2020年度の活動報告

Musashi University Faculty of Economics　Noriyuki Takahashi

2020年度の活動実績の概略

Due to the impact of COVID-19 throughout this year, the annual implementation plan was not yet finalized, and the research courses that are usually held face-to-face were only held three times at the end of the year via Zoom. In addition, while we usually visit three or four locations for on-site research, in 2020 we only visited one location.

Given the circumstances, which were more restrictive than in previous years, the following shows our achievements.

The first is the implementation of a community business "research" course. This research course, which has been held continuously since 2012, 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 a business, and those who have already started a business. The ultimate aim is to form a "community" related to community business. This year's course was held three times. The theme for this year was "community formation" and "starting a business" in the region. The lecturers were invited from the "communities" that have been connected and formed through community business research activities so far. It is a useful opportunity to continuously share information about activities in each region.

As this was the first time the event was held on Zoom and there was insufficient notice period, the number of participants was around 10 for all three sessions. The participants were always highly interested in the theme, and lively discussions were observed between the speakers and the participants, which suggests that the mission of "forming a community" was accomplished this time as well. Despite being held on a late weekday time slot, with the intention of participants being working adults, there were also university students in attendance, and they were seen to be actively participating in the discussion during the 30-minute Q&A session at the end.

The concept of the courses is shown in Table 1, the date, title, and instructor name of each course are shown in Table 2, and the number of participants is shown in Table 3.

Table 1 Community Business Research Course Concept

This year's theme is "community formation" and "start-ups." Areas where start-ups are active have characteristics as communities that are not seen in other areas. We will invite guests who are the real driving forces behind the formation of such communities and think about this theme together with the audience.

Table 2 Contents of the Community Business Research Course

times	Date and time	Title (Theme)	Lecturer
1st	Friday, February 26, 2021 18:30～20:30	The current state of community businesses and their creation	Ms. Akira Nagasawa Representative Director of NPO Community Business Support Center
2nd time	Monday, March 1, 2021 18:30～20:30	The region is an incubator	Hideyuki Funakoshi Shiga Prefecture Industrial Support Plaza Startup Support Division Manager's Guide
3rd	2021year 3Wednesday, March 3rd 18:30～20:30	From the "100-Year Forest Initiative" to "Enjoying Life"	Takahiro Ueyama Nishiawakura Village Regional Revitalization Promotion Office Counselor

Table 3 Number of participants

times	No.1times	No.2times	No.3times
Total number of participants	11 people	10 people	13 people
Number of students	2 people	1 person	2 people

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

Due to the impact of COVID-19 this year, we only conducted one interview survey in one area in November when the infection situation had calmed down. The schedule, themes, and main contents are as shown in Table 4.

Table 4. Outline of the field survey

times

schedule

Themes etc.

Main Contents

１

November 13th to 15th, 2020

Echizen City, Fukui Prefecture

Takefu Knife Village

Echizen knives have a 700-year tradition, developed under the patronage of the Fukui Domain in the mid-Edo period, and boasted an annual production scale of one million knives in the early Meiji period. However, like many other production areas, they declined due to changes in lifestyle and technological innovation (the appearance of stainless steel knives). However, in the early 1980s, 10 young craftsmen at the time took the lead and established Takefu Knife Village as a joint workshop and sales outlet, with the common understanding that they would preserve the traditional manufacturing method (heating steel and metal in a furnace and shaping it with a hammer) while incorporating new designs. Normally, such facilities lose momentum as the founding group ages, but Takefu Knife Village continues to attract young people, and even today half of the members are in their 20s and 30s. Moreover, these young people come from all over the country, not the children or relatives of the founding members. The products themselves are highly regarded overseas, and demand is strong, making it a unique presence among production areas. One of the central figures, Kamo Katsuyasu, gave a lecture at the Community Business Research Association in 2018. At the time, the main theme of the lecture was the products, but once the COVID-19 situation calms down, they plan to hold a lecture with young people gathering together and focusing on the reasons why traditional production areas are maintained.

End

Study Group