McRefugees

McRefugees feast on 100-yen sleepover sets
Japan's growing income gap means the working poor are not only flipping burgers to make a living, they're also buying them so they've got somewhere to live, turning them into "McRefugees," according to Weekly Playboy (4/30).

Part-time workers and day laborers have found cheap alternatives to renting apartments in the form of Internet cafes, or saunas where they could spend the night for just a few thousand yen.

But with even the casual labor market feeling the pinch despite Japan creating more billionaires at the other end of the scale, an increasing number of working poor are turning to the growing number of fast food restaurants operating 24 hours so they've got somewhere to stay overnight.

These people are being called "McRefugees" after McDonald's, the fast food chain providing many of them with their homes."Huh, Net cafes? Only the rich can afford them. Even with a nighttime pack price, they still cost about 1,000 yen a night. I sleep at McDonald's three or four nights a week," Koba, a self-professed McRefugee tells Weekly Playboy. "More McDonald's restaurants have started operating 24 hours since the spring and there're plenty of others like me who are sleeping there."

Tomo, another McRefugee, explains the appeal of the burger chain compared to other cheap alternatives.

"I sometimes stay overnight at family restaurants, but they have a late night surcharge, right? They do have the lure of an all-you-can-drink bar, but even that still costs more than 500 yen. I only need to spend 100 yen at McDonald's and I can stay the whole night," he says.

Indeed. For Net cafes, time is money. The longer a customer stays, the more they pay. At a fast food restaurant, though, burgers can be bought for as little as 80 yen, and a refillable coffee is just 100 yen. And the buyer can stay as long as they like, at least at McDonald's.

"We don't have any particular rules for customers who stay in the restaurant for a long time even if they've only bought a single item. To be honest, I don't understand what you mean by McRefugee. But McDonald's is a place to dine, so we do rounds of the store and speak to anybody we feel is behaving inappropriately," a spokesman for McDonald's Japan tells Weekly Playboy.

Economist Takuro Morinaga explains the type of person likely to become a McRefugee.

"They're people who probably have a tad more money than those living on the streets, but not enough money to allow them to change their lives. It costs about 400,000 yen to 500,000 yen to rent out an apartment, so people who can't afford to do that become Net Cafe Refugees, Sauna Refugees and, now McRefugees," Morinaga says. "The vast majority of them are not full time staff and are probably only making about 1 million yen a year at most. For these people, 500,000 yen is an enormous sum of money."

Morinaga argues that Japan is likely to see even more McRefugees.

"I think we'll see more of these types of people," the economist tells Weekly Playboy. "With society polarizing the way it is now, I guess they'll be like Europe and the United States where all the same types of people gather together to form hamlets that eventually end up turning into slums." (By Ryann Connell)

April 23, 2007