On Aug. 4, Bill Gates and Warren Buffett, the second and third richest men in the world, announced that 40 American billionaires had followed their lead in pledging to give half of their fortunes to charity. They plan to turn their efforts next to China and India.
While the top Japanese billionaire on the list, in 89th place, Mr. Tadashi Yanai, has made no such public pledge, he did take the lead last month among large Japanese firms in announcing a social business project in Bangladesh in cooperation with the Grameen Bank founded by Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus. Mr. Yanai's Fast Retailing is already producing some clothing in that country for sale at its Uniqlo shops in Japan and elsewhere, but the new, nonprofit venture will make goods to be sold at around $1 each to the Bangladeshis themselves by a network of local women with microloans from the Grameen Bank.
Along with the desire to give the poor a chance to work their way out of poverty, Mr. Yanai sees the long-term merit of both helping build consumer markets in developing nations and being seen to be a good corporate citizen.