Special Interview 2Interview with Taizo Ohta, Chairman of the Executive Committee of FactorISM (Feb. 14, 2024)

Local Factories as Magnificent EntertainmentVenues
By Japan SPOTLIGHT

Introduction
JS: We introduce an energetic andhighly motivated start-up in almost
every issue, and we think yourFactorISM is an innovative
development that would be of greatinterest to our readers. Could you
briefly introduce yourself and tell
us how it can about?

it?
Ohta: In our company, to give an example, we
make many kinds of rubber products, somefor daily use like rubber bands and tires, andothers that can be stretched enormously or
can contain electric wiring. We conduct
chemical experiments for these products inwhich children can become more familiar
with the materials involved. In some others,
the children can experience welding or bypushing a button on a big pressing machineweighing around 100 kilograms they canmake a product to take back home. In short,they can enjoy our routine factory work as areal experience and take away their own
produced goods. This is a form ofentertainment.

Ohta: My company is named Kinjo Rubberand is 88 years old. We produce mainly
rubber and plastics in Yao city in Osaka
Prefecture. FactorISM is a voluntary projectto set up workshops or exhibitions to show
manufacturing works to the children in our
Taizo Ohta
region. Yao started up a consortium in 2018
to promote appreciation of the region and its manufacturing culture
to local children. A variety of companies have staged workshops as aJS: Among the participants, are there many local
people or people coming from other regions as well?
result. We thought it important that children can see how
manufacturing works in a real factory and experience the process ofOhta: There are, of course, many from the neighborhood near our
manufacturing by themselves. So we started FactorISM in 2020 inworkplaces and factories. But we are working across a wide areaorder to promote our working venues among as many people as
including 11 regions of Osaka, and we also have people coming evenpossible.
from the middle part of Japan, such as Gifu, or the northernmost
part, Hokkaido. So people come from all over Japan.
JS: This sounds quite unique. What was theirresponse?

Ohta: At the beginning of our project, we focused our efforts onchildren. It seemed, however, that the local residents, including thechildren, did not know very much about the factories in the region.
By opening up our factories to them, we hope for a deeper linkage
with residents, and that by learning about our companies thechildren of the region will become interested in manufacturing andperhaps be future players in technology.

Factories as Entertainment
JS: In your project, children can have a tour of yourfactories and observe real manufacturing work. Thismust be very entertaining for them. Are they enjoying

46 Japan SPOTLIGHT • May / June 2024

JS: So this is a project for stimulating young people’sinterest in future manufacturing by observing themanufacturing process or experiencing it, rather thanjust listening to talk?

Ohta: Yes, it is. In earlier times, we could see factory workers
actually performing their trade, such as cutting metal, andmanufacturing was closer to our daily life. But now I think ourdistance from manufacturing has widened due to safety restrictions
and the need for confidentiality in some production processes. If you
know very little about manufacturing, you are unlikely to choose it as
your future job. Our daily manufacturing work is now made possible
with wonderful technology and experiencing it is extremelyinteresting. We want to make this well known among young people
https://www.jef.or.jp/journal/

by opening up a factory. This is our mission. Craftmanship andtechnology can be transferred to the future generation through thisproject, we believe.
JS: Manufacturing, in particular among SMEs inJapan, is increasingly facing difficult times. Are you
also trying to enhance their motivation with thisproject?

Ohta: Yes. People working in daily routine manufacturing are
generally not well motivated, but we believe that they will become soas they get to understand that their goods are very valuable and are
the result of excellent technologies. And we think such motivation
would lead to pride in their profession.
JS: You started this project in 2020. That was when thepandemic started, so it must have been a bold thing
to do.

Ohta: Yes, we took the risk. The most important part of our project isto provide a physical experience of manufacturing, by watching theprocess, touching a product and working on the actual production.
This contradicted the government’s health guidelines at the time torefrain from going outside or gathering with many other people. So
we took advantage of online communication with a virtual factory
tour, providing the audience with photos taken with smartphone
cameras and videos of working people in factories, and by organizing
talks with factory owners. The pandemic was a challenge, but westarted FactorISM in the midst of the crisis in 2020 after having
thought about what we could do in tackling it.
JS: You were successful in attracting as many as

20,000 people to your project, a truly big impact.
Does that mean there were so many people who
found manufacturing wonderful?

Ohta: Yes, it does. The photos and videos of our factory’s routine
work in manufacturing clearly showed viewers how our products are
made. They knew only the completed goods, but could now closely
observe the manufacturing site itself, and thus many joined theonline event.

JS: Were the participating companies in your event

mostly manufacturers in Yao?

Ohta: The majority of them are from Yao, but many companies
joined the event from other areas in Osaka and the Western part ofJapan. People sharing their motivation with us are increasing and in2023 we had 83 companies participating in our event.
JS: Your company was founded 88 years ago and has

continued through the generations. Are theparticipating companies mostly your friends orcolleagues?

Ohta: We are a chemical maker, but among those participatingcompanies some are metal processing or resin molding firms. We
produce parts and components for household appliances. A wide
range of companies like auto-parts producers or soap and shampoo
manufacturers or makers of other daily-use goods come together tojoin our event. Some are second- or third-generation companies like
us and some are start-ups. Such great diversity among theparticipating companies is a characteristic of our event.

From Entertainment to Business
JS: Do these encounters in this entertainment venue

lead to business deals?

Ohta: I think our event occasionally results in business, but that was
not our original intention. To give an example of a case involving ourcompany, Kinjo Rubber: when the chairman of Snow Peak, a wellknown camping supplies maker in Niigata Prefecture, saw ourtechnology and production process in our FactorISM event, it
resulted in collaboration and product development of a shade forlanterns that we eventually sold.
There have also been some business opportunities realized bycollaboration among some of our supporters for this event, as wellas participants. Even when we have no particular product for B2B
business, such collaboration occasionally leads to greater
opportunities. In the case of a maker selling completed goods, thiscould result in increased sales and eventual expansion.

Japan SPOTLIGHT • May / June 2024

47

FactorISM as a Bridge Between JapaneseSMEs & Foreign Companies
JS: Are you aiming at future business alliances withcompanies abroad?

Ohta: That is exactly what we are aiming at now. Osaka will stage theWorld Exposition in 2025 and participation in this is one of our midterm management goals. We are now working on promotion of ourevent in this exposition. We want to highlight the quality of Japanesemanufacturing for the 10 million or 20 million visitors to theexposition from all over the world. To prepare for this, we have beenworking hard on translation of our Internet site and materials into
English since 2023. We are now working on collaborating with
university foreign language faculties to expand the availability ofEnglish language in towns or among tourist guides.
JS: Will you participate in the World Exposition in

Osaka in 2025?

Ohta: Yes. We are also planning to organize a factory tour for visitors
to the Exposition to show them our site and our routine
manufacturing process. We plan to set up many satellite booths toshowcase venues all over the Kansai district neighboring Osaka. In
these booths, we will try to give attractive presentations on what
Japanese manufacturing looks like for visitors.
JS: Do you have many inquiries about how to startsimilar projects from around Japan?

Ohta: Yes, we do. In many cases, people would like to come and see
FactorISM events on the first day. Many administrative officials cometo join our workshop or our open factory from all over the country.
We also have requests from them to give them presentations on ourwork.

Management of FactorISM
JS: How do you manage FactorISM as chairman of its

Executive Committee? How is it financiallymanaged?

48 Japan SPOTLIGHT • May / June 2024

Ohta: Our Executive Committee generally consists of volunteers keenon encouraging the activities of FactorISM. I am executive director ofthe committee. There are some other assignments among ourmembers, such as an event producer in charge of the whole projector a secretary-general in charge of supervising clerical work. We
manage FactorISM by ourselves through such clearly defined job
assignments among us.
As for finances, we are not particularly endowed with a sufficientbudget. There are many of our activities that are partly financed byeach of our own company’s budgets. To be honest, although each ofus bears a financial burden as much as possible, the rest of ourfinances come from fees paid by the participating companies andcooperation fees from collaborating companies. We allocate suchrevenues among our different activities and manage the totalbusiness as FactorISM, cooperating among ourselves to achieve anefficient use of the budget. In this regard, one future urgent issue is
how to increase our revenue.
JS: Each of you works on your own company’sbusiness and this is your voluntary activity.

Ohta: Yes, and there are even some who do not mind spending moremoney and time for this volunteer activity rather than their own
company’s business.
JS: I guess if you can promote this well among themedia, you could get more revenue?

Ohta: Yes, that is true. So we have been working continuously on
publicizing our events using SNS on our own. We do our best tocreate a virtuous cycle between our own promotion via SNS andusing the mainstream media.
JS: Utilizing SNS is very important, and would yourwebsite also need enriching?

Ohta: Yes. Because potential clients overseas would initially look at
Instagram or see our website when searching for partners, I think wemust improve our own content, while trying also to meet thestandards of various languages, including English and Chinese. At
the moment, we have seen an increase of around 20 participatingcompanies every year, so in 2024 I think we could have more than100 companies participating.

the world’s interest?

JS: Can you use movies for promotion?

Ohta: In 2023, we began an attempt to make our factory’s end
materials valuable by creating artistic pieces out of them. Likewise,
we are also working on a project that takes the environment into
account as a part of FactorISM, and we will be engaged in a big
subject on sustainable manufacturing consistent with environmentalconcerns.

Ohta: Yes, I think movies would be extremely important sources ofinformation. For example, we produce movies on behalf of FactorISM
by ourselves and also provide a service to promote movies for ourclient companies. We are thus working on increasing the channels oropportunities for issuing our information and views.
JS: Would involving traditional Japanese craftcompanies in your promotion of FactorISM expand
the interest of companies abroad in your activities?

Ohta: I think companies like traditional teacup producers or metalprocessing firms that began as knife sharpeners, which both have along history in Sakai city in this region, would naturally join us. In
other words, regardless of the size of any factory, what is importantfor us is how we can connect with other companies or factories. I
think we should showcase all kinds of manufacturing venues
including those of traditional crafts, not just contemporary industries
like our own.

JS: Your members working on FactorISM are mostly

young, and this is a blessing. But regardless of age,can anybody join your project?

Ohta: Yes. Gender, age, and above all nationality do not matter inFactorISM. We want to welcome anyone interested in experiencing
manufacturing to our factory, a magnificent entertainment venue.

Future Ambitions
JS: Finally, we would appreciate it if you could tell us

your future plans and ambitions.

Ohta: Participating in the Osaka World Exposition in 2025 is our big
mid-term goal, as I said. We are thinking about creating substantial
promotional contents to attract visitors to the exposition from allover the world. This is the first step. As our next step, we would liketo enhance our name by promoting our routine work through ourfactory tours or industrial tourism. This would lead to increased
sales of our products and above all our working members’satisfaction in their professional life. The professional pride resultingfrom this would bring us a sustainable future where manufacturing
craftmanship will be handed on from generation to generation after2025.
JS: If you mentioned your possible contribution to theglobal environment in your activities, would it raise

Written and translated by Naoyuki Haraoka, editor-in-chief of Japan SPOTLIGHT,
with the assistance of TapeRewrite Corporation.

Japan SPOTLIGHT • May / June 2024

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