© AFP Photo / Richard A. BrooksTwo homeless men eating a meal outside shuttered shops at night in the western Japanese metropolis of Osaka.
One of the recruiters, Seiji Sasa, told Reuters how and where he is looking for potential laborers in the northern Japanese city of Sendai. The headhunter supplies homeless people to contractors in the nuclear disaster zone for a reward of $100 per head.
"This is how labor recruiters like me come in every day," Sasa explained, walking past the destitute sleeping on cardboard in the winter cold, on the lookout for those who have nothing left to lose.
Meanwhile, it is said the complete decontamination of the facility will take three decades and could cost up to 10 trillion yen ($125 billion) - equal to around 2 percent of Japan's gross domestic product or 11 percent of the country's annual budget.
According to the Fukushima plant operator, Tokyo Electric Power Co (Tepco), dismantling the Fukushima Daiichi plant will require at least 12,000 workers just through 2015. The company and its subcontractors are already short of workers, however.
Comment: Those with 'nothing left to lose' are very easily exploited in today's swiftly crumbling society - exploitable and expendable.