2-1 The Community Organization Confrontation Type
The Housing Movement has gone trough much change during the last 25 years. During the 70s, Alinsky's confrontation type of community organization was the leading accepted pattern for the Asian Housing Coalition Movement. The movement consisted in sending trained organizers into the slums, to make slum dwellers reflect on the main issues of their lives and organize them to solve their problems. Then, make them confront the public administration with definite clear targets and open their eyes to the need of much bigger social changes. This movement obtained relocation sites for the people of Tondo (Manila), from the Filipino government as a result of their forced eviction to make place for public economic development of Tondo. In Hong Kong boat people were relocated into public housing, and in Bombay the movement obtained from the Indian government the betterment of the lives of the people living in the Dahravi slums, the largest in the world. But in many countries once the dictatorships in favor of development showed signs of some compromise, this movement specialized in "organizing, confrontation, demands and results", came to be placed on a back burner.

2-2 Movement for Social Integration
During the 80s two new currents of action appeared. The first one aims at social integration.

An important political issue at the time was the social reintegration of the slum dwellers who had been put aside by urban economic growth. Since they were allowed a specific space within the public plans, the people prepared their organizations to receive those official programs, and, using positively the new structures, moves promoting the betterment of their housing facilities could be observed. The task of the ngos supporting them was to see that the poor, as citizens in general who had remained under oppression, could make use of the established financial institutions and could get public recognition as citizens. Ngos strengthened their organizations and directed them to support the people.
Typical cases are the Community Mortgage Program (CMP) legalized in 1988 in the Philippines, and the Urban Community Development Organization (UCDO) founded in 1992 in Thailand for the urban poor. For instance, the CMP target was to link the formal financial sector with the squatters, representatives of the informal sector, so that they could also get access to housing. Many ngos at that time assisted the poor communities.

2.3 Movement for autonomous space and structures
One more current of the Housing movement raised its head during the 80s. The poor organized themselves with systems and structures that fitted them most, within the established social systems.

My next point is to see how valuable would Asian experiences be for the Japanese homeless, especially for "nojiren's" further development. I want to offer three comments.
(1) Following the above patterns, "nojiren" has moved from being a confrontation movement to start to become a self-autonomous movement. From the stand point of self-autonomy, it is most worthy of attention to reflect on how meaningful is the fact that people who were made to believe, all through their daily lives, they were useless, have recovered their confidence. There is no need to force them to adapt against their will, once more, to the established social structures, when it is good for them to build up new systems that are most attractive to them. In that way, they can strive to produce reforms in the whole of society. From such a point of view, there is bigger social impact here than just to continue struggles against the administration. Nevertheless, in present Asian realities no matter how much supporters from outside say that autonomous movements are magnificent, this is difficult to transmit to slum people and to those who were made to believe they can not do anything.

(2) A joint community movement is very important to build a new society. Looking at Asian realities one can find two main factors that weaken community union. One is a feeling of despair, because of lack of visible results, that originates from continuous struggles against the overwhelming power of the administration. Community union gets weak as the homeless in Shibuya experienced last year. The second factor is that, in fighting with the administration some successful results are obtained and as a result, the pressure threatening their daily existence weakens and since their situation becomes somehow lukewarm, community union tends to weaken. In other words, a confrontation-type movement can hardly keep alive community joint efforts. That is why according to Asian experience, the movement for autonomy and self-organization produces a big impact. It can also be very attractive for strengthening community.

(3) The movement that tries to become autonomous tends to be usually criticized by both, the confrontation and the social integration types. This is because those who are in the weakest sectors, not being able to obtain autonomy, will be left aside and this will result in divisions. Such criticism is well founded. What is really needed is solidarity in both types of action, in such a way that the "companions" of the movement aiming at autonomy and getting visible results breakaway, as much as possible, from a selfish attitude and look after those who are left in a much worst situation. If those companions who are already in the right path for autonomy fall in selfish and restricted situations, then the movement they are fostering very often ends in failure.

I would like to end by stressing that one must be aware of some special characteristics of the Japanese situation. I want to mention 4 main differences.

1) Homeless in Japan are usually single men.

2) Except those living in public parks and at the river sides, the rest are not living in fixed places or in sites fit for building up communities.

3) The financial situation is quite different from other Asian squatters. People of Asian slums have never had in their life much money; some among them, continuing saving just 10 or 20 yen, are able to control by themselves their savings and this gives them a strong confidence, so much that by organizing saving groups they can strengthen the community links.

4) The last point is the issue of community awareness in Japanese society. Japan, in the process of high economic growth, deserted in many regions such community awareness. Under such circumstances, efforts to renew community building will not be easy at all.
Nevertheless, if Japanese society could again change into a society where community awareness is alive, this will only be possible by the provocation of the homeless and the poor building their own communities. This is why an autonomous movement that has community as its basis, is not only extremely important for the homeless, but also for promoting deep reforms in the whole Japanese system.