Teruo Irishima, a homeless man from Nara Prefecture, earns a living by selling The Big Issue Japan, a magazine published around the world to give people in situations like his a leg up in life.
Irishima, 56, started selling the magazine around 10 years ago. With no fixed address, he currently spends his nights at an internet cafe, using the money he makes from sales for necessities like food and access to the cafe, which offers a dry, warm and relatively safe place to sleep.
His lodgings aside, his life is not so different from that of any other Japanese worker.