Starting with a relationship with your neighbors,
A community that connects city workers
Interview: Shintaro Nagakura

I believe it was around the summer of 2013 when Mr. Nagakura from Pilot Inc. contacted Coding Factory.
After that, I received several requests for projects a year and had him come to Monosus parties, but...
This year, I received an email from Nagakura saying, "I'd like to get together with companies that have offices in Yoyogi and create a connection that will be the foundation for exchanging ideas and collaborating." And so, we held the "Yoyogi Web Production Gathering." I work in sales, but I've always thought it would be good to have a gathering where creators could exchange information candidly, so I was impressed with Nagakura, who is able to put this idea into practice. I'd love to do something together in the future, as if we were neighbors.

(Monosus Hideno Okuyama)

The IT industry demands close communication

About 10 years ago, I joined the web production company "Pilot" mid-career. It had been about 2 years since the company was established, and there were about 10 members. I was originally in a large IT company, but there was a dedicated person for each department, and we hardly had a chance to talk directly with the customer. It can't be helped, but even if it was a small job, I wanted to understand the customer as much as possible before proceeding. However, I was so blinded by the whole picture that I couldn't even think "I want to do it more like this!", and I was doing my best to produce only a limited part of one place. I had a vague feeling of discomfort there, so I decided to change jobs to go to a company where I could communicate more with customers.
Now, I get direct feedback from clients, and I'm close to the staff in the company. I think it's great that I can talk to them about anything right away. Even if the scale of the projects gets smaller, I think it's more interesting to be able to work closely with clients.

I will unravel and communicate the unknown world I have entered

I was born in Sendai, Miyagi Prefecture, and lived there until I went to college. I studied literature, but it was a time of economic hardship. I'm not very good at talking to people or selling things, so I thought I couldn't do sales... (laughs).

The cultural anthropology I majored in was a field of study that involved entering a completely unknown world and unraveling how it works, and I often did fieldwork. I was not familiar with IT, but at the time, the number of jobs for system engineers was increasing, and it was the heyday of installing systems for core business. Even though it was a system, most of the work involved transcribing and communicating the requirements of the user's business. Considering that, I think that going into clients and industries that I was completely unfamiliar with, interviewing them, and drawing diagrams and transcribing them is connected to what I learned at university, even though it may be a bit of a stretch.

The opportunity to rethink urban life: working and living in rural areas

One of our executives was originally working at a shared office in Osaka. A designer who worked with him there happened to have a satellite office in Green Valley, Kamiyama Town. He invited me to Kamiyama because he thought Kamiyama was interesting, so I went there with him in March of this year. At first I wondered why he was in such a rural area, but when I got there, I thought, "Oh, I see!" (laughs). Companies that don't know each other at all get together to work during the day and drink together at night. I thought the scene was really interesting. On the way back, we stopped by a shared kitchen in Wakayama City. Using the cafe space, people from companies in the city gather to hold seminars and events.

After visiting both Kamiyama and Wakayama at the same time, I thought, "The countryside is interesting!" I've been living in Tokyo for 10 years, but I've never encountered such a community. There are so many companies around, but I started to feel uncomfortable about why they can only exist as dots.
My hometown, Sendai, is also a regional city, and I've been living in Tokyo ever since, so when I first went to Kamiyama, I was impressed that there was such a way of life. I think it's amazing that work and life can be established in this area. The environment is very rural, with big old houses. It's a scene you pass by when you drive by, but when you step inside the house, there are rows of PCs and servers, and everyone is working there. That made a big impact. It's a place where only old men and women live, and young people from various companies gather there every night to drink. It's a great environment to be able to get to the office in a minute's walk from home, and I think the stress would be completely different. I'm sure there would be many difficulties if you actually lived there.

Yamashita-san, a pilot, works at a satellite office in the Kamiyama complex.

We opened a satellite office in Kamiyama because we were invited by Green Valley, but the main reason was that when we actually went to Kamiyama, we felt that we wanted to create a way of working in a place like this that wasn't possible in Tokyo.

Yamashita-san, who works at the Kamiyama satellite office, teaches electronic crafts to elementary school students. Once a week, he runs a children's electronic crafts studio with other people in the same shared office.

"Yoyomok" starts by building connections with "neighbors"

Since I was not in sales but was on the inside, it was difficult to make connections with the outside. Other than the first meeting, we often communicated by email without meeting in person. It is impossible to create a community like this. Even if you go to seminars and events and exchange business cards, it is unlikely that you will become closer by that alone. Also, there are many things that you want to consult about before work starts. However, it is difficult to ask if you are not related, so I thought it would be good to have a sense of distance like a "neighbor," and started "Yoyomoku," which opens the office as a coworking space only on Thursdays as a place where people working in the area can gather.

When I eat lunch around here and look at the table next to me, I often think, "They seem like they're in the same line of business," but I never have a chance to meet them. But when I called out to the surrounding companies at "Yoyomok," a few of them came. Now, when we meet in the neighborhood, we say hello and have a quick chat. I think we're becoming neighbors little by little. I think it's interesting that the companies that come to "Yoyomok" are creating jobs and making connections.

Yoyomoku's coworking space, which has opened up part of its office.

For the last 10 years, I've been commuting to work every morning on the train, which I hate (laughs), and I've wondered what the point of coming to work is. But recently, as I walk to work in the morning, I've started to talk to people I've met at "Yoyomoku" and say hello, and as that kind of communication gradually increases, I've started to feel like I belong here. If I can create a community like that to the extent that I can, then maybe there's a point in coming to work (laughs). I think that sometimes people in the same business think of their competitors as "competitors!", but when you talk to them, you often find that you're all working in different fields. Being able to complement each other may be important for small and medium-sized businesses.

Direct relationships that build mutual trust

I knew about Monosus's "Coding Factory Division" even before Pilot was in Yoyogi. We have someone in charge of coding in our company, but at the time, the quality and standards were all over the place and we were trying to somehow improve them. That's when I attended a coding seminar held by Monosus. That's why I asked Monosus to help me with a project to create a large-scale website.

At first, I thought he was like a very rigid machine. I wondered if Okuyama-san was also a scary person... (laughs). But when we worked together, he was willing to give me advice on various things and was flexible. With large-scale projects, the situation changes in detail, but he was also flexible in that regard. As I continued to work with him, my impression of him became softer (laughs). He didn't just do a routine, but asked me questions one by one if I had any questions and dealt with them carefully. Not only did I receive contact from the person in charge, but I was also contacted directly by the person who actually did the coding. After all, we are close (laughs). It is because of these times that we are able to work face-to-face as much as possible, so it is very reassuring. I think that the common point of having a base in Yoyogi and a connection in Kamiyama-cho is quite a miraculous connection (laughs). When we started the "Yoyogi Web Production Gathering," there was talk from within the company right away of "Let's get Monosus involved."

Group photo at the first Yoyogi Web Production Gathering

When I do "Yoyomok" and "Yoriai", I feel like my circle is expanding. I want to create an opportunity for fellow professionals to meet and talk casually. To do that, I think I need to broaden my own horizons. I'm always nervous that maybe I'm the worst at socializing, even though I say that. So I hope Monosus will continue to cooperate with me... I'm sure that's your specialty, Okuyama-san, right? (laughs)