Fraught Narratives, Contrived Futures: Tokyo’s Techno-Utopian Erasure of the Unhoused

Mirai – future – is ubiquitously written into Tokyo’s cityscape. Yet the promises embedded in future-oriented government initiatives like Health Japan 21, Innovation 25, Society 5.0, and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), reveal a growing disconnect between techno-utopian visions and lived realities. Here I explore this tension by examining how advocacy organizations for Tokyo’s unhoused provide a more humane, dignity-oriented future, challenging the consumerist and techno-utopian solutions offered by official initiatives. Through ethnographic fieldwork with Nojiren, Tenohasi, and Sanyukai – groups aiding Tokyo’s unhoused – I contrast grassroots efforts with government-driven narratives that promote an idealized ‘future past’, where nostalgia and promises of technological progress serve as a weakening panacea for social and economic concerns. These top-down efforts, designed to reassure an aging population facing economic uncertainty, often obscure the immediate struggles many face. By highlighting the work of advocacy groups, I argue that smaller-scale, community-driven efforts offer a more inclusive, emancipatory, and compassionate path forward.