Homelessness becomes `Big Issue' in Japan

Japan's second-largest city, Osaka, where more than 7,000 homeless people now live, has been chosen as the first place where the magazine will be sold.

Until a few years ago, the idea of people sleeping on the streets of Japan was alien, but with recession came homelessness.

And where there's homelessness, sales of the Big Issue magazine now a common feature on streets in Britain, has followed, giving some hope to thousands who live on the streets.

The publishers of the Big Issue Japan hope the magazine will repeat the success its UK counterpart has enjoyed since its launch by John Bird, the editor-in-chief, in London in 1991.

The health and welfare ministry estimates that Japan's homeless population is around 25,000, far lower than in Britain or the US, but big enough to cause alarm in a country that, until the recession began 13 years ago, could not imagine people sleeping on the streets.

http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/world/archives/2003/09/17/2003068163