fbpx
×

Log into your account

We have changed software providers for our subscription database. Old login credentials will no longer work. Please click the "Register" link below to create a new account. If you do not know your new account number you can contact [email protected]
Japanese businessman goes from high finance to homelessness
Tess Rivers
December 02, 2011
7 MIN READ TIME

Japanese businessman goes from high finance to homelessness

Japanese businessman goes from high finance to homelessness
Tess Rivers
December 02, 2011
TOKYO (BP)—Kiyoshi Sugioka entered the busy Tokyo train station in July 2009 with a single purpose in mind — to end his life. Dressed in a business suit and dress shirt, the 53-year-old man looked like any of the hundreds of Japanese businessmen crowding the station.

Sugioka was once part of their world — the world of international business and finance. The pace of his life moved briskly with the same efficiency for which Japanese businesses are renowned. He left home at 7 a.m. and returned home around 11 p.m., 30-minutes after the New York Stock Exchange opened. Sugioka spent most late nights tracking his investments. He rarely slept. Like most Japanese businessmen, he seldom saw his wife and two daughters.

But on that day in July 2009, Sugioka’s life was dramatically different from those surrounding him at the station. He hit rock bottom. In one year, Sugioka lost two jobs, his family, his home, his honor and even his identity. Sugioka was unemployed and homeless.

Millions of dollars are made and lost everyday in the world of international finance. In 2008, Sugioka was a major player. As a manager in a prestigious Japanese investment firm, his team made billions for his company. Along the way, Sugioka amassed a small personal fortune. Then, one day in July 2008, the bubble burst. One of Sugioka’s employees made a risky investment resulting in a huge loss of money.

“I had two options,” Sugioka recalled. “I could hand over my own personal wealth to the company or I could face a court hearing and possible prison time.”

Sugioka opted to pay the company back and instantly fell from the heights of financial prestige to the pits of homelessness. With that single decision, he became a Japanese government statistic, joining an estimated 4,000 people sleeping on the streets of Tokyo. He took up residence in Yoyogi Park in downtown Tokyo.

“I was homeless for two months,” Sugioka recalled, “and I saw a completely different world … I didn’t like it.”

In those two months, Sugioka met a man named Josh Park, an IMB (International Mission Board) missionary with ties to California now serving Tokyo’s homeless population, which consists mostly of men. The two met when Park offered Sugioka a cup of coffee in Yoyogi Park.

12-02-11tokyo3.jpg

Kiyoshi Sugioka, a former investor who lost millions, considered ending his life. A memo with IMB missionary Josh Park’s number on it led to a phone call that saved Sugioka’s life, spiritually and physically. See video.

“It was the winter of 2008,” Sugioka explained. “I had found another job with an I.T. company outside of Tokyo.”

Park also offered Sugioka his cell phone number, but Sugioka said he didn’t need it. His life was coming together. He found work. Still, Park wrote his number on a small slip of paper and Sugioka stuck it in his wallet without much thought.

However, Sugioka’s job with the I.T. company was short-lived.

“In an economic downturn, people are the first to go,” Sugioka explained. “Companies move to protect profits.”

Sugioka lost the job in March 2009 and returned to Tokyo a desperate man. That desperation was fueled in part, Sugioka explained, by the stigma associated with unemployment and homelessness in Japanese society.

“When I lost my job, I not only lost my home and my family, I lost all of my relationships,” Sugioka said. “I was cut off from my [business] contacts.”

With no home, no family, no money and no prospects for work, Sugioka decided to end his life.

“It wasn’t that I wanted to die,” Sugioka recalled. “It was that I didn’t want to live anymore. I wanted to erase my existence.”

Each day in Japan, many Japanese face a decision similar to Sugioka’s. On average, seven people a day successfully end their lives, according to the Japanese government. The most common methods of suicide include hanging, leaping from buildings and jumping in front of a train.

Sugioka went to the train station.

He stood at the edge of the platform, peering at the tracks below him. He looked left and then right for approaching trains. He fidgeted. He adjusted his glasses. He put his hands in his pockets and let out a deep breath. He stepped away from the tracks.

Then, for whatever reason, Sugioka remembered the man he met a year before in Yoyogi Park. He fished the number from his wallet; found a pay phone and called Park.

Sugioka didn’t tell Park that he was contemplating suicide. He only asked if Park could meet him somewhere.

“When I saw him … he was in really bad shape,” Park said. “He look tired, weary and worn out.

“I just listened to him talk,” Park continued. “I remembered that he wasn’t interested in hearing the Gospel … then he said, ‘Tell me about God.’”

After Park shared the plan of salvation, Sugioka prayed to receive Christ. After a few weeks of discipleship, Sugioka was baptized in Tokyo’s Tama River in August 2009.

“He introduced me to God and Christ,” Sugioka recalled. “It was a world I didn’t know. I felt like I was born again.”

Park didn’t learn until later that Sugioka was on the brink of suicide when he called.

“Through this experience … I realize that we are in a serious business,” Park acknowledged. “(We are) dealing with people between life and death.”

Today, Sugioka lives in government-subsidized housing. He participates in one of the small groups started by the Tokyo homeless team in the past two years. They meet throughout the week in parks and restaurants. Typically, approximately 100 homeless people gather each Saturday in Yoyogi Park for worship.

From this experience, Sugioka learned relationships were more important than power, prestige and wealth. He learned the church, rather than the workplace, helped meet his need for community.

Sugioka also recently accepted a position as an accountant with a real estate agency in nearby Yokohama that specializes in custom home construction orders. He found this job through a friend he met at Tokyo Baptist Church. The company is going to help him move from government-subsidized housing into an inexpensive apartment closer to Yokohama.

In his new position, Sugioka will have a small staff. He wants to be a good supervisor and to look for opportunities to share Christ.

“Because others have helped us, we need to make [good] choices …” Sugioka said.

He also doesn’t want to fail. He is quick to point out that it took only one day to fall from the top to the bottom. However, it also took only one prayer to receive God’s grace. Today, Sugioka’s desires are different than they once were. Now, he focuses on finding opportunities to share Christ’s love with those around him — in his personal life and with business relationships.

“The people of Japan are very affluent, but their hearts are in poverty,” Sugioka concluded. “The people of Japan need restructuring of their hearts.”

Southern Baptists’ gifts to the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering and the Cooperative Program help Southern Baptist missionaries around the world share the Gospel. Give to the offering through your local Southern Baptist church or online at imb.org/offering, where there are resources for church leaders to promote the offering. Download related videos at imb.org/entirechurchvideo.

(EDITOR’S NOTE – Tess Rivers is an IMB writer living in Southeast Asia.)

Related stories

Missionaries help Japan’s homeless find hope

‘Yellow shirts’ give Japan’s quake/tsunami survivors hope

Formerly homeless couple seeks next steps in ministry

IMB missionaries train Japanese leaders