay is bad for SWEs because Japan mostly doesn't have the sorts of companies that generate millions in profit per SWE, and foreign companies lower their offers to be only a little above the local market rate. Pay is bad for other workers because huge amounts of labor are wasted on tasks like "staying at the office at least as long as my boss" or "replacing our successful product with a new one for the sake of demonstrating that we have done something" which are optimized for purposes opposed to creating value.

First, that number is most probably understated.

Second, your comment could be interpreted as saying that counties with high pay have (or should have) a lot of homeless people, which seems insane. So what did you mean?

It’s not that insane. If pay is low then companies can afford to hire more people to do the same amount of work, leading to overall more employment and then presumably less homelessness.

Unemployment is just one factor in homelessness. Other factors are drugs (Japan is much more stricter), home availability (Japan has much less NIBMYies), etc.

Also most importantly the ability for the state to declare you mentally unfit and hold you against your will.

If you're being held, do you fall under homelessness?

So, this happens a lot if Japan? Examples?

>Second, your comment could be interpreted as saying that counties with high pay have (or should have) a lot of homeless people, which seems insane.

Does it? Countries with high inequality I'd expect to have a lot of homeless people.

Except if you mean countries with high pay across the board. So how does that work, everybody gets high wages, and companies can afford it and hire the same number of people, (instead of the case of splitting wages more equally)?

That's one of the last things I would wonder.

The full quote is:

> Last Friday, Japan’s Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare released the results of an annual study of the number of homeless people *in the country’s parks and riverside areas.*

So this isn't the full count of homeless, just the ones living in specific park areas.

Where else are they going to live? Unlike America, Japan doesn't have massive homeless encampments full of tents in random places all around the city, so they generally all congregate in certain parks where their presence is tolerated. From my experience living in Tokyo, I'd say that looking at those parks and riverside areas is a very accurate way of counting the number of homeless.