Living downtown as I do, it’s a common sight to see homeless men rummaging through the garbage in search of empty cans. Some of the more industrious of these vagabonds can amass such a stash of crushed cans—all crammed into large plastic bags and lashed together on the backs of bicycles—that from a distance they look like camels accoutered for an expedition.

I always wondered how much a transient could earn in this manner so I was delighted when a local news program recently did a story on the city’s homeless problem.

One kilogram of used cardboard, according to the reporter, can be sold to the scrapyard for about seventy yen, or about 62 cents (US), meaning that even the most determined street person can only earn about two hundred yen ($1.80) a day collecting cardboard. A kilo of aluminum cans, on the other hand, brings in ¥140 ($1.25). After collecting cans all day long, a hobo might make about ¥1000 ($8.95), or enough to buy a bentô and perhaps a couple cans of happōshu. †

A friend once told me that one of the happier moments in a homeless man’s foraging life is when he comes across an alluminum alloy wheel. One wheel in good condition can be sold for about ¥500 ($4.48) which is nothing to sneeze at.

† Happoshu (発泡酒, literally “foaming alcohol”) is a low-malt beer-like beverage. Dreadful stuff, but, as the saying goes, beggars can’t be choosers.