Bill Gates and Warren Buffett, the second and third richest men in the world respectively, have announced that 40 US billionaires have 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, 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.
Yanai’s Fast Retailing is already producing some clothing in Bangladesh for sale at its Uniqlo shops in Japan and elsewhere, but the new non-profit venture will make goods to be sold at around USD1 each to the Bangladeshis themselves by a network of local women with microloans from the Grameen Bank.
(Source: The Japan Times Online)