OSAKA -- Hoping to imitate the success of its British namesake, a company was recently set up here to publish a magazine called Big Issue Kansai, which will help homeless people earn money by selling the paper on the street.
The 32-page color magazine, to be published twice monthly beginning in late August, will be sold on the street by homeless people who register as vendors. They will earn 120 yen for each 200 yen copy sold.
"What we are doing is not charity but the creation of a job for homeless people," said Miku Sano, a staffer of Big Issue Japan. "That is the idea behind The Big Issue (in Britain and other countries)."