disClosure: A Journal of Social Theory disClosure: A Journal of Social Theory

Volume 11 metropolis Article 3

4-15-2002

Airin-Cho Airin-Cho

Frank Miller

DOI: https://doi.org/10.13023/disclosure.11.03

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Recommended Citation Recommended Citation Miller, Frank (2002) "Airin-Cho," disClosure: A Journal of Social Theory: Vol. 11 , Article 3. DOI: https://doi.org/10.13023/disclosure.11.03 Available at: https://uknowledge.uky.edu/disclosure/vol11/iss1/3

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Frank Miller

Airin-Cho

11 Airin-Cho" translates roughly as "The _Dis­trict of Neighborly Love." The name, gi:en to a neighborhood in southern Osaka, ~s. a grim joke to the people who live there. A1nn is a desperately poor and almost completel.y ignored shadow in Japan's econo~c miracle, not even listed on maps of the city. Most of the people there are homeless, tran­sient men who have slipped through the cracks in Japan's rigid society .. Unable to en­ter Japan's mainstream, they hve off of gov­ernment handouts or day wo~k ~t construction sites. Chronic alcoholism .1s common, and with it violence and de~pa~. Police do not enter the area for fear of incit­ing riots, instead monitoring it through video cameras on tall poles. Yet as sever~ as the conditions there are, there is ofte.n a ~1~d of anarchic buoyancy to the pe~ple m A1nn. Forgotten and exiled within their own co~n­try, they look out for each other, kno.w1ng that the only help that will come will be from themselves.

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Miller

It was bitter cold when I met Pi-chan, and people were congregating arou~d c~~pfires. i:e turned out to be one of the most gentle people I met m Aum. Effemma~e and speaking in coquettish kind of singsong, he was also one of the first openly gay men I met in Japan. There is little room in Japanese society for homosexuals, and side effects of chronic al~e~ation- such as drugs, alcohol, and crime - bring many of them to Ainn. After I had talked with him for a while, he left with a well­dressed man that had been watching him at the fire. Someone later ex­plain_ed to me that homosexual men occasionally came down to Airin for pick-ups that wouldn't jeopardize their surface lives.

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Airin-Cho

Despite the conditions and overall hopelessn~ss ~f . living. in Airin, many of the men there put a lot of care into ma1nt~1mng ~heir appear­ances. Little things like personal grooming or keeping their tempo~ary homes tidy take on a tremendous importance. In the world outs1d.e, they are nuisances that most people would rather for~et abou.t. B.ut m Airin these mundane rituals are vital to psychic survival- bnngmg a sense of control inside chaos and hope at the edge of despair.

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Miller

Much more ~o t~an the United St~tes, Japanese society is geared to­wardy~otectin~ its old. It has the highest longevity rate among the in­d~striahzed nations and a tradition of children caring for their parents. Still, some people fall through cracks in this system. This is especially true for men who have, through divorce or dea th, lost their ties to their families. Thus, in Airin, it is common to see men in their seven ties or eighties, alone and trying to compete with men fifty years younger. "Because I have nowhere else to go" was the answer I usually got when I asked why they were there.

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Airin-Cho

There are photographs of women everywhere in ~i~in: ~n a~vertise­ments for anyth ing from cigarettes to stomach med1cme, m d1s~arded pornography staring blankly from trash piles, in posters th~ police put up to discourage drug use ... But one rarely sees women m the area. Thus, women no longer seem a part of the real world for many of the men in Airin, only beautiful specters that inhabit memories or d~eams. For some, women become objects of reverence, and they hang pictures of teen idols or geishas on the chain-link fences arou1:d the parks. For others, a misogyny that is already part of Japanese society b~comes am­plified, and they take out their rage on the images that remind them of what they can't have.

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Miller

Many of the younger men I met talk d b . rebuilding their lives. Some would e de:c~~t getting. out of Airin and plans, wealth, and families. But the hopes oft~ gr~;d1ose dr.ea':1s and much beyond the next day Some e o er men didn t to go were just being realistic Havin were content where they were, others was difficult to imagine. beco ? spent ten or twenty years in Airin, it ever worlds they had left o ~ng a part of mains tream Japan. What­thern. ' r een cast out of, had gone on without

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Airin-Cho

Many of the men l met in Airin were not the stereotypical drunks or vagabonds. This man was very articulate and clearly educated. Though he was vague about why he was in Airin, something had happened in his life that had just made life in the mainstream seen1 pointless. This was not as uncommon as one might think, and I met many people with good minds going to waste in a place where they were lost and forgot­ten with the rest of Airin.

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