A “white paper” recently released by the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry reported that, according to a survey of Hello Work outlets (i.e., government-run employment offices), since last October approximately 229,000 non-regular workers lost their jobs. The ministry looked at about 125,000 of these cases more closely and found that 3,400 of them also lost their housing as a direct result of their sudden unemployment, which probably indicates that these unfortunate people were kicked out of their residences because those residences was provided by their employers. The report went on to say that these people did not have any money saved, thus further indicating that they are most likely homeless at the moment, unless they had family or friends who will put them up. The longer-term problem of no savings is that without the money for the deposits and key money required to move into a rental property, these people are stuck in a Catch-22 situation. They can’t ask for welfare or apply for unemployment insurance without an address, and they can’t get an address without a job.