I'm always leaning forward.
"I don't want to give up" - Yoshiko Nakaniwa's passion.

It has already been eight years since I joined Monosus.
Some people may think of her as a "designer", while others may think of her as a "director", or perhaps an "editor".

She wears different hats depending on the project she is involved in.
I always sprint to reach a better goal.

At the heart of it all is a burning desire not to give up.

Designer, director, and editor (and maybe a little more?). Yoshiko Nakaniwa is always pushing forward with her projects. Today, I would like to tell you a little about her.

The joy of editing that awakened the literary girl

She says she was shy when she was young. When she was in elementary school, she couldn't start a conversation and would pretend to read books while alone. Then she gradually started to realize how interesting books were and began to enjoy reading. Before she went to junior high school, she started reading adult novels, and grew up to be a precocious literary girl.

He has always had a tendency to lose sight of what's going on around him when he is absorbed in something. He would often walk around thinking deeply and not notice people he knew. (He says that his "field of vision is extremely narrow.")

A liberal arts girl who loved literature and AM radio, she decided to further her education by entering the Faculty of Literature, where she encountered the subject of "text theory."

Text theory is a method of interpreting a work by separating the work from the author and interpreting the context, moving away from the conventional idea that the author's intention is the correct answer. In learning text theory, students will also come into contact with contemporary thought and learn a critical perspective for interpreting works.

Various works that he had been familiar with until now appeared in a completely different light. He found it fascinating to interpret casual descriptions and props that appeared in the book from a social background, and to deconstruct literature and put it back together like a puzzle. He said he was excited to discover that works that he had only followed the storyline in the book could be enjoyed again and again in new ways by reinterpreting them from a critical perspective.

The front page of "Teach Me the Way to Survive Our Madness" by Kenzaburo Oe, who was my favorite author at the time and who I also wrote my graduation thesis on. He said that he had been taking notes on sticky notes about what was written on each page, and this is what happened.

Understanding things from multiple perspectives. This is not just about literature, but also the real world. Try connecting A and B from among the many pieces of information, and reconstructing it from a different angle. She realized that an editorial perspective is important to come up with some kind of solution.

Editing is kind of fun.

It took some time for that awakening to take shape as a job. After wandering around, he became interested in the web industry and joined Flasher (producing websites, games, and animations using Flash, which was mainstream at the time). After that, he studied design and joined Monosus. While working on projects as a designer, he gradually expanded the scope of his work, such as directing the operations of a fashion building website and creating content for the website.

As the first editor-in-chief of the Monosas site

Then, in the fall of 2015, five years after joining the company.
With the renewal of the Monosasu website, I have volunteered to become its first editor-in-chief.

When CEO Hayashi asked her, "You said you were interested in owned media, right?", she replied, "Ah, yes," but once she decided to do it, she wanted to make it interesting! This is where her true talent came into play.

This is a site that is truly amazing. It is an incredible thing where members take turns writing articles every day. Nowadays, we are able to share the feeling of writing articles and the operation schedule, but back then, everything was still in the dark. Everyone was confused and bewildered by the sudden nonstop situation.

She was the one who pulled the team along with great energy. Although she was the editor-in-chief, she was the only editorial staff member at first. She was running around the company every day, discussing articles, and taking photos of Instagram stories. She was working on articles herself, but she was always in front of her computer late into the night, saying that she couldn't finish the next day's article in time.

Of course, troubles are commonplace. Sometimes, his enthusiasm gets out of hand and he clashes with other members... I understand the position of everyone who is pressed for deadlines. But he has to write articles, and he wants to make the Monosasu site better. Even as he sheds tears out of sight, he also leans forward with sparkling eyes, saying, "This is a great idea!" or "This angle might be interesting." That's what's amazing.

Starting something from scratch is really hard.
Without her fighting spirit, getting back up like an indomitable boxer no matter how many times she was knocked down, I don't think the Monosastu site would have been able to get on track.

A few months after becoming editor-in-chief, he won the "Best Monosasist" award at the Monosas Awards 2015. His enthusiasm and enthusiasm for what he does, rather than being forced to do it, has resonated with readers.

I want to know! I want to learn! I want to share!

After two tumultuous years as editor-in-chief, she has now left the editorial department to broaden the scope of her work. Using the skills she has developed thus far, she is creating work that only she can do.

Of course, there are big walls.
As she herself says, her field of vision is extremely narrow, and when she is absorbed in something, she cannot see anything around her, and when her capacity is exceeded (which happens pretty quickly), she becomes half-crying. Her feelings are so strong that they often clash, and she sometimes puts up an invisible barrier around her and blocks out the world around her.

She's not particularly dexterous, nor does she have good balance. But no matter how difficult things get, when her antennae sparkle and she spots something interesting, she approaches it, leaning forward and moving forward. I think that's her strength.

He is also keen on his work outside of it. He took part in a hackathon to solve local issues in Tohoku, and went to Hokkaido to visit the social welfare corporation Urakawa Beteru no Ie. He also took part in interview workshops and study sessions in Tokyo, and is always busy finding time to pursue his interests.

A courtyard for craft beer lovers. At the hackathon (Field Hack TONO) held in Tono City, Iwate Prefecture, the city with the highest hop production in Japan, we took on the challenge of developing an app that connects hop farms with users.

At the root of all this is her desire to know.
Of course, I think what motivates her is not just the desire to know, but the desire to learn more deeply and to communicate.

I want to create interesting content, I want to create something good. If I give up now, it will end up being half-done, and that's something I can't bear. Her passion and tenacity sometimes make me want to "just let go!", but there are some things that are only possible because she is able to push through to that extent, and it's amazing that there are some things that only she can do.

What kind of world will this girl, who once looked at the world through literature, carve out for herself through her work in content creation? I look forward to continuing to watch over her.

Fly! Yoshiko Nakanishi!