JLPT N3 Reading

In one provincial shopping street, shop owners were ageing and more shops were closing. Empty shops stayed shuttered and the street only grew darker. So the traders' association created a scheme lending empty shops to young people rent-free for a year. Two conditions: open at least four days a week, and take part in a street event once a month. No sales reports or rent are required. In three years eleven businesses moved in, and seven of them were still trading a year later — a bakery, a second-hand bookshop, a repair shop and more. The association's chair says, 'More than making a profit, what mattered first was having people walking along the street.' If people walk by, the remaining shops get customers too. Filling the empty shops was a means, not the end. Q: What scheme did the shopping street start? — Lending empty shops to young people rent-free for a year.