2018年度の活動報告

Musashi University Faculty of Economics　Noriyuki Takahashi

2018年度の活動実績の概略

This year, we carried out two main activities.

The first is the implementation of a community business "research" course. This course has been held continuously since 2012. The research course is aimed at people who want to learn more about community business and those who have already started a business, and covers the environment surrounding community business and hot topics in the area. It is characterized by being aimed at a wide range of people, including those who are only interested, those who have no intention of starting a business themselves but are interested in supporting it, those who are considering starting, and those who have already started. The ultimate aim is to form a "community" around community business. For this reason, the research course does not simply end with the lecturer giving a talk, but instead devotes the last 30 minutes or so to a place for participants to interact with each other.

This year, the event was held a total of five times, with the theme of this year being traditional Japanese industries.

Participants' interest in the theme was consistently high, and lively discussions were observed between speakers and participants, achieving the mission of "forming a community." However, the fact that the number of participants was below the capacity again is something to reflect on. The reception desk was set up at Musashi Enterprises, just like last year, but as there was no publication in the ward newsletter this year, the lack of awareness will remain an issue to be addressed in the future. The concept of the course is shown in Table 1, the dates, titles, and lecturers for each course in Table 2, and the number of participants in Table 3.

Table 1 Community Business Research Course Concept

Traditional skills and industries that have been cultivated in the local community are now facing difficulties in business succession, but they are increasingly entering the tourism industry, including inbound tourism, and taking on global initiatives. We will hear about the learnings from the past of traditional industries as examples of community businesses that are driving regional revitalization from new angles.

Table 2 Contents of the Community Business Research Course

times	Date and time	Title (Theme)	Lecturer
1st	Heisei30year11month20Sun (Tue) 18:30~20:30	Creating a system to pass on Japanese traditions to the next generation	Ms. Erika Mori Aeru Co., Ltd.
2nd time	Heisei30year11month27Sun (Tue) 18:30~20:30	"Lacquer art of the Kaga Domain of one million koku" Inheritance of Kanazawa lacquerware	Mr. Yoshihisa Oka Nousaku Co., Ltd. Chairman and Representative Director
3rd	Heisei30year12month4Sun (Tue) 18:30~20:30	Preserving local industry and umbrella culture ~Towards the Creation of Umbrella Village~	Hajime Hashimoto Fukui Umbrella Co., Ltd. President and CEO
4th	Heisei30year12month11Sun (Tue) 18:30~20:30	Now, in Japan, the old is new. Get excited about a long-established company.	Mr. Takada Hisashi Takada Textile Co., Ltd. Managing Director
5th	Heisei30year12month18Sun (Tue) 18:30~20:30	"We will not let traditional industries die out!" The history of the knife makers' challenges	Mr. Katsuyasu Kamo Takefu Knife Village Cooperative Association Director and Traditional Craftsman

Table 3 Number of participants (maximum 30 people)

times	No.1times	No.2times	No.3times	No.4times	No.5times
Total number of participants	15 people	14 people	15 people	16 people	15 people
Number of students	3 people	1 person	4 people	3 people	4 people

The second is a field survey of local community-based revitalization efforts.

This year, a total of four interviews were conducted in four regions. The dates, themes, and main contents are shown in Table 4. There was one continuing survey and three new surveys.

Table 4. Outline of the field survey

times	schedule	Themes etc.	Main Contents
１	2018year 10month6day	Field survey Fukui City, Fukui Prefecture Regional revitalization (New)	With the dramatic increase in inbound tourism, traditional crafts are opening up markets to the world and creating new value. We conducted a field survey to investigate the current situation and issues. We introduced the efforts of a knife and umbrella company in a community business seminar and shared the results with the research group.
２	2019year 2month24Day ~25day	Field survey Nishiawakura Village, Okayama Prefecture Regional revitalization (New)	We conducted a field survey to find a successful example of local entrepreneurship. Forest95%The headwater villages, which account for more than 100,000 people, have formulated a regional development vision called the "100-Year Forest Initiative" to link the regeneration of forests to local employment and revitalization.30Currently, the number of births per year is20Due to natural increase, such as exceeding the number of people1500The program also included interviews and tours of local venture businesses.
３	2019year 2month26Day ~27day	Field survey Kurashiki City, Okayama Prefecture Kojima Regional revitalization (New)	We conducted a field survey to find out the current state of the efforts of companies that are finding high added value in the technical capabilities of local traditional crafts. We visited Takada Orimono Co., Ltd., a tatami border company that was introduced in a community business course, and interviewed the central figure behind the revitalization of Kojima's "Jeans Street," which is known as a world-famous denim production area.
４	2019year 3month29Day ~30day	Field survey Yomitan Village, Okinawa Prefecture Regional revitalization (continuation)	In order to further develop revitalization measures that utilize local resources, an event called the Ryukyu Lantern Festival is being held as a new measure to deal with the low season and attract visitors. Field surveys and ongoing surveys of this initiative are being conducted.

Study Group