
Legless Japanese businessmen: the photographer who caught a Tokyo epidemic - kernelv
https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2018/oct/12/legless-japanese-businessmen-the-photographer-who-shoots-street-sleepers-pawel-jaszczuk-high-fashion
======
ekianjo
> When the train has gone and a hotel is too expensive pavements and benches
> are the only option.

of course not. In japan you have tons of options to spend a night in town for
a few bucks. Go in a Karaoke at night, or an internet cafe (even some are
"boxed" so that you have decent privacy to doze off)... it's far from being
difficult. That is also why internet cafes have showers available...

> . But in the deferential, work-hard/play-hard, corporate culture of Japan,
> getting drunk and ending up stranded without a bed seems to happen all the
> time.

No. It's just statistics. When you are in a city with millions of people
transiting, you are bound to see a lot more of people who are dead drunk on
your journey because a lot more people pass by everyday.

The photographer has no clue about why this is happening. These folks who fall
asleep anywhere don't think about "getting to a hotel", they are planning to
go back home but are so drunk that they fall on the ground at some point.
Making it into any other kind of societal critique is just stupid.

~~~
emiliobumachar
Your theory should apply to any huge city where drinking is not taboo.

I've visited a few huge cities in North and South America dozens of times over
my lifetime. I do not remember _ever_ seeing people in non-ragged suits
sleeping rough. Is anyone else's experience different?

If this is specific to Japan, that's worth pointing out, even if the
explanation is speculative and may well be wrong.

Any other theories?

~~~
ekianjo
> If this is specific to Japan

There are several additional factors:

\- social drinking after work is "the norm" in Japan. Not every day, but
several times a week is not uncommon. In large companies it is excepted that
you would join such events, since it's pretty much a way to talk about work
(and other things) in an informal context.

\- alcohol is produced locally and there a very large industry pushing for
consumption (and it is advertised everywhere).

\- like in many Asian populations, there is a deficiency of the alcohol
dehydrogenase enzyme among Japanese, so a majority of people can't break down
alcohol very efficiently and could get drink after just 2 beers. I have seen
that happening over and over again - it's just genetics at play.

[https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1762903/](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1762903/)

> Electrophoretic and quantitative studies reveal that 85% of Japanese carry
> an atypical liver alcohol dehydrogenase (ADH). The frequency of ADH
> polymorphism is identical with the reported frequency of alcohol sensitivity
> in the Japanese population. This identity in population frequencies points
> to a causative relationship between the two phenomena and suggests that
> alcohol sensitivity might be due to the increased acetaldehyde formation in
> individuals carrying the atypical ADH gene.

~~~
Freak_NL
Drinking with ethnic Japanese as a white or black person really does make you
feel as if your tolerance for alcohol is doubled; in reality you just drink
less and in smaller portions. A common way of drinking together in Japan is
ordering a large pitcher of beer and sharing it with small glasses.

Culturally drinking still is expected behaviour in Japan. When you can't drink
for a while because of medication or whatever reason, you will find yourself
explaining and excusing yourself all the time; in part because of the Japanese
cultural habit of filling eachother's glasses instead of your own — preferably
in order of seniority.

~~~
ekianjo
Oh and let's not forget the availability of 飲み放題 (drink as much as you want)
plans in many restaurants at night. It's cheaper than usually ordering 3
drinks and leads to a higher consumption of alcohol at the end of the day...

------
moioci
Just commenting to point out the use of "legless" to mean extremely drunk. I
found this in an online dictionary, but it's new to me. Maybe it's a regional
thing.

~~~
leejo
British colloquial. See also: pissed, rat-arsed, smashed, hammered, wrecked,
and possibly others.

~~~
KineticLensman
> possibly others

Brit here. Off the top of my head: 'bladdered', 'blotto', 'hammered', 'pie-
eyed', 'pissed as a newt', 'ratted', 'sloshed', 'squiffy', 'sozzled',
'trollied', 'wasted', 'wellied'

These typically result from a night 'on the lash' or 'on the piss',

------
kasperni
Imagined the shitstorm if someone went around taking picture of collage-aged
girls passed out on the pavement, and published them it in a book.....

Yes, they have passed out in public. But I still think people have some right
to privacy.

~~~
justtopost
I am all for privacy, but public is public. Are you suggesting women somehow
deserve more dignity than men? Or just that our public perception is skewed?

I find your post confusing. While an appeal to privacy for the homeless makes
sense, these men have (hypothetically) a choice to go home, or elsewhere, even
if inconvient. I realize the article is hinting that the choice is not as
voluntary as they would perfer, but that is a very different set of value
judgements.

~~~
stef25
The Guardian gleefully posts anything poking fun or criticism at men but doing
the same to women is totally off limits. OP is totally right in that sense.

Even above the fold of their homepage they usually have one or two pieces
about social justice. Then there's a steady stream of columnists that publish
a daily stream of outrage pieces.

It's almost not a newspaper anymore but more of an activist-paper.

------
becauseiam
The Instagram account @shibuyameltdown has been covering people in Tokyo being
passed out in public areas for a while now.

~~~
sbarre
This account seems to capture the less sanitized version of this phenomenon
(i.e. most people get sick somewhere along the way).

------
stef25
The famous capsule hotels are made specifically for people who missed their
last train home. Tiny spaces but comfy, cheap and clean. You even get a pair
of PJs, toothbrush and soap. It's a great system.

The photographer and / or Guardian author can't seem to make the distinction
between workers who got so smashed they pass out on the street, and workers
who just missed their train. The latter certainly aren't going to collapse on
the side walk in a "fashion-magazine look"

~~~
cjhopman
Right. They definitely didn't understand that these passed out people were
drunk. They probably just got lucky including "Legless" in the title. From
Collins dictionary "If you say that someone is legless, you mean that they are
extremely drunk." And only in a couple places do they even mention how much
these businessmen drink and how drunk they must be.

------
mseidl
That's one thing I thought was a little disappointing when I was in Tokyo. The
trains stop at midnight on the weekends, when I would miss it I'd have to stay
out till they started up again.

In Germany, at least in bigger cities, they have on weekends and holidays that
public transit goes all night.

~~~
jchb
I think the mentality is: if you can afford to party, then you can also afford
to arrange your own transport (eg. taxi) home. Public transport running at
night time will be inevidently be subsidized by either day-time riders or tax
payers, due to the much lower density of riders.

Then, why encourage people to stay out late...

In northern Europe you often hear the safety argument for affordable night-
time public transport - “without that people may catch a unlicensed cab or try
to walk home and get robbed, or worse”. But in Tokyo you the risk of something
happening to you even if you pass out on the sidewalk is very very low.

------
TorKlingberg
The straight forward reasons:

* Japan is pretty safe. While it's not a good idea to sleep rough, you won't end up dead.

* The climate is rather mild. Unless it's mid-winter or a during a typhoon, the weather won't kill you either. * The culture of drinking after work.

* Lower alcohol tolerance, so it's easier to accidentally drink too much.

* That the Tokyo metro doesn't run at night, and many people live far from work.

Perhaps more interesting:

* A lot of people in Japan wear a business suit daily, but make very little money. Most people wear a suite to work unless it requires a uniform. Even then they might go to work in a suit and change.

* In general Japanese society is not class-aware. There are big economic differences, but you cannot immediately tell what somebody’s social class is.

* There isn't much of an underclass to provide cheap hotels and taxis.

------
volkisch
Another article by a tactless westerner that doesn't want to understand the
country he's visiting.

------
M_Bakhtiari
> Jaszczuk’s current project also critiques capitalist exploitation.

Isn't Jaszczuk himself rather guilty of capitalist exploitation? That is, the
exploitation of passed-out capitalists?

