Photo/Illutration On one rainy Friday, Hiroshi Komiyama collects garbage in front of JR Shinbashi Station in Tokyo with an umbrella in one hand. He calls out to a user of a smoking area with a fist pump. (Nobuaki Tanaka)

Four years ago on a chilly day in March, Hiroshi Komiyama, now 45, was wandering aimlessly through the streets of Shibyua in Tokyo.

The bustling shopping and entertainment district was his stomping ground when he was in his 20s.

As he stopped by Hachiko Square, he noticed cigarette butts scattered around a smoking area. He got his hands on a garbage bag from a nearby shop and started picking up the butts one after another, not knowing why.

About an hour later, a female lottery booth clerk called out, "Thank you for collecting them."

Komiyama felt tears welling up, suddenly remembering what someone had once told him.

The previous summer, Komiyama washed down a bunch of antidepressants with canned beer while on a ferry heading to Shodoshima island in Kagawa Prefecture. Upon arriving at the island intoxicated, he found a beach and waded into the water with a sense of abandon.

Komiyama ran a variety of businesses before his plight, including restaurants and insurance agencies, in Fukuoka. However, his friend and business partner died of cancer.

Komiyama lost his physical and mental bearing and became an alcoholic. His company struggled financially and his relationship with his wife deteriorated before he found himself with nowhere to go.

It was a woman from a nearby ryokan inn who found him in the water and saved him from drowning.

When Komiyama came to his senses on the beach, the woman said, "You can live and serve others."

Komiyama started frequenting Shibuya after recalling her words. He sometimes found himself getting into tangles with drunken people, but whenever he picked up garbage, he felt that he was being useful to someone and that it was OK to be alive.

Komiyama took a break from his clean-up activities for a few years after landing a new job, but resumed them this spring in front of JR Shinbashi Station where there is a large smoking area. He collects cigarette butts and empty cans every day after work from evening to just before the last train, holding a garbage bag in one hand and wearing sash that reads, "Keeping everyone's Shinbashi clean." He also strikes up conversations with passers-by on occasion.

“I had a bad day at work,” a corporate employee told him one night. Komiyama sympathized with the worker, seeing his old self in the man's expression.

“You’ve done enough today,” Komiyama told him. “Good luck tomorrow.”

"Live and serve others." It has been five years since that life-changing summer day.