Day laborers are the pariahs of the japanese society.

Kamagasaki in Osaka is their ghetto, a place where the majority of residents are burn-out single men 60 years old or more.

Many of them are part-time or full-time homeless as getting a job is more and more difficult in the construction sector.

The little money they get disappears in food and lodging, and often alcohol, maybe the only way to forget their harsh lives.

Once a year their labor union organizes a protest march to remind the Osaka government that they still exist.
They get out of their ghetto and camp during 5 days in front of the prefecture demanding better living conditions.

Nobody takes notice of this army of tired old men, they are boycotted by the press, everybody wants to forget about them.

But they are continuing their lonely fight, struggling with their last energy.

Osaka 1996