It is a region with a distinct culture, an area of crowded, cheap rooming houses where day laborers and jouhatsu live.

Lower caste workers, butchers, tanners, leatherworkers, and the like, were forced to live in this undesirable region by the predominantly Buddhist authorities.

Presently, in Tokyo, the area designated “The Sanya District” is in the heart of the Namidabashi (Bridge of Tears) intersection.

Still, in the neighborhood of the southwestern part of Sanya, there is a soapland district formerly known as Yoshiwara (this name also faded away due to the government's address renaming programming in 1966.

The working conditions of the day laborers of Sanya are substandard, and many fall prey to the yakuza crime syndicate.

Catholic and Protestant churches and other organizations took root in Sanya, and in cooperation, provide emergency food and other humanitarian services.

Foreign customers are increasing due to the fact that prices are inexpensive, there is decent public order (to the degree that drunken fights between friends resulting in injury, shop lifting, and about five murder cases per year), and from the nearest station, the Minami Senju Subway Station, via the Hibiya Line, you can go to Ueno, Akihabara, Ginza, Roppongi and other sightseeing spots.

On October 3, 2008, after the arson incident on the Minami adult video store in Osaka, the prefectural governor of Tokyo, Ishihara Shintaro, made the following comment concerning lodging establishments in Sanya and the people displaced from the fire, “If you go to Sanya, there are plenty of places you can stay for 200 or 300 yen, but in fashion, while you stay over at a 1500 yen a night place, you say things like, “This is dreadful.”” In regards to this statement, the Chief of Taito-Ward protested, which led to Ishihara, in an interview on October 10, 2008 to correct his previous statement by saying “The numbers were a little off.” As of 2008, places where you can stay for 200 or 300 yen do not exist.

Many reasons have surfaced regarding the direct origin of the riots, but one theory points to abetment from criminals and radical party extremists.

Furthermore, in recent years, the case can be seen where during breaks, young people from inside and outside of Japan traveling to the city or coming for events use these simple-lodging establishments.