Japan Press Weekly

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2014 July 30 - August 12 [WELFARE]

Residents in public housing refuse eviction due to new stadium for Tokyo Olympics

The majority of residents of a public housing complex oppose the metropolitan government’s plan to demolish the complex to construct a massive athletic stadium in preparation for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

Ibaraki University Associate Professor Inaba Nanako conducted a questionnaire survey with the residents at the Kasumigaoka housing complex in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward in June and July.

According to the survey results, 78% of the respondents said they want to keep living in the current place, while 20% said they are ready to move out.

Only 5% have found a new residence, 71% are still looking for place to move, and 22% said they have no intention to leave.

Of all respondents, 66% are 70-year-old and older, and 66% are single-person households.

One resident wrote, “I want to live the rest of my life here,” another answered, “I am living by myself and I am too old to move.”

Mukai Koichiro, lecturer at Wako University, assisting with the survey project, said, “For older people living alone, the stress associated with an eviction order can shorten their lives, harm their health, and destroy their livelihoods.”

Past related article
> Tokyo JCP calls for plan to demolish national stadium be cancelled [May 23, 2014]