Net cafe refugees get helping hand as support center opens in Tokyo

A public center opened in Tokyo on Friday to support so-called Net cafe refugees — people with no fixed address who spend their nights at 24-hour Internet cafes.

The Tokyo Challenge Net will offer financial and other support to such people, mainly for housing and employment. The center is operated by the labor ministry and the Tokyo Metropolitan Government.

The labor ministry will provide information on job openings, while the metro government will offer interest-free loans of up to ¥400,000 for rent and up to ¥200,000 for living costs. Adults who have lived in Tokyo for at least six months are eligible for the loans.

The center is housed in a health promotion plaza in the Kabuki-cho district in Shinjuku Ward, home to many 24-hour Net cafes.

An estimated 2,000 Net cafe refugees live in Tokyo's 23 wards, many of them surviving on day labor and other short-term jobs.

Four people visited the center Friday morning.

A 27-year-old man who has spent his nights at Internet cafes and friends' homes for seven years, asked a center official to lend him some money so he can rent an apartment. "I'm busy every day finding a job on the Internet for tomorrow. (But) I would like to change my life by receiving advise from this center," he said.