Home to high-rise buildings, microchips, humanistic robots, and cell phone technology a generation and a half ahead of America, Japan has the highest average wealth of all countries, at $181,000 per capita. Yet surprisingly, hidden behind the image of million-dollar bridges and glamorous skyscrapers, are over 25,000 Japanese, like Mr. Higuchi, who are homeless. During the booming economic period of the 1980s, Japan's homeless population was less than 1,000. Today, after a decade of recession, government statistics report that the homeless population has more than doubled in the last seven years.

The majority of the Japanese homeless live in big cities, as most are laid-off rural workers who migrated to the city in hopes of finding employment. Osaka, the second biggest city in Japan, houses the largest homeless population of 8,000, according to official governmental statistics. Approximately 7,000 live in Tokyo, although some experts estimate that this number may be as high as 10,000. These numbers describe a homeless demographic very different from that of the Western world -- unlike the homeless in the United States, which include both males and females, individuals and families, children and elderly, the homeless in Japan are almost all single males between the age of 50 and 60. The average age of a homeless individual in the U.S. is 35. Most have been previously employed, a significant number have high school degrees, and very few have substance abuse problems.