"Net cafes? Only the rich can afford them," said Koba, one of the new breed of 'McRefugees'.

"Even with a special night time deal, they still cost about 1,000 yen (£4) a night.

"So I sleep at McDonald's three or four nights a week.

"More McDonald's restaurants have started operating 24 hours since the spring and there are plenty of others like me who are sleeping there."

The infamous burger chain has helped spawn the nickname 'McRefugee' due to their popularity amongst thrifty homeless people.

"I sometimes stay overnight at family restaurants, but they have a late night surcharge," said Toba, a fan of McD's low prices.

"They do have the lure of an all-you-can-drink bar, but even that still costs more than 500 yen (£2).

"I only need to spend 100 yen (40p) at McDonald's and I can stay the whole night."

Economist Takuro Morinaga sees the McRefugees as trapped between the two worlds of being housed and being homeless.

"They're people who probably have a tad more money than those living on the streets, but not enough money to allow them to change their lives," he said.

"It costs about 400,000 yen (£1600) to 500,000 yen (£2000) to rent out an apartment, so people who can't afford to do that become net cafe refugees, sauna refugees and, now McRefugees.

"The vast majority of them are not full time staff and are probably only making about 1 million yen (£4000) a year at most.

"For these people, 500,000 yen is an enormous sum of money."

Morinaga is pessimistic about the prospects for the homeless in Japan.

"I think we'll see more of these types of people," he said.

"With society polarising the way it is now, I guess they'll be like Europe and the United States where all the same types of people gather together to form hamlets that eventually end up turning into slums."