Fruits of his labor, or lack thereof

Meet Mr. Kaga. A 52-year-old homeless man living in the Kamagasaki area in south central Osaka City, or Kama for short, as locals call it, a 300-meter-square district where rows of weathered day laborers’ quarters stand on littered streets filled with stench. Though there hasn’t been a verifiable census for decades by any responsible authority, it’s safe to estimate there are between 25,000 to 30,000 day laborers living in this infamous slum-like district, the largest of its kind in Japan.

Mr. Kaga graduated from a technical high school in a small town in Nagasaki, a southwest Japan prefecture nearly 1000 kilometers away from Osaka, and hopped around jobs here and there eastward ever since. He ended up in Kamagasaki some 20 years ago, more or less chronicling “The lost decades” in Japan, the long-term recession after the burst of the bubble economy in mid ‘90s.

The first half of life in Kamagasaki was hard but not unexpected. He’d get up at 4 in the morning and go to the placement office where he and his fellow day laborers would pitch themselves to labor sharks, or put it more legitimately, unscrupulous employment agents. Once a deal is made, they would go for a day, a few days, or a week of construction work. The pay would be daily. He’d come back at night, find himself a spot in a flop house, usually small enough that an adult man can touch walls on both sides of a room with stretched arms. Mr. Kaga would buy day-old, fixed combo meals on discount from the supermarket for food. He was leading a very modest life, inevitably from financial reasons, no doubt, but in undeclared ambition that had he saved money for long enough, he’d have gotten out of the slum.

The financial crisis in the fall of 2008 was a game-changer. The construction jobs, the only employment Mr. Kaga knew how to get into and earn very little to survive, were dramatically shrunk in scale and cut in manpower. Labor sharks told him, in mid 40s at the time, that he was too old and no longer in need. The most modest life imaginable suddenly became jeopardized. The only option left for him was to go on the streets.

Determined not to be a beggar in the shadows of streets, Mr. Kaga started collecting aluminum cans off of dumpsters and vending machines after tips from fellow day laborers that he could make 120 yen (just about 1 U.S. dollar) per kilogram by taking the cans to recycling agents. He’d put himself in a homeless shelter and eat at food rations and soup kitchens operated at several locations almost every day by NPOs and religious organizations.

On a good day, he’d eat all three meals at soup kitchens, collect enough aluminum cans to fill two garbage bags, earn between 600~700 yen (5~6 U.S. dollars), and buy the cheapest pack of cigarettes and a small portion of liquor. Drinking in small sips with puffing a smoke is the only sign that he has survived another day.

Something meant to be a stopgap measure has now become a final parting shot, says Mr. Kaga with a sneer laugh. “I don’t know how much longer I can live like this”.

彼の労働の果実、或はその欠如

カガさん。釜ヶ崎、または「カマ」と短縮されて呼ばれる大阪市内中心部に暮らすホームレス男性。釜ヶ崎は朽ちた簡易宿泊所が軒を並べ、ゴミや汚臭が通りを覆い、半径300メートル以内に推定3万人ともいわれる日雇い労働者が住む日本最大のドヤ街だ。

長崎県内の職業訓練高校を出たカガさんは職を転々としたのち20数年前に釜ヶ崎に辿り着いた。釜ヶ崎で生活してきた年月は、日本でバブル経済の崩壊後「失われ20年」と呼ばれる1990年代前半から現在までとちょうど一致する。

朝4時に起き、釜ヶ崎労働センターで手配師に指名されて1回に数日間から1週間単位という短期雇用の建設業をハシゴしながら、安いドヤに寝泊まりして最低限の生活をしてきた。慎ましい生活で貯金し、一時は釜ヶ崎から脱出しようと思ったこともある。しかし、2008年の全世界金融危機で状況は一変した。なんとか食いつなぐ手段だった建設業から全く声が掛からなくなったのだ。当時まだ40代半ばだったカガさんに手配師たちは「その歳じゃ現場で役に立たないから」と告げた。生涯一度も十分な貯金を持ったことがないカガさんははそれまでの慎ましい生活にすら困窮するようになり、路上に暮らす選択肢しか残らなかった。

社会の陰で物乞いする人間にはなりたくないと、カガさんは生きる為の方法を模索する。アルミ1キロが100円で売れると知り、ゴミ捨て場や自販機周りからアルミ缶を拾い集めリサイクル業者に持ち込むことを始めた。生活保護を受ける昔の仕事仲間のアパートに居候し、釜ヶ崎地区でほぼ毎日数カ所で行われているNPOや宗教団体が運営する炊き出しで飢えをしのぐ。

うまくいく日には3食全てを炊き出しで腹に収め、拾い集めたアルミ缶を潰してポリ袋ふたつを一杯にし600〜700円を手に入れる。一番安いタバコと酒を買いチビチビやるのが仕事の疲れを癒す唯一の方法だとカガさんは言う。

しかしアルミ缶を集めるだけでは将来への希望を持つどころか現状の打破すらできない。殆ど毎日アルミ缶を集める「仕事」をしていてもリサイクル業者に持ち込む前の日にはポケットにいくらの小銭も残らないのだ。注ぎ込んでいる時間とエネルギーに対して余りにも非効率な対価しか得られない事実はカガさんの頭を悩ませる。しかし現状では少額でも現金を得られる方法はこれしか思いつかない。

急場凌ぎのつもりで始めたアルミ缶拾いが、今や毎朝起きて一日を費やす理由になってしまったとカガさんは笑う。そしていつまでこんな生活を続けられるだろうかと言っては、また力無く笑うのだ。