[Feature: The Present State of Regional Migration] Rural Areas are a Treasure Trove of jitsugaku (science) — From Starting a Business in Fukushima and Living in Two Regions with Tokyo

Kunimi Town is located at the northernmost tip of Fukushima Prefecture, where the fertile clay soil of the Abukuma River basin brings rich blessings. Fruit trees are the mainstay industry, and the production volume of peaches is the highest in Japan for a town of its size.

The author founded a company in this town of Kunimi in 2017. It was a treasure trove of "jitsugaku (science)."

I was born and raised in Tokyo, and after graduating from university, I joined the Secretariat of the House of Representatives to work in a field closer to politics, which had interested me since my student days. I was assigned to the Foreign Affairs Research Office, a department that researches Official Development Assistance (ODA) and various treaties, where I worked for about two years. After that, I transferred to the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, where I was involved in measures such as the Industrial Competitiveness Enhancement Act and corporate governance. Later, I moved to the Japan Research Institute, Limited (JRI) to gain experience at a company closer to the front lines. At JRI, I was involved in regional revitalization across the country, working on tourism promotion and reconstruction projects.

However, after entering the workforce, I struggled with the conflict between "social status" and a "sense of emptiness." The year I became a national civil servant was 2010. Just as I was entering my second year of work, the Great East Japan Earthquake occurred. Images of the tsunami, the nuclear power plant, and people being evacuated were shown on the television at my workplace. Although I had aspired to be a national civil servant to "be of use to society," I regretted my inability to do anything. I also felt that I lacked the ability to do anything yet. Therefore, I first focused on performing the work in front of me more perfectly than anyone else and being recognized in the workplace. By the time I realized it, I had become dependent on "others" for my own evaluation criteria. After that, I changed jobs to JRI to face the front lines steadily without depending on the evaluation of others and to be of use to society while learning, but there I struggled with the gap between the company's thinking and my own. At JRI, I requested and handled many reconstruction projects for the Great East Japan Earthquake, but the source of funding was, of course, "taxes." I was tormented by guilt as I faced the reality that when the money ran out, the relationship ended.

Then, in August 2017, while keeping my home in Tokyo, I founded a company called "Hito-Bito Co., Ltd." in Kunimi Town, Fukushima Prefecture. I might not be able to do things on a grand scale, but I decided to develop a business that faces the local people steadily with my feet on the ground, balancing the resolution of social issues with economic profit.

First, I thought it was necessary to organize the essential issues of the region. When I first started the company, I had no business plan, and I listed every conceivable business purpose in the articles of incorporation, and I listened to various people while helping with farm work. There, I realized the reality that "valuable resources" were actually being discarded or not utilized. Therefore, I decided to develop new businesses that utilize these "wasteful regional resources."

Kunimi Town is a peach-producing area, but the first thing that surprised me was the "information asymmetry between the production area and the consumption area." In the production area, for example, "beautiful and large peaches" are perceived as "valuable," and the sorting criteria are set accordingly, so small ones or those with a slightly poor appearance are discarded. In Kunimi Town, about 3,000 tons of peaches are produced annually, but in a low year, 10%, and in a high year, 40% become non-standard products and are discarded or bought for processing at a very low price.

I learned that behind this is a complex multi-stage distribution structure from the production area to the consumer. For example, until produce reaches the consumer from the production area, there is a complex structure involving producers, collection and shipping stages, wholesalers, wholesalers/trading participants, trading companies, wholesalers, and logistics companies. As a result, the distance from production to consumption becomes long, leading to deterioration in freshness and taste, a low-margin/high-volume structure due to heavy commissions, a decrease in the attractiveness of working, and differences in value standards due to information asymmetry between upstream and downstream.

Certainly, in an era when the population was increasing, it was efficient to distribute products by dividing them into grades based on such sorting criteria from the perspective of stable food supply and sales at mass retailers. However, in the current era of population decline and diversifying needs, I began to question whether there is necessarily no need for "things with a slightly poor appearance" or "slightly small things," rather than just the criteria that have been considered valuable until now.

Also, I realized how hard it is to produce a single peach. Three years after planting a peach tree, you prune the branches, pick the buds, and after the flowers bloom and fall, you drop the small fruits that will become peaches. Throughout the year, through the seasons and the growth process of the tree, farm work is carried out by "human hands" until the day of harvest. According to the climate of that year and the weather of that day, manual work necessary for each moment is added, and each peach is carefully raised. I didn't want to waste a single one.

Therefore, I decided to challenge myself to build a new system that is not this complex multi-stage distribution structure and to create a structure that distributes peaches to where they are needed, including those that were previously considered "non-standard products." I hit countless walls, such as how to lower logistics and material costs and how to set up operations so as not to burden producers, and I was often told by those around me that it was "difficult" or "impossible." However, there is never "100% impossible" in the world, and I improved things one by one by thinking about "how it can be done." As a result, not only did the reasonably priced non-standard products sell, but many regular products also sold due to a synergistic effect. When I talk about this, I am often asked about relationships with local agricultural organizations, such as "Do you compete with the JA (Japan Agricultural Cooperatives)?" However, we have no intention of competing at all and aim for "coexistence and co-prosperity" in the region. This business of handling non-standard fruit is only possible because the JA and the Date Fruit Agricultural Cooperative are firmly and stably sending out Fukushima's delicious fruit to the whole country through joint selection, and we are taking on the "parts that are not being fully addressed" and the "parts that need to be responded to quickly," such as information dissemination, within the existing system. While exchanging various opinions with the JA and the Date Fruit Agricultural Cooperative, we are moving forward step by step in the same direction for the sake of the region. It is often said that "people in Tokyo are rich," but not everyone living in Tokyo is wealthy. By delivering reasonably priced items from the production area, I want to work together to create a scene where anyone, including children, can feel close to fruit and Fukushima's fruit is on the daily dining table.

One of the specialties of Kunimi Town is a dried persimmon called "Anpo-gaki." The astringent persimmons (Hiratanenashi-gaki and Hachiya-gaki) that serve as the material for Anpo-gaki are also cultivated with diligent care, just like peaches. After harvesting, the stems are left, the calyx is removed, the skin is peeled, and they are fumigated with sulfur to prevent mold and discoloration. They are then hung on strings and naturally dried in a drying area for about 40 to 50 days until the moisture content reaches about 50%. In this way, "Anpo-gaki," which is soft, dense, and sweet like yokan, is completed. The Anpo-gaki producers we deal with are kind and honest people. They face agriculture with a sincere attitude and spend a lot of time and effort producing Anpo-gaki. However, due to the aging of producers and labor shortages, even the persimmons they have gone to the trouble of cultivating cannot be fully harvested, leading to no income, and for various reasons, it has become a specialty product that does not make a profit. Therefore, I focused on the utilization of "persimmon peels," an unused resource that had been discarded in the manufacturing process of Anpo-gaki. First, I read through all kinds of materials about "persimmons" and "persimmon peels" and studied by listening to farmers and researchers. As a result, I learned that in the past, Anpo-gaki peels were dried and used as snacks for children, and I discovered the effects, benefits, and scientific evidence of persimmons. Therefore, I decided to extract ingredients from persimmon peels and create the organic cosmetics that I like. It took three years until I was satisfied from the heart with everything from the extraction method to ingredient analysis, formulation, scent, texture, and efficacy testing. Then, in January 2020, I was able to launch the organic delicate zone care brand "Ashita Watashi wa Kakinoki ni Noboru" (Tomorrow I Will Climb a Persimmon Tree).

Behind the development, in addition to improving regional income by utilizing unused resources, is my own past experience of falling ill. From my time as a national civil servant to my time as a consultant, I spent busy days without rest, and it was common for work to extend late into the night. Although I felt it was rewarding, it put a considerable burden on both my body and mind. What I realized while spending such days was that "it is important to have leeway in heart and time." And I began to want to create products that would serve as an opportunity for women who, like me, tend to work too hard, to look back at themselves. During the development of the products, I experienced pregnancy and childbirth. To be honest, I was bewildered by the hormonal imbalances and changes in motivation that I could not control during pregnancy, and after childbirth, I felt anxious about my body, which was different from before childbirth, amidst unfamiliar childcare.

"Ashita Watashi wa Kakinoki ni Noboru" is a delicate zone care brand created with the wish to be an ally to all women. There are many women who take on everything—work, housework, childcare—by themselves. "The delicate zone is a barometer for knowing your own heart and body." When the balance of the autonomic nervous system or female hormones is disrupted due to poor lifestyle or stress, it also appears as symptoms in the delicate zone. Therefore, through delicate zone care, I want to create opportunities for women to care for their hearts and bodies, noticing changes in their physical and mental state, such as whether they are overextending themselves or if there is any physical ailment, so that they can lead a life more true to themselves.

In this way, although things in the region were previously considered "valuable-less," if we go back through past history and research and re-perceive them with a new perspective, they turn into modern-day "treasures."

By starting a company in Kunimi Town, there was a major change in my "values." I would like to introduce some examples.

1. Gratitude for Everyday Life

As a member of a generation that grew up in an era where it is natural for many agricultural products to be lined up in supermarkets, I assumed that food was something that could naturally be obtained if you paid money. However, immediately after the Great East Japan Earthquake, food disappeared from Tokyo. I remember being stunned at the time when I was in the House of Representatives Members' Office Building. Food is "made by someone," "carried by someone," and "someone sets up a shop so that it can be purchased."

Mr. and Mrs. Suzuki, peach farmers in Kunimi Town, spare no effort to make delicious peaches. Agricultural products are possible only with careful work by human hands, not just the power of nature. In fact, even in the same Kunimi Town, with the same soil, the same climate, and the same variety, the taste changes depending on the producer who grows them. Even so, the two of them say firmly, "The sun is growing them."

"The difficult thing is that we humans don't completely understand the relationship between the sun and the trees. Peaches and persimmons are made by the sun. When the flowers fall and the leaves come out, the sun hits the leaves, photosynthesis occurs, nutrients go to the roots, the roots suck nutrients from the soil of the field, and the tree grows, the fruit grows, and delicious fruit is produced. At that time, for example, the farmer's job is to prune so that the sun hits the leaves." I respect their humble attitude that the main character is "nature" and the farmer only supports it.

The work and lives of the two are with the turning seasons and the sun. In the winter, they are out in the fields doing farm work from 8:00 a.m. until around 5:00 p.m. when the sun sets, and in the summer, from 4:00 a.m. until 11:00 a.m. when the sun has fully risen.

We are able to eat every day thanks to rich nature and human effort and technology. Meeting Mr. and Mrs. Suzuki reminded me to have a sense of gratitude for things that are easily forgotten in daily life.

2. The Weight of a Single Yen

When I was a salaried employee, it was natural to receive a salary as compensation for labor. Even at work, I didn't worry about "one yen" and was struggling with much larger budgets. However, when you become independent, you don't necessarily get a salary just because you worked. A huge budget is not suddenly handed to you either. Yes, during my time as a salaried employee, I had never struggled to earn a single yen.

I wrote that our company started by building the peach distribution mentioned above, but there was no way we could build logistics from the beginning, so at first, I was selling peaches by hand on the streets of Tokyo myself. It may only be one yen, but I still never forget the "weight of that one yen" and my gratitude to the customers who purchase them and the farmers who trust and trade with us every day.

3. The Essence of jinkan kosai (society)

In my life as a salaried employee until then, jinkan kosai (society) was of course necessary, but rather, logic and legitimacy were required within a narrow society with the same values and thought patterns. Naturally, logic is necessary even after becoming independent, but the base of the ability required in the region is ultimately the individual's humanity. In particular, for people coming from outside the region, economic rational decisions like "I'll sell it because it's profitable" are almost never made, and "trust" becomes the major premise, as in "I'll sell it because I trust you." I think the essence is the same in any business, but for someone coming from outside the region in particular, how difficult it is to build this trust. Since it is not about logic, there is no point in overthinking it, so I consciously tried to relax and be my honest self by "not telling lies." It's a strange thing. It is incomparably more comfortable than during my time as a salaried employee when I was concerned about how others saw me and their evaluations. My way of speaking, expressions, and interactions happen naturally as I am, without even being conscious of "making jinkan kosai (society) active." I have come to feel a "sense of happiness" in my relationships with others.

Finally, I would like to tell you a little bit about why I have chosen a way of life with two bases—the company in Fukushima and my home in Tokyo—without "rooting myself in the land."

The first point is that in order to demonstrate value as a company—that is, for us to do something meaningful for Fukushima—it is necessary to quickly grasp the needs and current situation of Tokyo and consumption areas where information and people are gathered, and to take actions quickly and flexibly. However, this is only possible because there are employees who are firmly rooted locally, and I want to thank them from the bottom of my heart.

The second point is that if I stay in one place, I myself tend to be easily influenced by that environment, and my perspective tends to narrow accordingly. It can be said that I have adaptability, but conversely, it means I end up living according to that environment, so I am trapped by the evaluations and value standards within that environment, and by the time I realize it, it has become difficult to perceive myself objectively. Living in multiple locations is not necessarily the "correct answer," but considering my personality and characteristics, this way of life is comfortable at the moment. That is why I strongly want to give back to society the knowledge I have gained through living in multiple locations.