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Miyashita park |
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When the Miyashita park was renovated in 2006 to a design by Atelier Bow Wow, funded by the Nike corporation the expulsion of the park’s homeless inhabitants met with considerable resistance from civil society groups. Eventually these people were housed in makeshift shacks in a side-street off the park, which had been used as a parking area for motorcycles.
These dwellings, cobbled together from wood and bamboo and covered with blue tarpaulins are commonly seen throughout Tokyo. The building materials required can be obtained cheaply from most hardware shops. In the absence of any better solution the authorities did not make any great effort to evict their residents. The roughly 25 people living next to the Miyashita Park scrape a living collecting plastic bottles and aluminium drinks cans and casual work when they can get it.