On December 6, a memorial march for an unhoused woman killed in November took place in Tokyo’s Yoyogi Park. A number of women’s rights groups and homeless organizations sponsored the event, which drew over 100 attendees. (Numbers aren’t conclusive: Mainichi reports approximately 120 attendants, while Yahoo Japan reports 170). The march took place less than half a month after the woman was beaten over the head and killed at the bus stop she slept at by a 46-year-old man, who is reported to have told police he thought hurting the woman would make her go away. The case is currently being reviewed by Tokyo District Public Prosecutors Office.
According to the Mainichi, the victim, 64-year-old Oobayashi Misako (大林三佐子), had quit her supermarket job in February and started sleeping at a roofed bus stop in Shibuya Ward in the spring of this year. She reportedly denied numerous offers of help by residents and other civilians. Her death came as a grievous shock to her family, who had no idea she had been living on the streets.
Another facet of the march was to protest Prime Minister Suga’s “self-reliance” policy, which some argue could potentially further exclude marginalized groups and those in poverty, especially women and those struggling with homelessness. “The government’s emphasis on “self-reliance” and “mutual aid” hinders access to public assistance, and produces a structure of violence towards disadvantaged people,” spoke Motoyama Akiko of the Asia-Japan Women’s Resource Center.
Some masked participants carried handmade placards with slogans like「彼女は私だ」(“She is Me”) and「ホームレス女性の排除と暴力ヤメロ」(“Stop Rejection and Violence Against Homeless Women”). An attendee in her thirties, jobless as a result of the coronavirus pandemic, said, “I feel it wouldn’t be surprising if the same thing happened to me someday.”
Rag Mag Paints Undignified Impression of Victim
Her death came as a grievous shock to her family, who had no idea she had been living on the streets. Click To TweetAs if the victim’s identity and circumstances haven’t been made public enough, Bunshun Magazine, who already has a track record for publishing tasteless pieces, came out with an in-depth article on the suspect on December 5. The article ended with an extremely personal one-line detail about the victim’s body that had absolutely no bearing on the case and also cast the victim in an unfavorable light. (We will not include a translation here out of respect for the victim’s dignity and family). Suffice it to say the article, and the concluding sentence in particular, stirred up immediate backlash online. “Does a slain person have no privacy? Would you say that about someone who’s alive? I’m so pissed off. This article should be deleted and re-written at once,” one Twitter user posted. Other replies to Bunshun’s original tweet called for the immediate removal of the last line.
Acclaimed author and poet Kawakami Mieko of Breasts and Eggs fame also shared her thoughts on the Bunshun article: “What kind of nerve and position does someone have to have to write something as cruel as this last line about a woman who was beaten, killed, had her name and age made public, and practically victimized by a society that couldn’t protect her? What’s the intent?”
One organizer of the march commented, “We need to build a society where everyone can ask for help when they’re in trouble.” Unfortunately, that’s much easier said than done. The government’s plan to slash childcare benefits and its decision to fund AI match-making apps during a global pandemic seems to indicate its priorities lie with securing long-term goals.
While there’s nothing wrong with that, the government would do well to focus on the problems happening in the here and now. As we’ve discussed numerous times here on Unseen Japan, women tend to bear the brunt of half-assed policies. Unhoused women are especially vulnerable, and not all people experiencing homelessness received financial help from the government.
What hurts the most is that this woman’s death in November was avoidable. Every death of a child by abuse, every senseless killing of an unhoused person, exposes the shortcomings of systems established to help these people. The question is, how many more deaths need to occur before the government starts taking these problems seriously?
