Help someone's dream come true,
Solving the world's problems,
I want to become stronger myself.
- budori Co., Ltd. -

In one word, it was fate. While helping with the Tohoku earthquake recovery efforts, I got to know the chairman of a forestry cooperative in Akiruno City, who asked me if I knew about the current state of Tokyo's mountains.

I learned that about 60% of the forests in the Tama region are manmade forests, consisting of large numbers of cedar and cypress trees planted by our grandparents and great-grandparents' generations to meet the demand for building materials for large-scale housing that accompanied the postwar economic growth.

Mountains created by human hands cannot be maintained without human intervention. However, the demand for domestic timber has decreased due to the availability of cheaper imported timber, and so even if the timber is cut down, it cannot be sold, and so it is left abandoned.

Mountains that are no longer managed by humans lose their balance,
Currently, due to the problem of hay fever, trees are being cut down and the timber is piled up without any use.
The forestry cooperative's request was, "We want more people to know about this issue," and "We want to find ways to make effective use of the wood we cut down."

It is linked to one's own past experiences, and I think that everyone has a point that resonates with them, such as Naya's idea for "Kinezuka," which I will talk about later.

Regarding wood, I regret having imported wood from overseas in my previous job. The cost of Japanese timber was not competitive, so we brought it in many foot-long containers from China, Germany, and other countries, and as a result, Japan now has a surplus of wood. Of course, it is difficult for us at budori to solve all the problems, but if there is anything we can change using the wisdom and experience that we all have, I would like to tackle it.

So, it's not about making a big profit from selling the " KINO Creation Kit ." It's a tool to communicate the current state of forests, and the product packaging contains information about the problems facing Tokyo's mountains.

Creating booklets is one of our specialties. However, to realize the contents of the consultation, a booklet alone is not enough. So, we proposed to combine it with actually using your hands, touching wood, and creating something.
At first, they join because it's fun to make things, and then they learn about the current state of Tokyo's forests. The same goes for the KINO room.

There is a wooden room with a blackboard on top of the office building, which makes it look like a school and is interesting. If the people who come here talk about it, the connections will expand. Mr. Okuyama came to interview me today (laughs).

It is usually used as a rental space, and many companies use it for media interviews and filming, or as a change of pace when they want to hold company meetings somewhere else.

As a result, we were able to incorporate the ideas that we at budori have as our theme into the KINO Creation Kit.

It's about making something for other people. This may sound a bit preachy, but I think the origin of work is not to do DIY for yourself, or to spend time on yourself, but to think about someone else and make something for someone else.

When you make the KINO Making Kit, you can think of the person you love the most and imagine what size and shape your grandmother's or child's mouth was, and it will give you a warm feeling as you make it.

Ogasawara was also a coincidence (laughs). As the project for "KINO" progressed, someone introduced me to Hahajima, asking, "Did you know that there are tree problems in other parts of Tokyo too?" So I decided to go and check it out.

The story was that the number of invasive species of trees, called Akagi, had increased too much and it was getting out of hand. They were cutting them down to restore the ecosystem, but they couldn't find a way to use the wood. So... that's what I wanted to ask for.

His first visit was three years ago, and since then he has had some twists and turns, but now he is helping out with a project on Ogasawara rum.
The rum factory on the island itself was built with 100 million yen of the hometown revitalization grant from the time of Prime Minister Takeshita. However, because of how it started, there was no money to update the equipment, so it gradually went into decline, and the brewer was working hard alone.

The people from the tourist association and the divers, who couldn't miss this opportunity, were talking about aging rum on the ocean floor and having people enjoy the experience of immersing it. I happened to be visiting the island and asked if I could help promote it.

We are working with the tourism association to develop the brand, including designing the logo and bottle labels, creating booklets, and building a website. This bottle is temporary, though." (Holding a bottle of rum in KINO's room)

The reason it looks dirty is because it is aged by sinking it to the bottom of the sea. Originally, sugar cane was grown in the Ogasawara Islands, and rum was also a specialty of the area.

However, sugarcane cultivation has fallen into disuse, and currently they are procuring sugarcane from Okinawa to make rum. They also hope to eventually restart sugarcane cultivation and bring back 100% Ogasawara-produced rum.

The office is set up in a rented room at a pension. When we asked the people of Hahajima, they said that although there are people and companies who want to help, they rarely actually come to the island.

However, I go to Hahajima several times a year, and all of my employees also go there at least once. During that time, we came to the conclusion that we wanted you to establish an address on Hahajima and work there, and that it would be easier to discuss future work.

The shortest trip to the area is five days. You can't use the internet on the boat going there and back. There's no time difference though. If it's typhoon season, the boat may not be able to leave. Once, the president couldn't return home for a few days because the boat wasn't leaving, right?

It took three days.

But it's better to go to the site. If you stay in Tokyo and work, you tend to think, "This is fine!", but if you go there, it's overturned. You can see both the good and the bad, and you realize that it's difficult to brand yourself with just design.

Even when we gave a presentation about Ram, there were some people who were reluctant about the project. That kind of information is something you don't want to let slip to the production site.

What kind of people are involved, what are their thoughts, and what kind of mood are they in? It was a great benefit for me to go there and learn about that. Although I got seasick, which was tough (laughs).

It was helpful that everyone at our company was patient and tried to respond to my requests. In fact, as Naoya said, I believe that design is not just about being pretty.

The important thing is that everyone takes it personally. The designer, the drafter, the person thinking up the words. I want everyone to take what they have been consulted on as their own. If you just quickly put it together with pretty words and pretty design and give a presentation while keeping it as someone else's problem, it won't get across and it won't be beneficial to the person who requested it.

First, I go to the site, talk at length with the client, and make it my own. I want to cherish this time.

In fact, by having that one buffer, everyone becomes serious, and when the switch is flipped, their eyes change color. I know people might say that I take advantage of that (laughs). But, since we only have one life, I want people to take their work personally, and work on it while pressing the button that says they want to do it. That's what I feel most strongly about myself.

I guess that it's because the customers who worked with you found it easy to work with you to a certain extent... But was there anything they specifically said to you because of this?

They don't know whether to do it on the web or on paper, what the design direction should be, and they don't even know who to ask. There are many cases where we start talking with clients from the beginning.
By thinking about these things together and creating them carefully, they may be able to introduce you to other people.

Of course, there are cases where we are asked to create something beautiful within a certain time and budget, but personally I find joy in working with clients who don't know who to turn to for advice.
I also think that by doing this kind of work, when someone else in the same situation comes along, they will think of budori.

Thinking and creating together is also the philosophy of budori. Sometimes, while listening to the online consultation, we transfer the consultation to paper, and vice versa. Sometimes, we transfer the consultation that was originally on paper to the online version.

This is the case with "Iroha" (bringing samples of products branded with Hokkaido's Yumepirika).
We were introduced to a person who runs an e-commerce site for Yumepirika specialty stores in Hokkaido, and they wanted to create a booklet introducing rice for babies. After we met and talked, they decided to let us take care of the brand name (which was originally a different name), as well as the design and promotion.

It comes in a gift box perfect for a half-birthday celebration and includes a food education karuta card.

When we start with an introduction like "Iroha," sometimes people who don't have the budget come to us for advice.

In those cases, we sometimes suggest ways to make good use of subsidies from the national and local governments. We ask, "Here's a system like this, why don't you make good use of it?" In an increasing number of cases, the president of the company will follow up on how to utilize the system, help the client secure the budget, and create a schedule.

As the number of contract jobs increases, it becomes more and more difficult to make it your own. Therefore, we hold business meetings once a month to create a service that we can provide ourselves. The service that started from there was "Kinezuka," and the idea was conceived by Naya.

About two years ago, we had a discussion meeting where we all wrote down the work we wanted to do on sticky notes and stuck them on the wall. If there was something that stood out to us, we'd try it. At that time, I brought up "Kinezuka."

I'm now in my late 30s, and I'm embarrassed to say that up until then I had been living a very carefree life. Of course, I was working, but I was single and spent my money and time on myself, so to speak, living a life that was like an extension of my student days.
Then I got married and my parents retired. The question of what the future would bring suddenly became a reality, and various social issues started to affect me personally.

I was particularly concerned about work. While there are complaints about a labor shortage, there are many senior citizens of my parents' generation who are looking for work. For the sake of my parents and my future, I have to do something. That was the trigger for me to wonder if I could resolve this discrepancy.

The theme is that humans, as long as they are alive, should make the most of their time, and they don't want their remaining life to be just that. They don't want to live the rest of their life or be treated like a nuisance. It would be great if these thoughts resonated with everyone and brought about even a small change.

Since then, I have taken the lead and am currently preparing for the opening.

The common thread throughout today's talk is that we value "creating jobs." We spend about 40 years of our lives working. During that time, we want to help others achieve their dreams, solve problems in the world, and become as strong as Budori himself.
And through this work, both our clients and we can accumulate experience and skills, become more independent, and then it would be fantastic if we could create something together in another form.