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is an old place name for a part of Nishinari-ku in
Osaka is a designated city in the Kansai region of Honshu in Japan. It is the capital of and most populous city in Osaka Prefecture, and the third most populous city in Japan, following Special wards of Tokyo and Yokohama. With a population of ...
,
Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the n ...
. became the area's official name in May 1966.


Geography

Sections of four different towns — , , , and — are collectively known as Kamagasaki. Image:Airin-District_Osaka_Japan01.jpg, Triangle Park Image:Airin-District_Osaka_Japan02.jpg, Street vendor Image:Streets of Kamagasaki.jpg, Streets of Kamagasaki


Transportation

* West Japan Railway Company ** Osaka Loop Line: Shin-Imamiya Station * Osaka Municipal Subway ** Midōsuji Line: Dōbutsuen-mae Station ** Sakaisuji Line: Dōbutsuen-mae Station ** Yotsubashi Line: Hanazonochō Station * Nankai Railway **
Nankai Main Line The is one of the two main railway lines of Japanese private railway company Nankai Electric Railway, together with Kōya Line. The route is from Namba Station in south downtown of Osaka to Wakayamashi Station in Wakayama via Sakai, Izumi ...
: Shin-Imamiya Station ** Kōya Line: Shin-Imamiya Station, Haginochaya Station *
Hankai Tramway is a company which owns two tramway lines in the cities of Osaka and Sakai, Osaka, Japan. The parent company is Nankai Electric Railway Co., Ltd. Lines Current *Hankai Line (Ebisucho - Hamadera eki-mae) 14.1 km * Uemachi Line (Tennoji eki ...
** Hankai Line: Minamikasumichō Station, Imaike Station


History

Kamagasaki has been a place name since 1922. An accurate count of occupants has never been produced, even in the national census, due to the large population of day laborers who lack permanent addresses. Daily life in Kamagasaki in the 1950s was photographed by Seiryū Inoue, who won the 1961 Newcomer's Prize awarded by the Japan Photography Critics' Society for "One Hundred Faces of Kamagasaki". It has the largest day laborer concentration in the country. 30,000 people are estimated to live in every 2,000 meter radius in this area, part of which has been in
slum A slum is a highly populated urban residential area consisting of densely packed housing units of weak build quality and often associated with poverty. The infrastructure in slums is often deteriorated or incomplete, and they are primarily ...
-like conditions until as recently as 2012, containing run-down housing structures and untidy streets. The area surrounding Kamagasaki is upscale, clean and attracts tourists with popular sightseeing spots including the Tsutenkaku, Shinsekai, and Nipponbashi. However, in Kamagasaki, homeless people can often be seen sleeping in the streets throughout the day, and hotels (cheap temporary rooms intended for day laborers) abound in the area. These hotels have recently become popular amongst backpackers from outside Japan due to their cheap price and proximity to rail transportation. Non-profit and religious organizations frequently give out food rations, creating long lines of people in public parks. Property values in Kamagasaki are noticeably lower than those of surrounding areas. The city government of Osaka does not allow the name "Kamagasaki" to appear on official maps and discourages the use of the name in the media. A film set in the neighborhood by director which was partially financed by the city, called "Fragile", was pulled from the 2013-2014 Osaka Asian Film Festival after Ota refused to cut scenes from the film that identified the location of the community and referenced certain aspects of its culture.


Notable riots or protests

Several conflicts with the police have occurred in Kamagasaki since 1961 over perceived
human rights Human rights are moral principles or normsJames Nickel, with assistance from Thomas Pogge, M.B.E. Smith, and Leif Wenar, 13 December 2013, Stanford Encyclopedia of PhilosophyHuman Rights Retrieved 14 August 2014 for certain standards of hu ...
violations by authorities. The
mass media Mass media refers to a diverse array of media technologies that reach a large audience via mass communication. The technologies through which this communication takes place include a variety of outlets. Broadcast media transmit informati ...
usually refer to these events using words that can be translated as "riot". The first riot occurred on August 1, 1961, when an elderly day laborer from Kamagasaki was killed in a traffic accident. The official who arrived on the scene assumed that the man was already dead (only doctors are allowed to pronounce a death) and left the body on the street for over 20 minutes without calling an ambulance while he spoke with witnesses. A large group of day laborers surrounded the Nishinari police station in protest of the man's treatment, overturned parked police cars, and set fire to nearby apartment buildings. The Osaka Prefectural Police responded with 6,000 officers, using police sticks and vehicles to round up the rioters. It took two days to stop the 2,000 rioters; 28 were arrested. Approximately 10 rioters and 100 police officers were injured. This riot became a national issue and was taken up in the prefectural legislature and
national legislature This is a list of legislatures by country. A "legislature" is the generic name for the national parliaments and congresses that act as a plenary general assembly of representatives and that have the power to legislate. All entities included in ...
of Japan. Several attempts were made to mend relationships between the groups, but minor riots continued to occur. In May 1966, it was decided that the official name of Kamagasaki would be changed to in an attempt to improve the area's crime-ridden image. The name Kamagasaki is still commonly used amongst inhabitants, while the name Airin-chiku is used by the media and government officials. The 22nd riot occurred in October 1990, 17 years after the last riot in 1973. This riot also involved local day laborers but grew in proportion when youths from outside Kamagasaki joined in. Shin-Imamiya Station and local stores were set on fire during this riot, and it took several days to calm the area. The 23rd riot occurred in October 1992, and a large-scale riot did not occur for over 10 years. This was the last large-scale riot to occur in Japan before the 34th G8 summit. The 24th conflict with the police occurred on June 13, 2008, and it continued six days. It was related to the 34th G8 summit. One day before the G8 Finance Ministers' Meeting started in
Osaka is a designated city in the Kansai region of Honshu in Japan. It is the capital of and most populous city in Osaka Prefecture, and the third most populous city in Japan, following Special wards of Tokyo and Yokohama. With a population of ...
with a very large police presence, a day laborer in Kamagasaki was allegedly
torture Torture is the deliberate infliction of severe pain or suffering on a person for reasons such as punishment, extracting a confession, interrogation for information, or intimidating third parties. Some definitions are restricted to acts ...
d by the police. In protest, many day laborers and other local citizens carried out several days of street protests.Italian report
English report
/ref> Many
mass media Mass media refers to a diverse array of media technologies that reach a large audience via mass communication. The technologies through which this communication takes place include a variety of outlets. Broadcast media transmit informati ...
referred to the protests as a "riot". Image:Kamagasaki Riot20080614 2005.JPG, The 24th Kamagasaki Riot Image:Kamagasaki Riot20080616 2224.JPG, The 24th Kamagasaki Riot


Education

Nursery school: Wakakusa Nursery School, 2-9-2 Haginochaya Primary schools: Haginochaya Primary School, 1-11-15 Haginochaya; Koji Primary School, 2-16-26 Hanazonokita In 1962 Airin School (renamed to Airin Elementary and Junior High School the next year) was founded. (In 1973, it was renamed Osaka City Shin-Imamiya Elementary and Junior High School. It closed in 1984.) The requirements of entering is not having register or resident registration. Junior high school: Imamiya Junior High School, 1-8-32 Hanazonokita Other school: UNION Theology University Extension Study, 3-4-23 Haginochaya


Welfare

The number of people who receive Life Protection is the highest in Japan (176 people per 1,000). The city of Tokyo is 17, Nagoya is 13, Fukuoka is 19, Osaka City is 42. The percentage of people who receive school attendance is 50.4% (whole of Japan is 13.7%, Osaka-fu is 24.7%, Osaka City is 33.8%).''Think about Poverty'' chapter 4. In Nishinari Ward in Osaka City, by Takeshi Ikuta, published by Iwanami Junior Paperbacks


Peace Institutions

* Nishinari Police Station * Nishinari Fire Department * Airin Labor and Welfare Center * Nishinari Labor Hello Work * Hospital Attached to Osaka Social Medical Center * Nishinari Citizen Center * Taishi Hall・Rest House for Old Men


Events

*Kamagasaki May Day May 1 *Kamagasaki Summer Festival August 13–15 *Twilight Concert *Energy Festival *Evening Variety Show *Come Here Festival Image:Kamagasaki_Summer_Festival20080814_1704.JPG, Kamagasaki Summer Festival Image:Kamagasaki Summer Festival20080814 2020.JPG, Kamagasaki Summer Festival Image:TwilightConcert20090910_1758.jpg, Twilight Concert Image:GenkiFestival20060930_143204.jpg, Energy Festival Image:EveningVarietyShow20081003_195021.jpg, Evening Variety Show Image:YottekiFestival20081012 151556.jpg, Come Here Festival


See also

* Tobita Shinchi * Shinsekai * Nishinari-ku, Osaka, one of 24 wards of Osaka * Seiryū Inoue, photographer of Kamagasaki in 1950s-1960s


References


External links


Mother's Day
Story about a walk through Kamagasaki/Shinsekai by Don MacLaren, published September, 2009 in the literary magazine ''Danse Macabre'' {{Coord, 34.648, 135.502, display=title, format=dms Geography of Osaka Articles containing video clips Slums in Japan