History
The Big Issue Japan, Ltd, was established in September 2003 as a social enterprise with the aim to provide homeless people with the means to earn an income and to provide support for them so that they are able to help themselves out of homelessness.
A homeless vendor sells a copy of the Big Issue magazine for ￥300, in doing so they are then able to keep ￥160 as their profit whilst the remaining ￥140 goes back in to the company for the production of the next issue.(Please visit The Big Issue Japan website for more information about the magazine : www.bigissue.jp)
Whilst working with the six hundred plus vendors in the last four years since the launch of the magazine, it has become apparent to us that there is a definite need for additional services so we can truly ensure the possibility for a homeless person to move themselves forward and get themselves back into mainstream society.
How does it work?
The Big Issue Japan foundation is a non profitable organization that supports the society’s most excluded and vulnerable people -the homeless- by providing various support programs.
The ethos of The Big Issue is “self help”. We would like to contribute to the solving of the problem of homelessness by helping the homeless to help themselves to get back on their feet and to break away from living on the streets.
Homelessness
How does a person become homeless?
Some researchers say that a number of homeless people are likely to be the type of people that cannot adapt to the rapidly changing ways to modern society.
The majority of homeless people in Japan are middle aged to senior men that were once employed in either the construction industry or the food and service industry and for whatever reason were unable to continue with their work within these fields.
This could then cause a breakdown in relationships with family and friends and subsequently make the person feel hopeless causing a decline in the individual’s confidence making it harder to find new employment and so resulting in the person leaving the family home and becoming homeless.
There are also reports of the rapid increase in the number of young people know as “internet cafe refugees”, who “live” in internet cafes. They are the young people that represent the worst situation of the working poor within Japan.
If we apply the international definition of homelessness, which includes everyone that is vulnerably housed (those who do not have permanent housing or have the possibility to lose their home within a short period of time), and then the number of hidden homeless people is much higher than is shown in the government research reports.
Homelessness is the problem of social structure. It is a problem that is related to everyone in society. We believe that homelessness is only the tip of the iceberg of what is modern day poverty issues involving social exclusion.
Facts.
- From September 2003 to May 2007, 644 homeless people have registered with the Big Issue as vendors. Around half of them are now gainfully employed and are living in their own accommodation.
- By may 2007, 2.05 million copies of the Big Issue were sold in Japan which provided a total of 225.5 million yen in income to homeless vendors.
Contact us
The Big Issue foundation office
Address
Postal code: 530-0003
2-3-2 Dokita Building 401, Dojima, Kita-ku, Osaka
Tel.06- 6345-1517 (+81-6- 6345-1517)
Fax.06-6457-1358 (+81-6-6457-1358)
E-MAIL ：
