My name is Nagai, and I work at the Suo-Oshima Satellite Office.
We moved to Suo-Oshima Town, Yamaguchi Prefecture in March 2017, and officially started our satellite office in April 2018. Three and a half years have passed since we started working here.
The first year was a busy one as I got used to life in a new place and established my base. The second year was a period of trial and error to see if I could do the work I do in Tokyo somewhere far away. The third year was a period of confirmation to see if I could really work in a way that would be sustainable as a job.
"Web production is a job that can be done anywhere." That was the idea behind the project, but in the end, it became an experiment to see what is important for people who want to live in the city, the countryside, or overseas, or who want to travel to different places while working, to be able to work in the job they want without being tied to a specific location.
We are now looking for a director to work with us at our Suo-Oshima office. We hope that many people will be interested, so we would like to introduce you to the work and life here.
It wasn't as easy as I thought! "Web design can be done anywhere"
Even though this is a recruitment article, I would like to start by telling you about the disadvantages.
Maybe it's a Suo-Oshima-esque expression to like telling people about the disadvantages (laughs). In Suo-Oshima, the people who work to encourage people to move there first list all the disadvantages to those who want to move, to the point that they don't want to. That's what happened when I consulted them about moving here when I decided to move, so I thought it would be nice if they didn't have to crush people's dreams before they even come.
However, this is the flip side of their sincere desire to have someone who can persevere and do their best, with the disadvantages already factored in. Before I knew it, this way of communicating had rubbed off on me. A mismatch is unfortunate for the host, but it's even more unfortunate for the person who comes.
The first hurdle: "I want to meet face-to-face"
My main job is production direction.
When creating a website, the job involves listening to the client's wishes and ideas and proposing ways to make them come true, coordinating the process with each production staff member, and ensuring that things proceed according to schedule while improving quality.
Although I do prepare materials, the job involves just as much communication with people as it does time spent alone in front of the computer creating or thinking about something.
Of course, in this day and age, there are many tools available for online meetings, and Monosus also uses various online meeting and project management tools. However, it can be difficult to tell through the screen whether the customer truly believes our proposal is good and accepts it, or if they are just finding it difficult to express their dissatisfaction.
In addition, even if you make a schedule for web production, things often don't go smoothly according to plan. When working together in separate locations, you may be doing things that you would do casually if you were in the same place, such as "X-san's work has been completed up to this point, so let's hand it over to △△-san" or "X-san's work tends to be delayed, so let's ask □□-san for help early." Sometimes you may end up not noticing that things are going ahead as planned.
Online meetings between people in different locations tend to share less information than face-to-face meetings.
The second challenge: Information is only available on the Internet
Working in the web industry, one thing I'm keenly aware of is that the Internet is overflowing with "only" the information I want to know.
With the improvement of social networking sites and recommendation technologies, and the sophistication of search engine algorithms, we have been pursuing "access to the information we want to know and see." As a result, it has become difficult to access information on the Internet that we "don't even know exists, and don't know whether knowing about it will be useful or useless."
The web industry is constantly evolving with new technologies and trends. Here, you have far fewer opportunities to come into contact with new information that you would not even have thought to search for, whereas you would naturally pick up new information if you were to chat with someone in the same industry sitting next to you in real life, or go to a large bookstore or IT event.
This means that there are fewer opportunities to ask yourself, "What is this that I don't know about?" In order to avoid working in a self-centered manner in this environment, you must always be even more aware than you would be in Tokyo of the idea that "there may be things that I haven't noticed, newer things, more optimal solutions."
There is no IT at all on the walking path just behind my house. There is no mobile phone reception, so I just concentrate on walking.
The third obstacle: the time difference with Tokyo
In fact, the biggest hurdle may be this third issue of "your own feelings."
The area of Chikamuro in Suo-Oshima Town is one of the areas with the most rapid aging and population decline in Suo-Oshima Town. The elderly men and women in the neighborhood eat dinner at 5 p.m. and go to sleep shortly thereafter. When the sun sets, the surroundings are plunged into silence.
Grandparents, watching over us with warmth, have repeatedly told us, "Don't push yourself, take it easy."
However, in Tokyo, especially in the IT industry, 5pm is still the middle of the workday, and during busy periods, work never ends at that time.
Working late into the night (which can be as late as 8pm!) in this tranquil, nature-filled town of Suo-Oshima requires a slightly different mental strength than working until 8pm in Tokyo, where the people in the town and next door are still working.
Even under a starry sky like this, there are days when I just can't get my work done.
Still, I would like to recommend working at the Suo-Oshima satellite office in Yamaguchi Prefecture.
In a sense, rural life and IT work are a form of spiritual training.
But on the other hand, there are of course many good points to note.
The biggest advantage of all may actually be the flip side of the disadvantage. In any case, the range of "change of mood" is amazing! If you are always working in front of a monitor in a room, you will end up getting stuck and worrying, so you will just do what is in front of you, and as a result, the situation will become even worse... Have you ever been stuck in a quagmire?
At times like these, if it's summer, I'll splash around in the ocean for 30 minutes, if it's this season I'll go hiking in the mountains where I won't meet anyone, if it's night I'll just stare at the starry sky and lose myself in it. My overheated head will quietly clear and I'll feel good again.
This experience is hard to convey in words. I want as many people as possible to experience it. Work hard when you need to, and take it easy when you need to. We are waiting for applications from people who want to have such a well-balanced work and life.
There's no denying that this year has dramatically increased the amount of work that can be done from anywhere, and that trend is unlikely to stop or reverse.
I don't dislike the work of creating websites, such as web production direction, design, and markup, but I often find myself feeling a bit frustrated when I think about it. If you are such a person, I would love to hear from you!
The top of the mountain can be reached by car. On a clear day, the view of Suo-Oshima and the Seto Inland Sea is spectacular.