No time for voluntary work? An easy -- and fun -- way to alleviate your conscience is to go shopping.
Some stores donate profits from specific goods to designated charities. At agnes b clothing stores, for example, 50 percent of the profit from scarf sales goes to the Japan Foundation for AIDS Prevention, while half the profit from sales of the label's popular heart-shaped badges goes to the Japan Red Cross Society.
Other stores stock goods produced by the charitable organizations themselves. UNICEF's range of 50 products, which includes T-shirts, postcards and toys, is sold in stores throughout Japan ( see www2.unicef.or.jp for store locations). Half the profits go to help children in 161 developing countries.