Occupation photographer Donald Richie comments: In the plaze above the Ueno Subway Station, "there are many more [homeless], sitting on benches and embankments--all of them waiting. Waiting, it seemed, for this too to pass so that they can get on with their lives."

From: Richie, Donald. The Japan Journals, 1947—2004. Ed. Leza Lowitz. Berkeley: Stone Bridge Press; 10-11.