Japan's homeless demand help

There are thought to be 24,000 homeless in Japan.

By Charles Scanlon BBC Tokyo correspondent

Homeless people have demonstrated outside the Japanese parliament demanding laws to provide relief.

Japan's social safety net was based on the company - and unemployment is a new phenomenon

About 250 people took part in the protest, some of them coming all the way from the big industrial cities of western Japan, though the majority were from Tokyo.

They want government support to find jobs and homes. A bill is before parliament but they are worried it will be squeezed out by a crush of other legislation.

The protest outside parliament was noisy but orderly.

A polite underclass

Japan's growing numbers of homeless people are normally unobtrusive and mild mannered. They build neat cardboard homes beside rivers and in parks and railway stations - begging is virtually unknown.

The homeless often live in neat and clean boxes or tents

Many were day labourers on construction sites and the hard economic times mean there is no longer any work.

Increasingly former office workers are also finding themselves on the streets.

Japan's social safety net was based on the company - and unemployment is a new phenomenon.

The government is struggling to cope. Some big cities do provide basic care, but politicians agree that legislation is needed.

They are working on laws to help homeless people find accommodation and jobs and to provide them with medical care.