IDEAS FOR GOODIn recent years of developments in regional revitalization, “relationship population” is a term that is attracting more and more attention. Relationship population are people who are related to certain areas in various ways. Their connection is more than that of a traveler or visitor, but less than a permanent resident. They are “fans” who love and support the area. In fact, there are more people from the cities who long to get connected to rural areas. However, it is still difficult to volunteer in an unfamiliar place, or to have multiple residences in both regions to establish a stronger relationship. That’s where “Otetsutabi” (Otetsutabi Co., Ltd.) comes in — the company offers services to make the first step.
Otetsutabi offers the opportunity for the participants to help at accommodations and breweries in many rural areas. This way, they learn how attractive rural areas can be. The locals offer transportation expenses and places to stay in return, so participants can travel to the areas with ease. After helping, these places become a special place for the participants. The experience encourages them to return and they subsequently become part of the relationship population. This is the aim of Otetsutabi.
Otetsutabi was established in the summer of 2018. It was also chosen for the Rakuten Social Accelerator at the same time, which aims to solve social problems by working together with Rakuten staff. As a result, members from Rakuten Co., Ltd. participated in Otetsutabi’s project for 6 months. We interviewed Nagaoka Rina, the representative director who is now trying crowd funding. We also talked with the members from Rakuten about Nagaoka’s passion on starting the business and the outlook of it.
Interviewee Profile: Nagaoka Rina
Born in Owase city, Mie prefecture and grew up in Aichi. After graduating Chiba University, she joined an event planning/production company as a director. She was responsible for promoting enterprises, project proposal, planning and managing events. After leaving the job, she started a project to promote Japanese food with MAFF (Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries), cooperating with municipalities across the country and visited numerous areas. In 2018, she established Otetsutabi Co., Ltd.The world changes completely when you become close to the locals
Q: How did you come up with the idea of “Otetsutabi”?
Nagaoka: While I was in my previous company, I had many occasions to visit niche markets like local Japanese food restaurants and farmers. There, the locals showed me their favorite bars and recommended sights to see. So what I thought to be an ordinary town changed, thinking “it’s a nice town”. I also love Owase city in Mie prefecture where I grew up. That is because my grandfather introduced me to many residents in the town and I came to love the people there.
It’s hard to find an area attractive when you visit rural areas by chance. But when you become close to the locals, the world changes completely. That “opportunity to feel the charm of rural areas” is what I wish to create, thus the beginning of Otetsutabi.
Q: What was the process like until Otetsutabi was established?
Nagaoka: At first, I planned to start the business side by side with my former job. However, the previous job would constrain me for 1 year because it was an annual bidding project by MAFF. I’m the kind of go-getter, so I decided to take the leap and quit my job. Though in reality, I didn’t know where to start as I had few connections with the locals and entrepreneurs. Although I was determined enough to quit my job, I was afraid from rejection. There were days when I would check job search websites too.
Gradually, I made up my mind and began talking to people about my aim. As a result, the people I talked to introduced me to the locals and gave me subcontracting arrangements to promote the area as a freelancer. This allowed me to steadily build relationships between the area and myself. After that, I spent what I earned for the rural area and rushed on to meet people from all over the country. I needed to understand the actual situation locally. In the meanwhile, whenever I was in Tokyo, I surveyed people on what would attract them to go to rural areas from various perspectives.
Her passion became the driving force, even affecting a large organization
Q: Where does your strong motivation come from?
Nagaoka: In the beginning, it was a sense of crisis that “attractive towns are going to disappear”. I also felt that I’ve been given a mission to promote their charm. I became aware of the fact that there are so little opportunities to know how attractive these areas are. So I couldn’t turn a blind eye on this problem and was constantly thought about it.
I also want to meet people’s expectations because they trust Otetsutabi and assisted me in connecting with rural areas. The members who were with me at the launch of Otetsutabi helped me out a lot. They made a list of hotels from Hokkaido to Okinawa, calling them earnestly to promote this service.
Q: Otetsutabi was chosen for the Rakuten Social Accelerator 6 months ago. What was it like for Rakuten members to work with Otetsutabi?
Suzuki (member of Rakuten Co., Ltd.): I followed her dream together. There was a sense of reward to be connected to the society and an experience startup at the same time.
Takahashi (member of Rakuten Co., Ltd.): I was lucky to have met someone with so much passion. I wanted to be of help to Ms. Nagaoka. I think such an encounter is a mental pabulum.
Nanbu (member of Rakuten Co., Ltd.): At Rakuten, we have a culture that values KPI (key performance indicators). I used to think that accomplishing the KPI goals was the only way to change society. However, this program taught me to shift my attention to “way of life”, “Japan” and “society”. I have gained new personal values by participating in this program.
Otetsutabi participants become the locals’ ties beyond the rural areas
Q: What were the reaction of associations that accepted the helping participants?
Nagaoka: By accepting people from outside the rural area, the locals are encouraged to work on their town’s attraction that was unnoticeable before. Some of the areas even ran a campaign to attract more participants because they became so fond of them.
Q: How can you increase the number of “fans” for rural areas?
Nagaoka: I had the chance to meet with people who work at local governments or those who promote migration. I discovered that the number of permanent residents and people who move in locally are KPIs in the local governments. This also meant that that a budget was allocated towards it.
However, before we can increase those numbers, we need to open the door to the visitors. Yet our participants say they didn’t have any particular requests on which areas to visit. They joined Otetsutabi because it seemed like fun, and only became fans after visiting the rural areas. Visiting the area makes one interested and attracted to the region.
Thus, these participants allow locals to have ties with visitors. Niigata and Tohoku experienced earthquake disaster which drew in many youths to the area compared to other districts. The youths didn’t have special feelings for Niigata or Tohoku in the beginning. But through helping others in need, the regions became the youths’ favorite places to visit.
The invisible but essential value of uncompromising hospitality
Q: You are trying crowd funding now, how did it start?
Nagaoka: The number of hotels is steadily decreasing. Current frequent guests are mostly over 50 years old, so the hotels are losing connection with young people. Some regular guests don’t promote their reviews on social networks or tell anyone about the hotel’s attraction. In the end, when those people are gone, hotels will close their businesses. Consequently, only hotels that can promote themselves will survive in the future.
In my personal experience, I realized there’s something that cannot be learned through online reservation sites or by being a visitor. That is “uncompromising hospitality”. It cannot be seen superficially, like through pictures of meals on the hotel’s website or from accommodation charges. Hospitality is not something the host shows off, so its hard to tell. But when you are physically there, you can see how much passion the hostess and the staff put into their work. I consider this hospitality as the true value of hotels.
Through crowd funding, I want to create a media so that participants of Otetsutabi can promote the hotels’ hospitality. This media would also become an unconventional alternative for travelling, which could attract others to stay at these hotels. I think this is something only Otetsutabi can accomplish.
Creating this media is a huge step for the company too, and I don’t believe we can do this alone. I chose crowd funding because I wanted more people to help us.
Making a world that regards the area attractive because it is humdrum
Q: What are the aims of Otetsutabi in the future?
Nagaoka: It’s difficult to move in to or permanently live in a rural area, not to mention having residences in multiple areas. So, I think it is important to keep people connected to the area in a “soft” way; if anything happens, they are willing to rush in to help. That is enough to change the world. It’s not about whether you can live locally or not. People will uncover new attractions of the rural areas that the locals have yet to discover, subsequently revitalizing the area.
At present, our main target audience are students, but working adults and the elderly are willing to participate too. I think we have a bright future because there are so many people who want to get connected to rural areas. I hope to widen our target of audiences so more skilled people can come and go between two regions like dandelion puffs, which will blend both regions’ excellence.
I want to make “Otetsutabi” a common term in 3 years’ time. The popularity of tourist sites may not diminish. But I believe that if trips to rural areas becomes common, visiting humdrum places can become actually interesting. “Opportunities in traveling” that allows interaction in different regions could also become a concept widely shared in the society. Thus, people will travel to various places, creating an amiable world in which one can travel around with ease. Our mission is “We will create new travels”.
Interviewer’s note
Nagaoka has great passion with a compassionate heart. Her character attracts people to pitch in and help.
I myself have a second home in Tohoku, where I volunteered. I care about the people and the area, even more so than my home town. Seven years have passed since my first visit, but I go on a visit at least once a year. I get an extraordinary fulfillment from the locals when they say, “come again”, before I leave.
Otetsutabi is not only relieving depopulation in rural areas, but they are also making an amiable linchpin in each of the participants’ hearts. There will be more focus in their future activities.
[Website] Otetsutabi[Definition] Regional Revitalization
This article was originally published on IDEAS FOR GOOD.
Translated by Chisato Shizume.
