I'm Taichi Manabe, head of the Production Department.
Since March 2014, I have been living with my wife and two children in Kamiyama Town, Tokushima Prefecture, which has a population of 6,000.
The Producing & Design Department that I belong to works to create value that can be shared with society through corporate activities using the creative power of design and art.
Regional revitalization is revitalizing Japan's regions. Among them, Kamiyama Town in Tokushima Prefecture is attracting attention as a model region. Through "work and life" in Kamiyama, I will use my own activities in Kamiyama, my family's activities in Kamiyama, and Monosas' activities in Kamiyama as a test subject to tell us how connections with the community and "working like you live" can contribute to creating value for a company.
How I encountered Kamiyama
Since this is the first time, I'll start by telling you a personal story.
I remember that around this time three years ago, our president, Hayashi, had just returned from a visit to Kamiyama Town and asked me, "Do you know Kamiyama? I'd like to do something there. Would you like to come with me sometime?"
I first learned about Kamiyama back in 2008.
Nishimura Yoshiaki , author of " Create Your Own Job, " has had a major influence on my life. He was involved in the planning and direction of the website " In Kamiyama ," which is probably one of the catalysts that led to Kamiyama becoming what it is today. I learned about Kamiyama from reading an article covering the project.
Kamiyama has long been home to the artist-in-residence program, in which artists stay for three months to create works, but I later learned that Nishimura coined the term "work-in-residence," in addition to the website, during his short stay.
The basic idea is that if there are no jobs in the countryside, then people who have work should bring them there and work while they stay. I personally think that Nishimura's approach to the word "work" expresses the roots of not only the "In Kamiyama" website, but also the current movement in Kamiyama itself.
Although I had heard of Kamiyama, I never had the chance to visit. Then, when my daughter started elementary school, I started to think that if I were to move next, it might be to Shikoku, where my hometown is, so I thought this was fate and visited Kamiyama with President Hayashi.
Reasons for moving to Kamiyama
The kids spend time on the veranda of the video production company (currently open for business) next door to their house. They're so free...sweat
After his first visit to Kamiyama, he tried out the food culture of Kochi, the beautiful islands of Kagawa, and his parents' home in Ehime, all with a little indulgence in mind. After a 10-day summer "trial move" in which he left his wife and children behind in Kamiyama, he moved to Kamiyama about a year and a half later. (Wife's experience of trial move (PDF) )
People often ask me why I moved: "Is it because you want to raise your children in a rural area surrounded by nature, like Kamiyama?"
There are two reasons.
The first reason is that children have many opportunities to interact with adults who work as if they were living there.
The world is supported by working adults, but in urban areas such as Tokyo, these people are often just "someone" who provides services for money. It depends on the parents' occupation and level of sociability, but it is not often that local children help out the uncles at the restaurants or the aunties at the supermarket in the neighborhood, or eat with them.
How many adults do our children eat with in a year? City hall officials, farmers, venture company executives, and so on. Children and adults alike cook and eat together.
I think that in cities, there are fewer adults that children come into contact with as they grow up. Of course, the same can be said for some families in the countryside, but in Kamiyama in particular, work and life overlap, and there are many opportunities to interact with many adults who "work like they live." I think it's good for children to be raised by everyone in such a lifestyle.
The second reason is that there is a possibility that we too can become "adults who work like they live."
At Monosus, we say that we should measure both how we work and live, and how we earn and spend money. Making and spending a lot of money does not equal having a better life.
As part of the government's "Comprehensive Strategy for Vitalizing Towns, People, and Jobs," we have been participating in a working group with Kamiyama Town since around summer this year.
Kamiyama is a place where many adults have diverse working styles in which work, life, and involvement in the town are closely intertwined. Through this "work and life" experiment at Monosus, we hope to first work with the members of Monosus to develop a place where people can work as they live.
Monosus in Kamiyama from now on
The opening ceremony of Monosus' version of Kamiyama Juku was held on November 9, 2015 , and students introduced themselves in the earthen floor of the Manabe family home (currently under renovation) .
It has been over a year and a half since my family moved here, but Monosus' activities in Kamiyama have only just begun. We have started various preparations for next year, but the highlight of this year's activities in Kamiyama will be the Monosus version of " Kamiyama School ," which we started as part of a job seeker support system together with Mr. Kidoin of Relation, who is also a director of the NPO Green Valley.
The program involves learning basic web technology while living in Kamiyama, and it is the first project that has allowed Monosus to properly interact with the local community and people since our first visit to Kamiyama three years ago.
With this "Kamiyama Monosasu School" (my own name), I hope to be able to report on new developments little by little from next year. Although Monosasu is a web production company, we hope to widen the scope of our activities through experiments in "work and life," such as opening a satellite office and a project to protect and nurture the local food culture, and become a team that can work more closely with the local community and society.