Working as a construction site security guard, 26-year-old Fumiya doesn’t make enough money to afford a real apartment. So he’s turned his temporary living space, an Internet cyber-cafe, into a more ongoing one.
His story, along with fellow ‘net cafe “refugee” Tadayuki Sakai’s, are shared in Net Cafe Refugees, the second in a three-part documentary series by Shiho Fukada titled Japan’s Disposal Workers:
Internet cafes have existed in Japan for over a decade, but in the mid 2000’s, customers began using these spaces as living quarters. Internet cafe refugees are mostly temporary employees; their salary too low to rent their own apartments.
Give it a watch: