Heres a trailer for a some kind of doc about homeless people in Osaka, its intresting (probably) there are some more videos about it on the "youtube".

Problems relatively widespread, so I hear?

It'd be very easy to get all sociological about the cultural differences and the nature of homeless in different cultural contexts:

The level of community organisation of homeless peoeple in Japan in comparison to other countries, (while i don't want to draw too many generalisations) is pretty intresting, theres more of a community ethic (of the homelessness that is visible). The problem does on the surface appear more endemic than it is in Western Europe say,

Those cultures that develop outside of normal society is something that tends to be explored, There don't seem to be too many links for exchange, it could be the nature of the problem, that there isnt that much cultural communication. Alot of these groups (that are based on public land) seem to be relatively stable communities. Could be intresting to see how those (dont want to use the word settlement) develop and asert themselves more, maybe play a more active role in their communities?