Japan Net Cafe

None around here personally. Didn't you ask these questions before Danny?

Well, yeah here they beg and if they give them anything, a whole bunch of them will then come begging from you. So its better not to give them since they will continue on begging for everything. The worse ones are the fake "cripples" who pretend to be cripple to gain sympathy.

Yeah, there are a lot here.

I live in San Diego which is right at the border to Mexico, and not to be racist or anything, but a lot of the not rich Mexican's come here, and I often see them 'begging' with their signs, but when I try to give them money, my parents get mad. >__>

ooh that looks comfy.

Nope, I never give money to panhandlers and beggars. There are places here that to you can go if you are in need of charity. Last time I someone asked me for some change, I ignored them (easy since I had earphones on, I love how technology makes us inhuman bastards). Then I saw the beggar walk away and get inside the passenger seat of a Nissan Maxima with an old lady and drive off. I literally facepalmed

lol comes with bed

There are a number of homeless people near where I work. Most of them do ask for money when people walk by. Sometimes I will give money, but if I do its just small change... so not too much. But what partially makes me decide to give or not is whether I see them on an ongoing basis.

a web connection AND a mattress? Now that's just asking for trouble. may as well supply box of tissue while they're at it.

There are many homeless people in California. Very few, if any of them actually put out any effort to make their way in life and get on their feet. There are some homeless shelters and such all over the place, but you still see many of them sleeping out on the streets with shopping carts holding all of their personal belongings.

I sometimes give money when I see a beggar, but not always. I usually give them all the change in my pockets when I do. Honestly though, sometimes I feel like I would rather buy them a sandwich than give them money, because many of them will use the money to buy drugs.

We have alot homeless but mostly there drug users and don't want to support themselves, u usually have to ignore them cuz they want money for their next fix, but the honest ones collect cans and recycle them for money. i donate to the honest ones. i could take a pic of a small percentage of homeless that hang out in one area and it would contain maybe 30 people just in a public park not including the Allys or liquor stores around it.

i never give it to them, my parents never let me.
when i went to hong kong this summer, i saw a lot of people injure themselves just to look like cripples to get tourists to give them money, it wasn't nearly this bad 4 years ago.

Wow that's like a little over ten bucks if I'm converting right...and for all that it's a bargain...wish they have stuff like that here...as for the homeless, yea there's quite a few here, but I hear stories like people buying food for them, but when they turn around they hear the homeless guy say something like rather getting money for some drugs...

OH ,they're around here and there, begging for money. Worst one I ran into was a black women trying to get money for gas for *another family. Sounds too fishy when a family grabs a stranger to go around and ask for money so they can get gas.

Wow i did not know net cafes let u spend the night. Definitely nothing like that in America as far as I know.

Streets here in Manila are riddled with the homeless. Although some do try to make a living by sell flower garlands or candies and cigarettes, some just outright beg. Now I have nothing against the homeless, but the lest they could do here is make an effort rather than rely on what would be handed to them.

yup, lots of homeless people here who have turned begging in to a full time business. I never give out any money to beggars since they just keep asking for more even if you gave them some a few minutes back. Greedy people. Also there are some begging syndicates where the majority of the money collected thru begging is taken by the group leader and such. so if any of you people come to India, just ignore these beggars, and never give any money to them.

No internet cafe here that are open all night along with bed.

Ah, I spent many a night in manga (net) cafes in Tokyo. Was really quite affordable, and even though I did have a (tiny) room rented, I did occasionally think about how it would be quite feasible to just sleep at net cafes every night.
The ones I went tended to have reduced fees for 6hrs stay at night, and they the cubicles did have large recliners, TV, CPU and net access. Quite comfortable, really

you reminded me of something which happened to me when I was back in Singapore, I recall once getting approached by a woman who asked me for some money to take the train home cos she lost her wallet, I wanted to take her to the help desk at the mall and even ask if she wanted to go to the police station, she kinda left me alone after I said that :P (suspicious neh?) and a few months later (maybe cos I changed my hair style and glasses I musta look quite different) I was approached by the same woman with same story even and I said HEY I recognise you... She froze, turned the other way and walked away from me :P LOL

We have homeless folk (supposidly homeless) who beg on street corners. They aren't nearly as hardworking at the ones in Japan. If I ever give them anything it will be food, not money. And no, we don't have any stay night net cafes, heck we barely have net cafes.

We have some 24/7 Net shops here but none of which like that in Japan where it has a bed and everything.

Yeah, we have some people "requesting for some free money" and even street children doing that. There are some news that criminal syndicates uses beggars and street children as a way to fund their syndicate. There are even times that beggars will ask for money for food but in reality they'll use it to buy some drugs to satisfy their addiction.

I'd rather give money to legal charitable institutions rather than give it directly to beggars and street children.

Any net cafe here shuts down pretty quickly. No point now that most people have High Speed internet and ventrillo is common.

Brazil.. we have lots of them... too many of them... some streets are almost taken over by them.
It's a real problem. Lots of beggars, and lots of kids on traffic lights doing stuff to get money.
They sell candy, they try to clean your windshield (usually making it dirtier), they'll do some acrobatics. They ask if you will let them take care of your car for some money (if you say no, they scratch your car or do worse)... and so on.

About Internet Cafes... I think it's now forbidden. Some Internet cafes will still make frag nights sometimes, but usually you don't have beds or a place to spend the night sleeping.
This would be a big problem, since there are too many homeless people, and they are not as clean as those in Japan.
Also, lots of "educated" people in Brazil behave like pigs regarding their personal hygiene... beggars can be even worse around here.
It wouldn't be possible to make profit with something like that...

That net cafe looks very comfy..
There aren't many homeless here in Richmond BC, but maybe the will soon appear after the new Sky train is built for the winter Olympics..

I'm an ass cause I rather donate to SPCA D:

hell no I don't give any beggers money. We have enough Social services in the area to help those people out that if they're to damn lazy to get help that's their own fault.

in Manila you'd find beggars just about anywhere, social services suck.
Vancouver on the other hand seem quite the opposite. at least one would easily see where their taxes go.
btw Danny, did you notice that homeless folks in England tend to have a dog with them, apparently they get government subsidies for taking care of a dog. ^^;
btw I had the same money swapping experience in India once. and the same reaction as well. but the stranges experience in India was when I saw a guy waving a monkey in the streets, I took a picture of it. after which he wanted me to pay him for taking the picture.

yup, in New York there are quite a number of beggars begging in the streets and especially the subways. They get pretty mean when no one in the car gives 'em anything.

I think the PC term is panhandling. Most of the ones that are panhandling are doing it for booze or drugs. There were a lot of them in the downtown area where I went to college I never gave them any money but a buddy of mine use to carry McDonald's gift cards to give to them. He had more then a couple get mad at him because he wouldn't give them cash.

Yes we do.

And I was also told that I was not allowed to build a homeless shelter, since it was too similar to my retirement home/meat packing plant idea. *shifty eyes*

Yes there are homeless in the region- depending on where you g they are either nice (victim of circumstance) or some will attack to get what they want (don't be stupid by carying around the blackberry!). I generally do not give money to the homeless because in Baltimore some would use it for booze money (alcohol). Instead I insist that I buy them a sandwich and if they really are hungry then they will take me up on the deal. Otherwise I am thinking about engaging in philantrhopy in donating to shelters. There are no internet cafes around here with this type of service.

"Are there internet cafes in your region where you can stay at all night in your region?"

Yes, most folks who do that tend to not sleep for more than 48 hours though.

"Do you have a load of homeless folks in your region? Do they go around begging (is that the politically correct term?) for money?"

I think panhandling is the correct term here. There are quite a lot in downtown Toronto. I saw someone doing that today when I went downtown, a girl gave him 5 bucks and he asked her if she could spare more, that disgusts me.

"If they ask you, do you give or ignore and how much do you give?"

I ignore, because many of those folks actually live in luxury.

Sorry for triple post, my grammar gets ridiculously bad when I'm tired.

"About the netcafes here. What I meant is that most folks who do stay overnight plays overnight *and don't sleep* at all." There are no beds or anything, only computers and chairs. I'm pretty sure the ones in China are like that too, how else does someone die from playing WoW?

There are some here who don't really beg, but they fish around in dumpsters and talk to themselves and are fairly creepy.

In my place, net cafe is actually opens 24 hours for 5days, theres sofas where maybe people could sleep or jusy take breaks. 2 dollor per hour...

Yup I definitely remember the 50pence girl. Not many homeless people here since I don't live close to the city. Homeless people tend to walk the city streets begging money, sleeping on park benches, the usual things.

doesnt look that bad, at least most homeless people actually try to support themselves unlike some places here, people just lie around waiting for something to happen

Begging in SA is terrible - you stop a car at any busy intersection and someone will be at your window asking for money, often just little kids that have obviously been asked by their parents to try get money.

There are many homeless/beggars in Montreal... They're usually drunk and/or stoned and/or with many disturbing mental problems. And also with pack of dogs.
One puked right in front of me once... not the kind of thing you want to see at 9AM on your way to work.
Sometimes they follow you around yelling stuff and looking as they might attack any moment.
The police department is right the next corner, but they don't do anything... too busy trying out their new T3s I guess.

I used to be homeless. It was a fairly easy lifestyle, seeing as how you really only worry about the basic necessities (food, shelter, etc.). I saw a lot of people get used to that, and end up staying homeless rather than worrying about bills, deadlines, etc.

However, I worked my rear off because I wanted more out of life. Now I'm doing pretty well...^_^

Wow, 1000yen per night?! That's cheap right?!

I see homeless people here all the time on the corners of streets with those signs up waiting for cars to come by. I gave some cents to a homeless guy before but I don't really do that often. That was just kind of a spur of the moment thing...

Great that some homeless in Japan find some way to support themselves though. Those net cafes would be a great place to stay if you're down on your luck, but if you're just stopping for the night....I'd be kinda scared of the cleanliness of the quarters lol

I see a few whenever I drive around. They stand near freeway ramps to beg drivers for money. I can really care less for these people. They just stand there with some generic sign saying "Homeless. Anything helps. God bless". The ones I see are usually male in their mid 20's to 30's, fully clothed in sweaters and boots. They aren't handicapped or anything and usually have more muscle than I can ever imagine myself having. I mean...wtf? Seriously... if you're still so healthy and young, then you should be out begging for a job. Not spare change on the freeway. Another "homeless" person I saw has an electric wheelchair, I see him throughout all four years of high school since I walk pass him every week. There's just something really wrong about healthy 20-30 year olds being homeless and begging for money in America... or am I being ignorant about some things?

I'd give my pocket change if I saw an actual homeless KID though... which I haven't seen any for the past few years.

yes be do have beg for money. never give them money cuz most of em lie about their situation. for instance i once gave a man on a wheelchair 1 Euro. the next day a miracle happened and he was walking. after that i don't give nothing. but if its a street performer i do give something. sometimes i see this homeless guy who draws stuff. he makes a portrait of you with a pencil for 2 Euros and he is good with what he does.

it's one thing to be approached by homeless/disabled people, it's another to be bombarded by incoming hordes of secondary school kids asking for coins. Most of the time, I end up dropping a few change just to keep them off my back.

i pity and understand the plight of these guys, but i just can't spare any cash when my parents are keeping a tight lid on my cashflow. that said, i will spare such change for flags, just not as often as i would have liked...

I was surprised by the number of homeless in Tokyo - there were lots around the fringes of Akihabara and in Shinjuku.

One guy in Shinjuku had a cat on a lead, which was kinda cool.

Wow, I really admire the people who choose to make a change in their life and work for their money as opposed to just begging.
Begging can be quite bad here in SA, some people knocking after midnight for food.. even sunrise ^^;

We have a TON of internet cafes here in the Philippines. Most if not all of them have Warcraft III and Counter Strike installed. Ah yes, the Philippine computer gamers' all-time favorites. Poor children get to play as well if someone happens to give them a lot of money when they were begging (or the money from the wallet they probably stole)

There are also a TON of beggars here. I think 40% of the Philippines' population is composed of poor people. I wish these people were like the ones in Japan. I mean, some just sit on the street floor begging for money asking to take pity on them. Some even carry babies with them to increase the "pity" factor. Other act handicapped like being blind or crippled. Really now, I hate them all. I don't give them money even if they stopped right in front of me crying. They should know how to live for themselves. What's worst is that when these people fall in love with someone, they create MORE of themselves. Like that's helping them get through life!

Well I'm not putting all the blame on them. Of course the government is also responsible for their situation. Government officials always use them for their own selfish needs.

There was this one incident where I gave a beggar one of the meals I ordered in a fastfood restaurant. Not the leftovers mind you, it was still whole and untouched.

Where I live we have a few homeless people as well, during winter time I think they huddle up at the local church. One can go there for free soup and blankets.

Beggars and homeless are a common sight here. Most of them go around "cleaning" trash boxes to look for "food". 99% of them stink of alcohol, which they buy for the money they begged. It's nearly impossible for those people to "stand" again, and, it seems, none of them want to. Not b/c they like the way they are, it's just the work u can get without proper registration is extremely hard. The pay is low too. The government doesn't help in any way to those people either.
There are also a lot of kids and old people who beg. its expensive to keep a child, so many of them are homeless. In the best case, they wander around begging for food or money. The worst one is... Robbing...
Elder people suffer from the low pension and beg for money too, but it's a rare sight now, b/c Putin somehow managed to raise pension to an "acceptable" level.
It's nice to hear that Japanese government take care of such people, although it's kinda strange to give money, instead of things that they need. People can just take an advantage of that and live their life the same way, except.. They will have spare 1500$ XD.. Am i thinking too much? Homeless here would just "drink" these money...
Are there many alcoholics in Japan?

Wow, even the bums 'work' and try to be neat in Japan. Over here it's mixed: some do some parttime work selling papers, but lots also go around asking for money too

we have net cafe's in AUS that let you stay overnight ($12 for 12 hours). HOWEVER it's nothing like what's on the picture above. net cafe's here are just rows of comps and tables normally with only one small side room with a few bean-bags in the corner... since there aren't as many homeless people in AUS most people only stay overnight to actually play the 12 hours. i personally have never stayed at one overnight but some of my friends have to celebrate birthdays etc.

thats good that homeless people in Japan do that.
The new town I moved to a few weeks ago has no homeless (so far I have not seen any) but Washington DC (i live about 10 minutes from it) has a lot of them and last town I lived in had a few. Especially on the main road Rockville Pike always some begging on the road. It breaks my heart seen them.

This article triggered two memories I have from TV; The first being I certainly remember watching a program in the mid 90's that talked about micro-hotels in Japan which were glorified tubes with a TV and a bed in them - they were literally stacked vertically on top of each other and in rows as I recall.. Anyone remember these? Are they still going?

The second was a random TV programme about love hotels, where they showcased the facilities of what you were likely to get for your money. This net Cafe is not far from the bottom of the range love hotel, but with internet and far cheaper - sounds like they are missing out on a niche!

As for the homeless; people in the UK, the ones in the South West cities are quite friendly and I often help them out.. but in London they seem somehow battle-hardened and will quite simply continue to as you for change even after you have just given them some! I do tend to ignore them now..

the most dispicable homeless beggar i've seen was showing a sign "help me I can't read and all that sympathetic stuff" the thing was that he was hiding that day's newspaper and was reading it and smoking -.-, not worth to give money to him....

the majority are ones holding up signs, i don't even trust them now though. -.-
so many fake ones.......other than that we got ppl who play music on streets, but i guess thats totally different its more of a hobby i guess

wow. net cafes here become stay-ins if you know the owner lol. so government is more concerned as it being a gathering place for students to slack off (or otherwise)

asking for alms is very common here. It's illegal to give alms of sort but people give in anyway..I don't give money but food most of the time though :P

I would like netcafes like those here!

We do have alot of homeless people and beggers here.
Most homeless people sell homeless newspapers that some organization gives them for free to help them with getting some moneys.
Beggers just... beg.
There once was this cool and cute looking australian begger, and I gave him 20 euro without really thinking about it... I could have bought a figma from that money -__-;

There are just about Zero homeless in my country, pretty nice actually, the social help system is probaly the most advanced/helpfull in the world, even though many people in my country are starting to feel that we are giving to much money to the poor.

Finnish homeless people have one major difficulty. The winter.

Danny, do you know how concerned net cafe owners are of couples using the rooms for some fun?

We have many different programs to help the homeless and the poor. This programs offer shower facilities and 3 meals a day. They even help you look for jobs and many are just supported by donations. I once volunteered at one for a few weekends with some friends and they told us that they'll help anyone who is in need, even if there not living on the streets. Unfortunately we have a lot of homeless or poor who still go around asking for money. The government and all of these programs stress that we should never give these people money since the vast majority only want it for drugs or alcohol which are the only 2 things the many different programs don't give to them since its usually the cause of their problems. Another reason is many people do this to earn money when they aren't even poor, the leave their homes and drive to a parking lot, then walk to some street corner in old dirty clothes and ask for money. Many can get up to 100 dollars a day. Whenever I get someone asking for money I offer to buy them lunch, when they accept I know that they are aren't going to buy beer so I buy them a hamburger at McDonald's or a subway sandwich, they're almost always grateful. I usually get someone who will get mad at me and curse at me for not wanting to give them the money, but I don't pay much attention to them since you can smell the alcohol on them or see in their eyes that they're on drugs.

Seems a nice room. Wouldn't mind spending a night in there. And for that price you probably could do much worse.

Not many homeless people around here, but I have had 2 guys ask for money and I just ignore them. Then there was one time a girl asked for money and I had to live up to my code of helping/protecting women, so in a gentleman fashion I gave her $40. I seen her on the news a week or so later on some rags to riches special. She used my $40 to invest in stock and was now a millionaire. Then the next day I got a check in the mail from her which held $40 and it said "Thank You". I didn't know if I should be happy because I changed her life or pissed because she sent me my money back and is now richer than me. I'm not even really sure how she got my address.

We have plenty of homeless people here. I don't remember giving money to beggers, though it's possible I have. I remember NOT giving any once (to some college aged kids who would probably have used it for weed anyway if i had), and they called me a heartless bitch. I was 15 or 16.
It's hard to be a good Samaritan when there are so many people out there who will lie to you or try to take advantage of you. I would love to just trust everyone, but you simply can't. Recently there was a man around here (probably still at large) who would offer aid to old ladies (helping them up if they fell, stuff like that), and then steal their purses.

The lan centers I visted in Shanghai last month were open 24/7, and I'm pretty sure there are people there who make several-night-stays. No beds and a hella lot of cigarette smoke, tho.

I also gave some money to beggers in China, but only to disabled and really old people. The able-looking should look for some menial labor to do; much better than begging, in my case.

(Well I did give 1 yuan to an active-looking guy in Wenzhou, but only because he opened my taxi door right when I was getting out, so I was kinda trapped in the situation, you see...)

The homeless ppl is everywhere in Vancouver Canada. Coz of our welfare system here, they get paid by the government every month. So those lazy homeless ppl just fooling around on the street for the rest of the life. =/

There's quite a bit of homeless around the Bay Area here in California. From what I've heard from psych classes, a number of these are likely former mental patients with tardive dyskinesia, some may be leftovers from the summer of love way back when. Around Berkeley and SF, some blatantly just ask for weed money (or just weed). Other times, someone might ask for "bus money" or money for the subway even though they just pocket the money and walk to another entrance to start again.

There are quite generous shelters and programs that give money to the homeless here, but still there are many who ask for money. I've also heard of an initiative to provide housing for the homeless, but not sure where it's gone since I haven't kept up with it.

In the above image... is that a mirror on the left? Because what's on the TV seems to be different than what's in the reflection...

I once gave a "homeless" guy a couple of bucks for a bus fare then saw him five minutes later at the same pub as me, having a beer. He had a real sheepish look on his face when he glanced over and saw me looking at him. I thought it was pretty funny actually.

homeless? nah not in my country, unless the couple is having lots of children and ask some money from the Government. hate these people

Most of the homeless people are having it pretty well, here in Amsterdam, The Netherlands
They get free food and sleeping places everyday.
And they do jobs for the government for some euro's.
like standing outside the supermarket selling some homeless newspaper for like 1 euro.
Half of it goes to the person thats standing outside selling them.

And when your walking around in the city , you sometimes see them playing some music for money.

when i do my shoppings i often give some of the change to them.

I dont mind it at all, these people also have to live.

The homeless in Japan certainly are like no other i've seen on my travels ... they're not 1/100th the problem here that they are in Australia, the US and other Asian countries i've been.

none at all at singapre . Poor disable people here rather go sell tissue than begging (on time i saw a lady gave a disable guy money but still he wanted her to take some tissues as she bought it) likewise with old ppl.

"Unfortunately this is becoming a bit of a social problem which is why the government plans to help these folks by giving them 150,000 yen per month to help them get off their feet."

Get on their feet? Or is it relaxation money? :D

I never see any homeless people here although yea, there are old people selling tissues around and disabled folks who sing or play instruments with a donation box mostly at the mrt stations and streets.

rarely goes to lan and net cafe so didnt really know any 24hr ones ^^;

Here in my country, I think it was implemented that net cafe's should have curfews to avoid problems. There have been cases in the past where shops were held-up and violence happened in these places late at night. D:

There's a lot of people here asking for alms but I don't really give money to these people. i do give them food instead though.

I do not know if I can stand living is such conditions like that.

There are a lot of homeless people here.

They just sleep on the sidewalks or in their carts or what not.

I always wonder how they make it out.

In Manila, the capital of the country, the mayor placed a rule that minors cannot go to Internet cafes during school hours. Probably on the philosophy that students should be studying. While I don't really like the idea I guess I can understand the point.

It's a good thing Japan is doing something to get homeless people to work. While there ARE organizations like Gawad Kalinga who build houses for the homeless, and lots of charity, I think a lot of our people would rather just accept their state of poverty which is why there are so many poor families here. Some just succumb to stealing and stuff...

Anyway...I'd rather not talk about it. We do have good hearts, just that poverty can bring out the worst in people

There are plenty of homeless people in my town , most of them sleep in the park. They're usually ignored because it's so easy to get off your feet in this town. I'm talking at least getting a $15hr job with no diploma no nothing to speak of. In fact it was news not too long ago of a resident bum who turned out to be a millionaire . He just chose to be bum . Most of the beggars aren't actually homeless people but cheap bastards who are trying to scam someone into paying for their gas money .

I have as yet to see a net cafe' here in the states and I've traveled a fair amount. The closest that comes to a net cafe' was a gaming cafe' in Seattle and another in Ann Arbor.

That price of 1000 yen / $10 US a night is cheap, you cant find a cheap hotel room in the worst part of town or the middle of nowhere for less than $25US a night.

I'm calling fowl on some of what your saying hailbane, $15hr for no experience and no education is a bit far fetched and its very rare for non homeless to be out pan handling, sounds like your re-hashing old internet stories about panhandlers making more money in a day than some do in a week. But heres some food for thought, some homeless drug addicts will use a story about having run out of gas and being from out of town or need to get home across town or some other destination. This is a story that I have seen repeated hundreds of times over in all the cities I've lived and worked in and traveled through and have had it happen 4 times at my front door in the 2 years since I moved into my current residence. Each time its been from someone with less teeth than fingers and who was dirty and smelled like spoiled durian.

I do not know if I could live on one of those places.
I am slightly clostro-fodic.

yes we do have some but no over night ones. *sob*

There's a lot of homeless peepz here in the phil, sadly they all just whine and ask for the government's support. they just begged around waiting for a person to pass by them and give them spare change. sadly even the government isn't doing anything about it. you can see homeless perks sleeping anywhere you look at night since the police isn't that really strict about seeing them sleep anywhere. back here in PH, things isn't as easy when gettin a part time job since they always do background check and stuff to recognize you, skills and talent doesn't seems to matter. sometimes they decide thing depends on the school you came from, the better the school, the better chance of getting hired. although I see talented perks around but haven't given a chance to use it since they were not well educated. how bout in other countries? how they decide on whom they'll hire? do they base it on educational background or talent?

Choo-san, Back in your native hometown, when the 1994 international motor racing season goes to it's second half, Café Cyberia opened it's doors as the world's first ever cyber café.

You hopefully saw a series of IBM's running Windows 3.1, whose the fastest at that time was 3.1 Megabits/sec