Day laborers and recruiters in the Airin district of Osaka, Japan, are facing increasingly tough times as that nation's stagnant economy leads to fewer jobs, and an aging workforce provides fewer workers that can handle the more physical work that does become available. Founded amid the 1960s construction boom, Airin is now the scene of increasing homelessness, poverty, and incidence of diseases such as tuberculosis and alcoholism.
See "A leftover city of day laborers in Japan faces grim future", Norimitsu Onishi, International Herald Tribune, October 12, 2008