At the margins, though, one can find signs of Japan's slide, particularly in Osaka. Between 1991 and 1999, for example, while Japan's national economy lost 2.1 percent of its jobs, Osaka lost 13 percent. Many of the jobs moved overseas to low-wage countries.
Huge manufacturers like Matsushita Electric Industrial Co, Sanyo Electric Co and Sharp Corp moved factories to China. Many others are planning to.
On this day, Sato has little to do but sit in his blue tent and read some newspapers he pulled out of a trash bin. He'd woken up at 4am and taken his place in a job queue, hoping one of the scouts searching for day laborers would select him. "My back is no good anymore, but on a really good day, I can come away with Japanese yen 10,000 (US$80) working on a construction site or unpacking trucks."
But good days are becoming rarer. A year ago, Sato says, there were fewer men looking for work. Worse, the newcomers are younger and stronger, leaving Sato, a man in his mid-50s, having to talk his way into jobs. "Many days like today, I find myself sitting, with nothing to do, thinking `How did this happen?'"
Japan's homeless problem is sure to get worse before it gets better. That's because Osaka is a microcosm of trends unfolding around the nation. The city rested on its laurels after decades of rapid growth and watched China and other competitors take away the capital and jobs it long took for granted. Now, Japan finds itself uncompetitive in a world joined by globalization.
As jobs disappear, an increasing number of Japanese are being forced to fend for themselves. Since Japan lacks a broad social safety net to catch those who suddenly find themselves jobless, a growing number have no choice but to live on the streets. The homeless trend caught Tokyo largely off guard. In Osaka, there are at least 10,000 homeless. Some observers think the figure is closer to 15,000.
"The main cause of this increase in homelessness is job losses that the economic recession brought about," says Hiroyuki Fukuhara, an economist at Osaka City University. "However, insufficiencies of the social [safety net] system in Japan have also pushed them into homelessness."
The nation is under increasing pressure to fix those cracks.
On April 26, nearly 300 homeless people rallied outside Parliament in Tokyo to demand more government help.
Chanting "Listen to the voices of the people who live outdoors," protestors urged lawmakers to provide more shelters and job-placement and medical-care programs.
The national government has come up with some money, but only a fraction of what's needed. Last year, for example, Tokyo budgeted Japanese yen 780 million to fund 11 "Self-Dependent Support Centers" that offer food, health checks and job counseling. But that was Japanese yen 110 million less than the previous year.
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