The Future Of The Bind
I can absolutely confirm what Oriental Pearl is talking about.
I live in a very nice place in western Tokyo. Exclusive residential areas, high end car dealerships, boutiques etc. But there are massive problems with abandoned homes, old people living in decrepit houses. Every shuttered place on the Main Street has graffiti all over it. When they crush a building and leave it for too long graffiti pops up on the fence.
Homelessness is not a big problem where I am, but occasionally I pass by a homeless person on my daily neighborhood walk and sometimes they mess with me—like screaming at me in Japanese. “Foreigner, how can you be here?! You can’t be real! Get out of Japan!” Crazy af.
I would say that the bottom is falling out of Japanese culture and regular Japanese people have no idea what to do about it other than increase the level of rules and regulations. That won’t work. I can imagine a future dystopian scape where all the poors are corralled into gigantic ghettos on the outskirts...