What does it mean to "not devote your life to your work"? #01 - Part 1 -
~A detour talk between two people working in Kamiyama~

One day, Nishimura Yoshitetsu contacted Manabe (Manager of the Kamiyama Food Hub Project ^*1 and Director of Monosus), who also works in Kamiyama Town, Tokushima Prefecture, saying, "There's something I'd like to ask you."

A few days later, at 7am in their discussion at Kamaya ^*2 in Kamiyama Town, Nishimura asked Manabe, "Where do you get the energy to support your work?"

Amidst the flurry of words like "social agriculture," "social/corporate," "Mukaiyachi Ikuyoshi of Bethel Home," "social worker," and "negative/positive," Mukaiyachi's words, "Don't put your life on the line for your work," raised the question, "So what is the energy that supports our work?"

Two people who work in the same town talk back and forth about the energy that supports their work, and share their thoughts and thoughts. (Interview: Yoshiko Nakaniwa)

*1 Kamiyama Food Hub Project: A project to connect Kamiyama agriculture to the next generation, initiated by a working group in Kamiyama and jointly launched by the Kamiyama Town Office, Kamiyama Tsunagu Corporation, and Monosus Co., Ltd.

*2 Kamaya: A restaurant that opened in Kamiyama in 2017 as part of the Food Hub Project.

What does the "social" in "social agriculture" mean?

Mr. Nishimura (hereafter referred to as "honorific titles omitted")
What I wanted to ask you is, where do you get your energy from, Mr. Manabe, who also works in Kamiyama? Before that, could you please explain again what you mean by "social" in the social agriculture that Food Hub talks about?

Yoshiaki Nishimura

Manabe: It may seem obvious that our work is connected to society. It's also obvious that agriculture is social. But I don't think people often think about it that way.

Agriculture is supposed to contribute to the local community. I think we added the word "social" to emphasize that. Even if we just do agriculture, what kind of agriculture does the Food Hub Project (hereafter referred to as "Food Hub") do? So, of course, we added the word "social."

Manabe (left)

Nishimura: I also believe that all work is inherently social. Despite this, I feel that all work has become more "company-oriented" than "social." In other words, the values within a company are very inward-looking, and the only things people talk about during breaks are about the company. Even companies that have a great influence on society are "small societies within society."
It's just the words "society" and "company" reversed.

As I listened, I was reminded of how many different jobs, especially corporate jobs, tend to become more "corporate" than "social" work, or how they tend to be industry-oriented because people are only concerned with their competitors.

Manabe :In that sense, food hubs aim to connect local agriculture to the next generation, and perhaps they deliberately add the word "social" when describing this to the outside world.

In your book "Creating a Place for People ^*3 ," there is a story about a grandson eating persimmons from a persimmon tree planted by his grandfather. In it, you write, "We have lived our lives only thinking about horizontal connections, but from now on, it is important to live with an awareness of vertical connections."
What we are trying to do involves horizontal connections, but the core of it is actually "how to make vertical connections," and we intend to do this in business as well.
I'm starting to think that this is more of a "social" issue than a "corporate" one.

*3 "Creating a place for people: through the stories of landscape designer Masao Tase" by Yoshiaki Nishimura, published by Chikumashobo in 2013. Available on Amazon

The Food Hub is harvesting rice together with students from Jinryou Hirono Elementary School. This is an annual event held as part of food education to connect children to the idea of "growing locally and eating locally."

Nishimura: So it's different from the so-called "society" that we talk about, like social ventures or social design?

Manabe : I don't really know. It's fine to help people in a third country thousands of kilometers away, but I think there are people in trouble close to home too. For me, solving the problems of people in need within a few kilometers radius is a high priority, so I feel like there are ways to do it without being a social venture or something... So when Food Hub says "society," we don't mean it in that sense.

"Don't put your life on the line"
The story of Ikuyoshi Mukaiyachi

Nishimura : How many hours a month do you work in Kamiyama now?

Manabe : Every month? (laughs) I'm in Tokyo for about four days, and the rest of the time I'm in Kamiyama, but I don't really have any real days off. But I do take a break to do things for my family, or come home a little early, so I do have a fair amount of time off. Including mind share.

Nishimura : Well, I'm also mostly working (laughs). I'd like to talk a little about that today.
You see, there is a social worker at Bethel Home ^※4 called Mukaiyachi-san. Can I talk to her for a moment?

*4 Beteru House: A base for people with mental disorders in Urakawa Town, Hokkaido. It is headed by Ikuyoshi Mukaiyachi.

Manabe please.

Nishimura Mukaiyachi lives in Urakawa Town, Hokkaido, with people who have developed schizophrenia or mental illness. He has created jobs for them, such as bagging kelp. Urakawa is a really rundown town, but the Beteru is an important part of the town.

We invited him as a guest for the ^second year of the Nara "Three Days to Think About Your Job" forum. There were 300 to 400 people from all over the country who were positive about their work and wanted to "work better," and we talked with each guest for two and a half hours each. It was in the morning of the second day, right at the peak of the three days, when Mukaiyachi-san was there.

^*5 The details of the forum are summarized in the book "How will you all work and live?" (written by Nishimura Yoshiaki, published by Kobundo in 2010, available on Amazon ).

The guest will talk about themselves for about 30 minutes and then we will start by discussing how they heard the story. Ms. Mukaiyachi started with "What is the job of a social worker?" and told us what she has done at Beteru, and that time was really good. For the last 5 minutes or so, she told us a little about "what I value in my work," and she told us in a rushed manner.

For example, "I've been trying to come up with new ways of worrying. There was a time when I was left hanging out by the window for about five years, but at times like that I didn't think of myself as "worried" - I thought of it as "a new theme has emerged for me"" (laughs).

Manabe is a genius at worrying (lol)

Nishimura: He also coined the phrase we often use: "Today is going smoothly again, but full of problems."
Others said things like, "As a social worker, I listen to people's concerns, but I also try to consult with the people around me as much as possible," and "I don't think of life and work as separate things." Everyone was nodding in agreement.
He also said something like "exchanging information about weaknesses." Everyone tries to interact with others in their strengths, but if you interact with others in your weaknesses, the team becomes very soft and warm. After he said some really great things, he ended by saying, "Don't put your life on your work."

Manabe (laughs)

Nishimura: "I'm sorry, I'm over time, that's all from me." Then, everyone had question marks popping up, like, "Huh? What was that?" I imagine they were like, "Huh? I want to devote my life to my work..."
After that, there was a 15-minute gap between three or four people listening to what had just been said, and while it would have been the other guests' turn to speak as if they had cut ties, the finale had such a big impact that it was silent for a while, and later on, several people said they had gone outside and taken a walk around the city of Nara to cool their heads.

Although I tried to remain calm as the moderator, I was actually surprised and thought, "What is going on? I don't understand."
Over the next few years, I found opportunities to listen to him again and think it over. What Mukaiyachi said at that time was very convincing.

When working as a social worker, for example, there are times when a schizophrenic person you are involved with breaks a window in a house and is about to set it on fire, and it's like a fire. You rush into the scene, but the house is a quagmire, and you feel like the "atmosphere" is eating away at you. Sometimes, you end up getting spat on by the family when you rush to the scene, he said.

Jobs that involve supporting others inevitably have that kind of aspect to them, and normally when you work hard you get clear rewards like thanks or happiness, but often you don't get that.
So the point is that you shouldn't try to get the energy to keep working from the work itself.
This is especially true for the work of social workers. If you try to get energy from work, you may end up exhausted, so you have to be independent in another area. You have to replenish your motivation and energy to work yourself, otherwise you won't be able to function.

He explained to me that this is what support work is like, and I was able to understand very clearly.
But I thought that there might be something in Mukaiyachi's story that would shed light on the salarymen working around here as well. Just as I said earlier that "basically all work is 'social' work," I think there are some aspects of the story that could shed light on the girl who opened a bakery in town, on Manabe-san, who works as the manager here, and on me, who thinks about things at Kamiyama Tsunagu Public Corporation.

Manabe: What do you mean by there being something that illuminates you ? Is it that there is something that you can't get through your work, or that you get spat on?

Nishimura: He talks about "support professions like social workers," but I also feel that all jobs are support professions. Essentially.

Originally from Manabe .

Nishimura : Yes. Speaking of myself and Manabe-kun, even if we work really hard, how should I put it... we don't necessarily get praised or thanked or other obvious rewards. I think there are some similarities between us. At least for me, there are some similarities.

( To be continued )