Homeless Chugakusei

The cover of novel Hiroshi Tamura "The Homeless Junior High School Student."

Comedian’s autobiography on homeless childhood becomes record bestseller
Comedian Hiroshi Tamura’s autobiographical novel “The Homeless Junior High School Student” (Wani Books) has in the only two months that have passed since its Sept. 3 release sold more than 1 million copies, the Sports Daily reported Monday.

Now 28-year-old Tamura, member of the comedy duo Kirin, saw his family break up while he was still in junior high school, forcing Tamura to in periods spend his nights in public parks. The autobiography tells frankly about hardships Tamura went through, such as having to eat cardboard to survive, according to the Sports Daily.

His autobiographical novel, “The Homeless Junior High School Student,” has become the fastest selling non-fictional book in Japan on record, and the publisher is currently looking into sending an application to Guinness World Records for fastest selling non-fictional book ever, while bids for the rights to make screen adaptations and TV-series out of the novel are flooding in.
Link: http://www.japannewsreview.com/entertainment/books/
20071113page_id=2998

I showed this book to my husband when I saw the attractive title. He remarked it is impossible for a secondary-age school boy to live as homeless in Japan. The social welfare department see to it that he should not live a homeless life.

This is an autobiographical novel, his true life.
Question is how did he end up as a homeless high school boy?
He was living in the neighbourhood children's playground, hungry all the time, eating cardbox paper and on top of that he managed to attend school everyday.
In Japan, every neighbourhood children's playground is facilitated with a small public toilet and wash basin. He used this public toilet and washed himself everyday while living in the cardboard box.
How did he end up homeless in a rich country like Japan?

This is a light review of the book.
His mother died and his father was unemployed due to the re-structuring economic trend during the early 1980's.
His father left them, his brother studying in the university, his sister in high school and him.
One day, they have to vacate their house due to unpaid rent. The brother and sister decided to stay at a temple but he told them he wanted to stay at some friend's house. But he ended up at the playground secretly.
Imagine a boy who had warm meals home-cooked and home-served everyday, imagine a boy who has clean clothes laid out for him every morning. Imagine how he managed his life while sleeping in the public playground.

His homeless plight for one month was known and they were put in the government's children home. He becomes a well-known television comedian now. Lately, there was some rumours that he found his father but that is another story.

Within two months of release, the novel sale jumped into the one million mark!
The fastest best-sellers ever!