Mrs Tsk *

Nojuku Yaro — the title translates as “Homeless Guy” — is a magazine for and about homeless people in Japan, started in 2006. Its motto is “the magazine that makes your life lower!”



Here’s a flavour of some of the articles and columns featured in the first five issues, seen here displayed at Osaka’s Standard Books:

1
Vox pops
Featured homeless
Sleeping rough photos

2
Walking the Shikoku pilgrimage
How to make egg bomb
Let’s listen to over 100 homeless!



3
Homeless with bikes
Bathroom and toilet tales
Work ethic of homeless

4
White homeless
Reading books
Arbitrarily running away

5
Sleeping in mainline stations
Indians who sleep at the station
Afro homeless

Everything you need to know, in other words, about sleeping rough, choosing a quilted sleeping bag, selecting the best mainline station to panhandle in, using public toilets, and planning that big one-year walking trip.

Since I’m always into the idea of magazines that have freed themselves from bling and materialist values, I have to salute this publication. I also very much like its two-colour printing look. And I appreciate the jaunty tone, the avoidance of 19th century emphases on moralism, charity or victimhood.

Homeless Guy seems to have sputtered to a halt after six issues and a DVD; its creators no doubt went back to sleeping bags and soup lines. Back copies continue to be available by mail as and when they can steal the stamps.