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Known as 'the place where people go when they don't want to be found', Kamagasaki is filled with "Jouhatsu-sha" ("evaporated people"), who left behind their previous lives in other parts of Japan, cutting themselves from everyone they knew to escape from their responsibilities, restart their lives, or to find a job.

Kamagasaki is filled with 'day laborers'; people who look for a job daily, hoping they can be lucky enough to be hired for the day and earn enough money to rent a room in one of Kamagasaki's cheap hotels instead of lining up for the soup kitchen or sleep in the streets.

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Made up of mostly grown and elderly men (as women and children were barely seen), the citizens of Kamagasaki are very private - in fact, because privacy is valued in Japan, it's very easy for them to do so (as they can withdraw from ATMs anonymously), some people even choosing to change their names. Because police only intervene if a missing person is on the run, the best thing loved ones can do is to hire a (pricy) private investigator or wait in hopes for their friend/family member to return home.

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Because of stricter building regulations and the rise in prices of materials, there are fewer job opportunities for those looking to be hired in a construction site, making life harder for day labourers in Kamagasaki.

There are also many diseases in Kamagasaki. Tuberculosis is extremely common, as well as poverty-related diseases like Hepatitis C, high blood pressure, alcoholism, depression, and (though not as common) drug addiction.

However, despite these trying times, the citizens of Kamagasaki still try to be grateful for the little things and look out for each other, in hopes for a better future

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To me, Kamagasaki is especially interesting because officials deny its existence - it's not found on any official maps!

One example of this happened in 2014, when a film set in Kamagasaki (named Fragile) was removed from Osaka Asian Film Festival. The film was about a TV assistant director who left for Kamagasaki to make a film about a teenage boy after a conflict with his girlfriend, and it included many mature themes (drugs, poverty, and other things seen in Kamagasaki).

The director (Shingo Ota) accused them of censorship, saying; "to me, what they were asking was a cover-up attempt to make this place non-existent."

However, according to Kazumitsu Oue, "we felt that the film lacked consideration to the area and its people."

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In a place with a past of lawlessness, the police and the citizens of Kamagasaki do not have a good relationship.

One example of this was in June 2008, Kamagasaki plunged into chaos as accusations of police brutality against a citizen surfaced - the first significant conflict since the clash between the police and the yakuza - Japan's Mafia - in October 1992. There had been previous conflicts as well, going as far back as 1961.

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If you liked this blog, you might want to watch the new episode of the A24's docuseries titled The Forgotten People of Kamagasaki!