"Connecting and connecting" with the local community and people
Our co-creation begins in Kamiyama Town.
Interview: Hirotomo Kedouin

This is a series in which we take a closer look at the "yardstick" that each individual holds, and the first person to appear is Kedouin Hirotomo, founder of Kamiyama Juku in Kamiyama Town, Tokushima Prefecture, and representative of Relation, the company that runs it.
Monosus and Kido-san first met about three years ago. We just wanted to eat delicious food, drink and have fun...
Although it started out as such a friendly relationship, it has now grown into a relationship in which they have worked together to start Kamiyama Juku (commonly known as Monosasu Juku), a new business venture for Monosasu that trains HTML coders.

I first met Kidoin-san three years ago on my second visit to Kamiyama.
I always call him Ked-san, so I'd like to call him that here as well.

I had visited Kamiyama for the first time a month earlier and fell in love with the town at first sight. I impulsively felt I wanted to do something there, so I immediately returned with two other members to find a concrete connection with my company.

Kedō began his greeting by saying, "I don't like IT companies, but I came to see you guys because I heard you're from Ehime."
(I was born in Kyoto, but finished elementary, middle, and high school in Ehime.)

It was a greeting full of various prejudices, but I somehow liked Kedō's attitude, and since then we have gradually grown closer, and now we are very close friends.

I am truly happy that this year we will be able to work together on a vocational training program called Kamiyama Juku.

To me, he is a person who symbolizes one of Monosus' themes, "Working with people you want to live with."

(Monosus, Takahiro Hayashi)

The driving force was a growing sense of inferiority
Connecting people and communities to move the town forward

The first in the series... is it okay if it's me? Well, it's okay, I guess whoever chooses is responsible (laughs).

It all started with a feeling of inferiority. I'm from Tokushima Prefecture, but I've always dreamed of going to Tokyo and Osaka since I was a child. But I thought I'd go to a university in Ehime and get a job in the city, but that didn't happen. So I gave up on going to the city and decided to go back to my hometown and become the president of a company. I became a businessman and worked as a real estate consultant, but then I had my second child at the age of 28. It was around this time that I started to seriously think about what I should do to start my own business.

At our office on the day of Monosus' 11th anniversary party.

It was just when community businesses and social businesses started in cities. NPOs and intermediary support groups were formed, and a movement to turn solving local issues in a sustainable way into a business emerged. It reached my ears, even though I had no interest in such things. From there, I began to wonder what true sustainability is...and I still think about it now.

Participated in organizing an event related to the TV drama "Osanaki no Himawari" with young people.

At that time, while working as a salaryman, I also started activities to connect the younger generation with the local community. There are around 30,000 young people in Tokushima Prefecture in their 20s. But you don't see them in the shopping district, and young people say they have no place to hang out. For example, if you want to play music, there are live houses and jazz cafes in the city, but there is no "opportunity" to go there. I thought I should do something about that, so I tried holding a matching event to connect young people with the local community, and it went surprisingly well. At that time, I encountered the keyword "connect and connect," which would become my theme later. I felt a sense of accomplishment there, so in 2008 I quit my job and started a company called Relation .

From Work-in-Residence to Kamiyama Academy: Creating a new village in the region

Participated in the rice planting event for the terraced rice field revitalization project "Inheriting the Earth in Kamiyama" with Chairman Ominami.

When I was thinking about how to go about regional planning and community business, I read a recruitment article in the Tokushima Shimbun newspaper that said, "Kamiyama Town is implementing a work-in-residence program, so why not start a business?" I thought, "What on earth is this?" and looked into it, and found out that it was a system in which the hosting party nominates entrepreneurs and other workers that the town needs, and that it was run by a local NPO called Green Valley. I immediately thought, "That's interesting! This is it!" and contacted them, and the representative, Shinya Oonami, answered the phone. He is the person who dramatically changed my outlook on life... it's embarrassing to say this (laughs).

When I joined the work-in-residence program, the first project I was given was the restoration of rice terraces in Eda village, Kamibun, Kamiyama Town. I worked in the rice fields while being trained by the local grandparents. The company wasn't making a penny and things weren't going well, but strangely, I had no doubts and it was simply a lot of fun. Up until now, I'd been in real estate and moved a lot of money, but I don't even have the skills to tie a single string on a light truck. Now, the old men around me are creating all kinds of things from a single tree. Witnessing the wisdom of life and vitality made me wonder what I had been doing up until now.

Preparing for weeding as part of the terraced rice field revitalization project "Inheriting the Earth in Kamiyama."

Since I come from a consulting background, I had the ability to look for national systems, subsidies, and grants, so I thought it would be good to use the Ministry of Health, Labor, and Welfare's vocational training school system, so I came up with a plan and took it to Ominami-san. He said he wanted to create a new community where both young people and the countryside overlap. He wanted to call it a "village" and create a new village. So he said... "Why don't you do it?" That was a great quote (laughs). It wasn't just lip service and irresponsible agreement, but words that came out after he had listened carefully to my intentions and accepted them. It was almost my first experience of that kind. And from that was born "Kamiyama Juku."

The seventh term of Kamiyama Juku started this month, and we have switched to a new system that will place a greater emphasis on relationships.
One part of the curriculum is a "Coder Training Course" where you can learn web coding with Monosus.

Kidoin preaches the catchphrase for the 7th class of Kamiyama Juku, "Raise your gaze."

A class scene from Kamiyama Juku's 7th class.

From playmates to workmates: three naughty guys from Tokyo

I met the Monosus team about three years ago. Many companies come to Kamiyama Town for inspections, and Monosus was one of them, and I happened to encounter the trio of Hayashi, Manabe, and Makoto. I got the impression that they were young and cocky, talking about "creativity" and "IT" (laughs). At first, I was just going to say hello, but when I talked to them, I found out that they were all from Shikoku and childhood friends...and at that point, I thought "these guys are the best!" and got excited. There was no way they could be bad guys with all these conditions (laughs). It was those mischievous trio who helped me overcome my Tokyo allergy. They all looked like they were having fun like boys. I like the naming sense of "Monosus" and I sympathize with the company's concept .

We have an event called "Nabe Summit" that we quietly hold every year. There is no participation fee, we just decide on a location, and customers bring their own pots and ingredients, and we all get together and cook and eat hotpot (laughs). Last year, it was held in Ehime, but it rained so we announced the cancellation, but Hayashi-kun, who was planning to come, came even though it was raining because he "went out of his way to get a plane ticket." The rain wasn't too bad, so we were thinking of holding it with just people from nearby, but we never expected him to come! But without that day, the idea of Monosus participating in Kamiyama Juku would never have come up.

The NABE Summit was held in 2012 at Tami Farm in Ikawa-cho, Miyoshi City, Tokushima Prefecture.

The NABE Summit was held in Megijima, Kagawa Prefecture in 2015. It was cancelled due to rain?! But still, many of our friends gathered.

Regional revitalization is a matter of results.
Working together with the community for our own sake

Kamiyama is a creative town now, but 50% of the residents are over 65 years old. No matter how hard we try, in 20 years, the population will be forced to decrease. How can we creatively revitalize this situation from now on? We are grateful to Green Valley for accepting us, and to the local men and women who have nurtured this land, but first and foremost, we do it for ourselves. "Together with Kamiyama" is important. Because we believe that regional revitalization is a matter of results. I have been able to comfortably create the business relationships and human relationships that I envision with everyone at Monosus. They are interesting both as a company and as a person, and I think this is the charm of connecting. They have cleared up the image of IT and creativity in Tokyo that I hated so much, and broadened my horizons (laughs).

At Monosus' 11th anniversary party. From left: Sugi-san (Relation Co., Ltd.), Kido-san (Relation Co., Ltd.), Ominami-san (NPO Green Valley), and our company's Hayashi and Manabe.

Recently, I feel like there are communities in Tokyo too, and I no longer see things in terms of whether it's Tokyo or the countryside. I want to continue eating meat, having hotpot, working together, and creating interesting things together.