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Public Blue , Kansai Kouen (Japanese squatters)
Information
"Kansai Kouen" is a documentary and ongoing project dedicated to inform and connect concerned people with the struggle of the No-juku-sha (park squatters and/or rough sleepers) for living in human dignity in Osaka and all over Japan. We believe that Kansai Kouen can help people approach this issue as well as provide the chance to connect and show solidarity with the No-juku-sha, their proud and interesting way of life, actions and resistance. We hope that "Kansai Kouen" can serve as an instrument for articulation and reflection on the inside and outside of public space, day labor, precarity and the struggle of the No-juku-sha.
Everywhere in parks and on the river banks of Osaka rivers, one sees blue tents or barracks covered with blue plastic tarps, at times scattered throughout park areas, sometimes lined up in rows, or united to form small communities. The term homelessness only insufficiently describes the situation of these 「nojyukusha」, the campers in the rough. These squatters are the daily inhabitants of public space. But just as Japanese society has traditionally little known nor appreciated public space as a public forum, likewise are squatters and homeless people, who live in these spaces, disrespected.
The video essay Public Blue was produced in collaboration with Nojyukusha and supporters in Osaka. Public Blue follows their political action and sketches impressions of the Japanese understanding of the public and the political. Used now as a tool during the struggle against evictions of tents in Osaka, the documentary also becomes a vehicle of articulation for those who are living on the outside of Japanese society.
www.kansaikouen.org
Release Notes
Public Blue is a project devoted to re-thinking the problematics of public space in Japan, and its impact on squatter communities there.
This release is distributed free and we encourage those who take an interest in it to organize showings or solidarity protests. Keep in touch at www.kansaikouen.org
Video Codec: XviD ISO MPEG-4
Video Bitrate: 1256 kbps
Video Resolution: 640x480
Video Aspect Ratio: 1.333:1
Frames Per Second: 29.970
Audio Codec: 0x0055 MPEG-1 Layer 3
Audio Bitrate: 124kb/s VBR 48000 Hz
Audio Streams: 2
Audio Languages: English, Japanese
RunTime Per Part: 1:10:01
Number Of Parts: 1
Part Size: 731,837,660 Bytes
Subtitles: English, Japanese
Ripped by: Hex (Osaka)
Sample:
http://www.zshare.net/video/120095580184a7f3/
| 1884db7b1ba99bd39dd645440e5a72ba19ab3949 |
Tracker | http://onebigtorrent.org |
Category | Documentary |
Uploaded by | |
Uploaded on | May 18, 2008 |
Number of files | 1 |
Last Seeder | 11d , 10h 45m 21s ago |
| 5583 |
| 1108 |
| 204 |
9 Comments
127,433,494 is the current population of Japan, with 25,000 homeless. While no amount of people living on the street is acceptable, this is an absurd documentary. I watched 10 minutes of it, and thought to myself, These people have it better than Americans, with are population at 301,139,947, and 3.5 million people of The United States homeless on any given day. Removing 6 people from a park? The Japanese have better social programs and facilities to help there people compared to the United States. I mean the guy had a Kenwood stereo for the love of god in his Tent. Please don't post videos that make me wanna laugh!
May 20 2008, 02:01 CEST
You miss the point. Speaking as one of the people who helped make this film, our perspective is not that of the government or the UN which try to manage suffering or make comparisons to other countries. Our ambition is to be in solidarity with the existing struggle of these squatters, who like any other in the world occupy a space in order to make a better living for themselves. In this case, they avoid paying the exploitative worker hotel rents that are charged to day laborers and other precarious workers in the industrial working class areas of Japan. The workers of Kamagasaki, the largest day laborer slum in the country, revolted against these conditions for over 30 years and constituted one of the most militant sections of the larger Japanese working class. You would know that if you watched the film. You would also know that closer to 20 people were thrown out of both parks. What is not in the film is that these evictions set the stage for a wave of evictions all over Osaka which have the aim of ensuring people have no other mode of living besides paying rent to housing capitalists.
But what's 20 people to you? You seem to have a very sturdy barometer of suffering. It's probably put to better use elsewhere.
But what's 20 people to you? You seem to have a very sturdy barometer of suffering. It's probably put to better use elsewhere.
May 20 2008, 04:12 CEST
I didn't need to watch the whole movie, I'm a retired 100% disabled American Veteran, who was stationed in Japan. Suffering, is something you know nothing about. My Barometer tells me that the people involved in your project need to spend about 10 minutes in Zimbabwe, Darfur, and etc. Your project makes you look very foolish, in the big picture of things. I'd give anything to have you on the ground in Peshawar for 5 minutes. You wouldn't last 3. I ask you what's 4,000 or so U.S. Soldiers to you? Report on something with substance and bite!
May 20 2008, 17:35 CEST
The problem is that we do not position ourselves in the 'big picture of things', we made a documentary about what was happening around us and connected current events to history. We were by no means looking for the most extreme example of suffering in the world, and we don't make claims to that effect at all. The film is about how public space tends to be appropriated as private property in Japan, and how there is a connection there to state strategies against a strong working class movement. If you don't feel a connection to that, I'm sorry. I'm sure you can find more compelling sob stories on the CBS news.
May 21 2008, 10:11 CEST
Mr. Sakamoto, you keep on making your documentaries and fighting the good fight. And I'll keep on making you upset with my responses. Can't wait to see the next tent city drama unfold in let's say, Switzerland, or how bout Luxembourg.
May 21 2008, 14:18 CEST
What's with the critique and whining?
How much did you pay for it?
Sheesh...
download it, delete it, shutup or, or what?
How much did you pay for it?
Sheesh...
download it, delete it, shutup or, or what?
May 21 2008, 20:47 CEST
I thought I'd liven the place up with a little critical thinking on certain subjects. While I disagree with adversity on the current topic, I do however respect that he or she decided to respond to my view of the film, rather it be positive or negative. We agree to disagree, and theres a few punch shots here and there, but it's about communicating. So Steve, when you give up Scientology and aspiring to be like Tom, I can see that donating to One Big Torrent is on the back burner for now, while you trying to reach that next level, in your quest to finding Xenu, it' o.k. buddy, I forgive you, we all make mistakes!
May 22 2008, 00:35 CEST
I don't know about worker hostels, but ordinary rentals in Japan are not exploitative. In cheap parts of Osaka you can get a rundown place for under 25000 a month. Get three of them community building noujukusha in there and a few nights on the cans will pay for it. As would one day's day labour I suppose. They'll be enclosed and face inward and all those other nasty things Japanese architecture does according the film, at least they won't be ruining everyone else's enjoyment of the park, of which there are very few of any note in Osaka. The amazing thing about those blue tarps is that they make the urban environment of Osaka even more depressing than it is already. That's before you stick a brazier next to one and (almost certainly illegally) burn a load of gomi in it.
The film doesn't mention it, and conversely suggests there is some kind of conscious movement, but I would imagine that a good number of Japan's homeless have mental issues, whether it be an actual illness, or autism, or maybe an LD. They end up on the streets and stay on the streets because they are not able to cope when some support mechanism fails. Whenever western countries make cutbacks in social services for the mentally ill, lots of them end up in the streets or in prison for minor crimes. Carrying a knife etc. Its a classic pattern. Again, its not necessarily the actual availability of work or housing. Its about whether some of the less fortunate of us get the help that's needed.
Ironically enough, if you go to big park in Japan and just try to sell hamburgers or ice creams from a van, they'll kick you out in no time. There is zero tolerance for that.
The film doesn't mention it, and conversely suggests there is some kind of conscious movement, but I would imagine that a good number of Japan's homeless have mental issues, whether it be an actual illness, or autism, or maybe an LD. They end up on the streets and stay on the streets because they are not able to cope when some support mechanism fails. Whenever western countries make cutbacks in social services for the mentally ill, lots of them end up in the streets or in prison for minor crimes. Carrying a knife etc. Its a classic pattern. Again, its not necessarily the actual availability of work or housing. Its about whether some of the less fortunate of us get the help that's needed.
Ironically enough, if you go to big park in Japan and just try to sell hamburgers or ice creams from a van, they'll kick you out in no time. There is zero tolerance for that.
May 25 2008, 17:02 CEST
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