Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama on Friday visited a temporary shelter for people who have lost their jobs and homes and said he felt he could share the frustration spreading among the unemployed and needy.
"I felt that they are frustrated in that they are not getting the information they really want," Hatoyama told reporters after visiting the facility set up in Tokyo's Shibuya Ward to provide meals and accommodation during the year-end and New Year holidays.
Hatoyama referred to local authorities' generally slow responses to applications for a health ministry program aimed at providing living expenses for unemployed workers undergoing job training.
"Apparently, they have been told by local bureaucrats that they will have to wait until May or June, but it is extremely cruel to keep people who are in need waiting half a year," he said.
Deputy Prime Minister Naoto Kan, Health, Labor and Welfare Minister Akira Nagatsuma, and Social Democratic Party leader Mizuho Fukushima accompanied Hatoyama on the visit to the shelter at the National Olympics Memorial Youth Center, which will remain open until Monday morning.
The Tokyo metropolitan government set up the shelter a year after a tent village for similar purposes was built by antipoverty campaigners in Hibiya Park in central Tokyo, drawing criticism against inaction by the authorities. About 800 people were staying there on New Year's Day.
While concerns are growing among them over their post-shelter lives, Nagatsuma announced over the PA system that the government is preparing replacement facilities that can be used after the New Year holidays.
