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They took over what used to be the work of the mafia - recruiting desperate job seekers for construction and other menial work. The authorities are finally taking action. They suspended leading temp staff agency Goodwill Inc in mid-January following a spate of illegal job placements. Japan's unemployment rate fell to a decade low of 3.9 per cent last year as the economy posted record expansion. But union activists say many new jobs are low-earning, unstable and dangerous, with firms preying on vulnerable young workers. M.crew, where Mr Sekine had worked, was a new type of firm. It converted 19 office buildings into dormitories called Rest Boxes, where workers stayed in bunk beds as they waited to be called up for day jobs, mainly in construction. Company president Osamu Maebashi, who used to be homeless, was once hailed as a rookie entrepreneur supporting the unemployed and homeless. But M.crew has since been accused of exploiting workers without job security and, inch by inch, helping to create a new urban underclass. Mr Maebashi and the firm declined interview requests. After its meteoric rise from the ashes of World War II, Japan prided itself on being a 100-per- cent middle-class nation. But the nation was shocked last year when the Health Ministry estimated that some 5,400 people, many of them young and working for temp firms, had virtually moved into all-night Internet and 'manga' comic cafes. The overnight cafes, omnipresent in the cities, offer sofas, computers, soft drinks and comics to stressed businessmen or commuters who missed their trains home. Despite government pledges to address the problem, Japan is slashing social benefits to single-mother and elderly households and is considering reducing welfare payments as it tries to contain a giant public debt. In one case last year, a man whose welfare benefits were cut off was found dead in southern Japan, apparently from starvation. His diary said he dreamed of eating a simple rice ball. The problem is particularly acute among young people seeking a professional foothold in a new Japan without the job security of their parents' generation. Mr Masataka Togashi, 29, graduated from high school in Hokkaido and then took odd jobs like delivering newspapers. None of the jobs provided security. A business woman tried to recruit him, offering what seemed to be an attractive job. After he was asked to fabricate a document, he discovered it was a scheme for him to take out loans on behalf of her firm. 'I got sick of everything in life, thinking that that was the only offer I was worth after being an unstable worker for so long,' he said. With no support from family, he asked for help from the Moyai charity, which supports poor people looking for a way out. He went to Tokyo and settled at a homeless shelter, eventually going to work for the charity. The government says there are some 18,500 homeless people living on the streets across the country. But Mr Makoto Yuasa, director of Moyai, said that far more people were on society's fringes. 'Only by understanding how all of these people live can we face up to the reality of poverty in this country,' he said. AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
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