Gumbo
Gumbo is a free weekly manga that you can occasionally see being handed out at Akihabara, Shibuya and other station entrances.
I believe that Gumbo is actually the first free manga competing with the likes of Young Jump.
These weekly manga journals are usually filled with one chapter from many different manga series. So for example you may find a chapter of Claymore or Inuyasha etc.
Apart form the manga, there is the traditional gravure idol photos too. Many people leave these on the luggage racks on a train for the next person to read. From time to time, you will see homeless folks going through carriages looking for these. They take them and resell them - you can see quite a few outside Shinjuku station.
The only free magazine that I would try to pick up as much as I could when I was living in the UK was the Eikoku News Digest - aimed at Japanese living in London. Had lots of news and classifieds. I put an ad in there once to meet Japanese language exchange students.
I've picked up Gumbo a few times but haven't come across anything to keep me coming back for more.
The reason why Gumbo is free is that they want to increase their readership as much as possible and base their business around the advertising model.
There are many free magazines being handed out in and around stations like R25.
When I was at Microsoft, I saw the advertising prices for R25 which were ridiculously sky high. Advertising is a lucrative business in Japan.
Residents in Tokyo may want to get hold of a free publication aimed at Gaijin called Metropolis - full of local information in English and an interesting read.
BTW, these were taken at the Good Smile offices when I was on their live broadcast ^^;
If you are interested in reading about life in Japan, seeing photos taken daily around Tokyo, like Japanese subculture (anime, manga, figures, Dollfies) then you may want to start delving into the Japan or Figure categories for a start or have a gander at all photo articles.
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Design Consultant
Free porn is free.
Design Consultant
Some of the magazines out here are very heavily religiously baised. The best place to go is the colleges and universities and there are a couple of good ones. And by good I mean witty... and by witty I mean sarcastic. The lowest form of wit.
Dirty Gentleman
http://cantstanzya.wordpress.com/
We don't usually get free magazines here. Too expensive to produce. However we do get several versions of daily newspapers which are usually condensed versions of full spread ones. Only problem is people tend to leave their read papers on train, buses or just blowing in public places. This causes a huge mess. Typical...
Student
Fatbastard, you for got about the ones at a lot of movie theaters, and there are a lot other magazine about cars and housings around too.
Dirty Gentleman
http://cantstanzya.wordpress.com/
True, but those Tribute mags as far as I'm concerned at the movies might as well be part of the ticket price since that's the only place you'd get them. Only time I look is when waiting for the flick to start. As for the cars and housing, they're more about classified ads then entertaining articles.
Writer/Academic/Code Monkey
http://www.flickr.com/photos/iheartassassinmaids/
Hey Danny,
Is figure.fm down for maintenance?
Aspiring Trap
http://www.atalude.net/
Whoops. So the manga I've seen lying around at the Imperial Palace and the train was meant to be given away? I thought people didn't want them any longer, so I took them back to the hotel room to read lawl ^^;;
High School student
in caliifornia if you go to asian markets or some type of area with other then english news paper theres normally tons of free magazines and newspaper. for example in sacramento if you go to oto's supermarket theres stacks of news paper and magazines that you can get free, they are able to do it because all the advertisements on these news papers. people also leave news papers in mac donalds for other people to read.. my tradition i leave my news papers there besides any advertise ments i want to keep~
Visual Communications and Web 2.0
http://www.imagineboris.com
at metro stop close to me they hand out free newspaper which is very good and new every day. Thats about it. :-(
Non-profit org. volunteering work addict
Same as Boris... Metro newspaper aside, not much to chew on. Oh sometimes on weekdays some guys from a bid company give away free copies of the Gazette.
(The annoying point in that is to see scattered paper everywhere after. Drives me mad somehow, because some haven't learned to recycle yet)
Policy & Research Officer
http://www.alafista.com/
No free magazines. We get good daily newspaper for free though.
銀河帝国五〇一軍团 TK/TD 8316 M.E.P.D. Police Sergeant
http://gordonator.com/
nope. no free magazines over here. but i work for a customer (company) who publish magazines so sometimes i can get them for free or at a very very cheap price - S$1. ('~')
stormtrooper
no not really, there's only this one little booklet that tells you what comin' for next month but it's not really helpful
Student
http://ordinarybot.wordpress.com/
I wouldnt mind those at all! Would be nice to have a book filled with idol goodness, plus it being free. Not sure why but the way the light reflects on the idol pages gives me the impression that it's not so cheap quality paper, but I may be wrong ^^; All I get here is..Animerica, and it's terrible IMO. It's not even a magazine, it's probably a pamphlet.
Ninja
Hey cool stuff Danny...I actually picked up a copy while I was in Japan they were handing em out at Shibuya station I think.
If anyones interested I uploaded the cover and the idol centerfold for you to oogle:
Cover:
http://i187.photobucket.com/albums/x182/Asian_Ethics/IMG_2926.jpg
Idol Centerfold:
http://i187.photobucket.com/albums/x182/Asian_Ethics/IMG_2929.jpg
http://i187.photobucket.com/albums/x182/Asian_Ethics/IMG_2930.jpg
enjoy
we have a free newspaper handed out at train stations
it's full of gossip and celebrities, and a bit of news
VF-25 Pilot. Universariate Scholar.
nope, no free mags here. only newspapers.
Gunpla Enthusiast
i remember seeing some free asian mags in toronto, but not much of anything here, let alone free manga mags. all we have is boring old newspaper printed with the cheapest ink imaginable, so that after you read the newspapers, your fingers and thumbs are literally black.
The only free periodicals I've gotten are Falun Gong newspapers >.>
Polytechnic Junior, Bronze Lifesaving Trainee, Mech Designer In-training.
http://thehangerbay.wordpress.com/
well, no free mags but ppl here do get free newspapers in the form of Today.
Vampire
Aww what a bummer!
you get free mags and we don't XD
Illustrator & Designer
http://www.knight-edge.com/
Well, we don't get anything free like Gumbo here (at least not that I know of), but there's heaps of Chinese and some Japanese and Korean free magazines that comes out every weekend filled with little articles, classified ads and whatnot. I've even picked up an English Korean free mag once, which is nice to be able to read it. Most are printed in B&W on crappy newsprint and very little to no pictures though.
Wanderer of the Mist
http://hangmen13.16ops.com/
Never received any free mags in my local publication before. Most of the local magazine in my place seems to be more in tune to profit than quality, judging from the fast twice-a-month publication of most entertainment-oriented magazine and light contents. Pretty crap. Local magazines that I regard as 'decent' are military/defense magazines as there are few titles available in the market.
Web Design & Development
http://www.nerdculture.org
Nothing is free here. Nothing.
This town is powered by greedy old farts that feel the need to spend up to $100,000 on the biggest SUV/Hummer they can get their hands on, and then complain about the gas prices being so high. >.>
In doing so, they try to earn the extra money by charging people for every conceivable thing. Like washing your windshield of your car at a gas station. Most places do that for free.
Student
http://basement.halfarenaissance.net
Hmmm, actually we've got a few free magazines but nothing falling into the otaku category...
Hikikomori in the making
http://supermariabros.deviantart.com/
LOL same here... Nothings free here... The only things which are free you usually see people lining up for it...
High School Graduate... Now what?
http://djet0.deviantart.com/
Now that I think about it, here, we do get free magazines. Most of them talk about the living area or entertainment. Others are about property or job listings... They're okay, but they sure don't compare to free manga.
Student, Otaku, She-Geek(Sheek lol)
http://meimi132.wordpress.com/
I'm glad you put where you took the pictures. Cos I was wondering about the cases in the background. They look intresting. Filled with magical things....
ecchi student
http://tofusando.blogspot.com
Nothing is free where I live. If it is, there's a catch.
student
http://animesugoi.animeblogger.net/
We usually have free job advertisement magazines/newspaper stands. There are a ton of tourist magazines available wherever tourist go^^.
student
the only free thing here in america is food samples and health/workout magazines. not a good combination are they?
4th Year Business Economics Student
We have four different daily newspapers which are free. They are very popular among students and commuters. For the rest we have nothing else that is worth mentioning. ^^
We have fairly decent free daily newspapers on buses and some bus stops. Nice to go through them to kill the time.
Chemical Engineer
http://saoblog.laventanadesaouri.com/
That kind of publication says a lot about japanese economy.
Here in latinamérica you can't have a free publication, is too expensive and if you haven't sponsors you can't publish a "pay" magazine.
By the way, i like a lot your photos with your trooper suit.
anime/cosplay events organizer
http://www.cosplay.ph
we have some free newspapers that are distributed at train stations and bus terminals.
free newspapers is a risky business if you don't have a really good distribution channels to show to your potential advertisers.
i wonder if free anime/game/japanese pop-culture magazines are feasible here ^^
Student
We have a couple of local newspapers that are handed out daily for free. Just like you said, people usually leave them lying around on benches or on the trams so that others can also read them.