For Futaba Inoue, a driver for Tokyo Rickshaw, the working day begins hours before her first passenger climbs aboard.
On weekends, the 21-year-old university student and part-time rickshaw driver wakes up around 6 a.m. in Tsukuba, Ibaraki Prefecture. She arrives in Tokyo¡¯s Asakusa neighborhood by 8 a.m. and starts pulling her 90-kilogram rickshaw around the tourist-filled streets at 9 a.m. She often offers rides to passing tourists until 7 p.m. and may not return home until close to midnight. On busy days, even a meal break is not guaranteed as customers often dictate drivers¡¯ schedules.
¡°Sometimes I don¡¯t eat lunch,¡± Inoue says.
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