About 200 jobless people left a temporary shelter in Tokyo on Monday, marking the end of a metropolitan government project to provide meals, accommodations and job counseling during the holiday period.
Under the project, some 830 people stayed at the National Olympics Memorial Youth Center in Shibuya Ward, which opened as a shelter Dec. 28, and 562 people moved to a dormitory for the poor in Ota Ward on Jan. 5 after they failed to find alternative accommodations or jobs.
Of the 562 people, 419 have applied for welfare, 28 left the dormitory and 111 jumped ship, the metropolitan government said.
It set up the shelter to avoid the situation the previous year when about 500 people without jobs and homes flocked to a tent village built by antipoverty campaigners in Hibiya Park.
The action by the campaigners shed light on the problem of dispatch workers housed in company dormitories losing their accommodations when their employment contracts are terminated, a phenomenon that intensified during the financial crisis that started in fall 2008.
It also raised public concerns over the government's lack of preparation to deal with the problem.
The Tokyo jobless shelter had problems, however.
Some of the people bolted after receiving monetary assistance, including 46 who left after they were given ¥20,000.
