6 | The Japan Times | Monday, January 25, 2021

sustainable japan

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Living history: You could spend a night in a castle
Satoyama~AuthenticJapan
MAIKO MURAOKACONTRIBUTING WRITER

Although castles are one of Japan’s mostpopular tourist destinations, not many
people know you can actually spend anight in a 400-year-old castle.
Jun Tarikino, CEO of Value Management Co., is the person who made staying at Ozu Castle possible, along with thecombined efforts of various stakeholders
in the city of Ozu, in Ehime Prefecture.
Value Management specializes in revitalizing communities and historic facilities
by preserving and monetizing them.
“There are many castles used as hotels
in the world, but there was nothing likethat in Japan,” said Tarikino in an online
talk session called Satoyama Cafe hosted
by the Japan Times Satoyama Consortium on Nov. 30. Satoyama Cafe is a seriesof events that feature various rural revitalization efforts.
“Actually, we cannot make muchmoney from this service alone because
the castle can be used as accommodation
only during the spring and autumn. Airconditioning and heating equipment are
not installed, for the purpose of preserv-

ing the important cultural property. Butthe castle stay can serve as a high-profile
icon of the city,” he said, explaining that it
has attracted a lot of domestic and international media attention.

The town, not just its castle

Using the castle stay as an eye-catching
feature of the rural city, with a populationof about 42,000 people, Value Management worked on the community development of the city to make it attractive
to tourists. “The idea was to monetize thewhole city not by scraping what is alreadythere and building something new, but by
utilizing existing assets,” Tarikino said.
Garyu Sanso villa is another historicbuilding in Ozu that is designated as animportant cultural property. Value Management has turned it into a breakfast
venue for guests who stay at Ozu Castle.
This way, the villa can remain open to
the public from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., like mostother publicly owned important culturalproperties.
Value Management has transformed
various other old buildings in the city intoaccommodations. “We intend to preserve
the townscape and create accommodations that allow guests to experience thetown itself,” Tarikino said. Since eachbuilding is small, guests tend to go outsideand enjoy walking around, rejuvenating

Value Management Co., CEO Jun Tarikino (left) and Satoyama Consortium secretariat chief Yuto
Yoshida at the Satoyama Cafe online session held on Nov. 30 THE JAPAN TIMESYou can become a lord of the Ozu-jo Castle, thefirst castle in Japan where you can stay in.

VALUE MANAGEMENT

the town and its economy.

Money troubles on all sides

Tarikino stressed that revitalizing thewhole community is the key to preserve
the area’s historic properties, especiallyoutside the town itself. Maintaining
cultural assets is costly, but financial
resources are shrinking regardless of whoowns a particular property. Tarikino
explained that most tangible assets areowned either by the public sector, citizens, or temples and shrines, each withfinancial difficulties. The public sector isfacing a shortage of tax revenues due todepopulation, and private owners haveissues of succession and property tax,
while temples and shrines are sufferingfrom a decreasing number of parishioners
who support them financially.
Under these circumstances, the only
way to preserve historic properties is tomonetize them to cover maintenancecosts. Making enough profit from one
such property seems difficult, especiallyin rural areas with small populations.
Tarikino also pointed out that many of
the historic urban buildings were built for

While staying at Ozu Castle, you can evenbecome a samurai. This special attraction will
make you feel like you are playing a part inhistory. VALUE MANAGEMENT

commercial purposes and are spacious,
making them easier to use now in variousways, while those in the countryside are
typically smaller, offering limited capacity.
“But a townscape consists of a succession of buildings, so what if we cancommercialize a whole town — 10 buildings in a district instead of just one? We
can increase profitability that way,” said
Tarikino.
To do this, Value Management createda framework for community development based on the utilization of existing
resources and assets. The framework consists of all the steps necessary for turning
a community into an attractive tourist
destination, including marketing, planning, formulating a business strategy anda financial framework, repairing and renovating buildings, developing tourism features, creating an organizational structure
and providing operational support.

Building on successful plans

Tarikino emphasized the importance ofmaking such a framework incorporate
practices that have already proved successful in one or more areas and applying

The guest rooms are renovated in a modern
way while retaining the texture of historicalbuildings. VALUE MANAGEMENT

it to different cities and towns in Japan
with adjustments as appropriate, sayingthat starting from scratch in each location
would lower the success rate. “If we use a
different method for each city, every time
will be a new challenge and we will neverknow if we will succeed or not,” he said.
“Even if the business model is the same,each city has a different appearance andculture, which we can use as they are tocreate values unique to that particularcity.”That is how Value Management hasmonetized and revitalized not only 48
buildings in Japan but also several entire
towns, including Ozu. But Tarikino notedthat the application of this community
development framework requires theengagement of all stakeholders of a town
— including the local government, financial institutions, companies and residents— from the beginning. “We need to startfrom working together to create an entire
picture of how we want the community to be, and then divide roles. It does
not work well the other way around,”Tarikino said. “Finally, someone has totake the risk of operating the whole sys-tem — and Value Management is taking
that responsibility.”
In 2020, Value Management faced amajor risk. Total sales were expected todrop by more than 40% from the previous
year due to the coronavirus pandemic,
Tarikino said.
Although the Go To Travel campaign,
which started in late July, helped improvesales to some extent, according to
Tarikino, losses were too big to cover. “Welost most of the MICE-related opportunities” — on meetings, incentives, conferences and exhibitions — “and corporate
events have been canceled, impacting oursales seriously,” he said.
Despite the difficult circumstances,
Value Management continues to pursue
its vision of promoting and sustaining
Japanese culture. “Culture is a valuable
element of humanity that is needed
throughout the ages. We are dealing withsomething that will not come back forgood if it is lost, something that we needto hand down to the next generations,”
Tarikino said.

For more information, please visit:https://www.vmc.co.jp/
This section, “Sustainable Japan,” features issues related to the environment
and a sustainable society. It highlights
the satoyama activities of companies andother organizations and also introduces
municipalities and local companies promoting the beauty and excellence of thereal Japan.
For more information, see
https://sustainable.japantimes.com/satoyama andhttps://sustainable.japantimes.com/esg

Evonne Yiu, U.N. researcher and champion of forests and sea
ESG / SDGs
TIMOTHY SCHULTZCONTRIBUTING WRITER

The early morning sea off Ishikawa Prefecture was gentle, the fisherman sitting casually at the boat’s bow. They were idling justinside a breakwater, an artificial reef made of
massive concrete blocks. He pointed at thewater and spoke in a local Japanese dialect
to his passenger, a polite female academic
who had been asking questions around his
fishing village. For some reason, he trustedher.
“Go ahead. Feel it.” The woman put her
hand in the water. Warm to the touch,almost like a lake. The fisherman shookhis head. “The concrete, it heats the water.
And with warming oceans, fish are changing. More off-season catches, hybrids, ratherworrying.”
It was just like he had described in the izakaya the night before. Nobuhiro Kido was
one of many fisherman she had spoken to,

Evonne Yiu

each telling her the same story: These breakwaters were hurting their sea.

Devoted to sustainability

Evonne Yiu is a Singaporean researcher
with the United Nations Institute for theAdvanced Study of Sustainability living inTokyo. Her mission: to apply the U.N.’s 17
sustainable development goals (SDGs) andmaintain Japan’s satoyama (village forests)

and satoumi (coastal seas). As a researcher
with the U.N.-affiliated International Partnership for the Satoyama Initiative (IPSI),
she is dedicated to a distinctly Japaneseapproach to conservation and biodiversity.
Yiu speaks passionately about her organization’s Japanese origins. “The terms‘satoyama’ and ‘satoumi’ mean ‘forest’ or ‘sea,’
but not as unspoiled, untouched places. Thetwo terms also imply productivity and usefulness to humans. There are modern English terms that do this now, like ‘ecosystem’or ‘sustainable development,’ but the Japanese language included such ideas long ago.”
Unfortunately, the satoyama and satoumi
are facing a crisis of multiple causes. “WhenI first lived in Japan and drove by the forests,
I thought they were these picture-perfectplaces. Now I understand so many are dying
from the inside out.”

The quiet crisis

Much of the forests seen from a shinkansen
window are shiyū rin (private forest): 58
percent, according to a decades-old survey.

Monthly Times Gallery

Takehiko Inoue (third from left) receives the Latino Award from Cuervo ySobrinos, a famous watch brand that originated in Havana, at the inauguration of an exhibition of illustrations of the Cuban city held at theEmbassy of Spain on Nov. 16. EMBASSY OF CUBA

Indonesian Ambassador Heri Akhmadi submitted his letter of credentials
to Emperor Naruhito on Dec. 17. EMBASSY OF INDONESIA

Once maintained by communities throughlogging, hunting and foraging, now up to 77
percent of shiyū rin land is abandoned or inneed of maintenance due to depopulation.
Millions of hectares are choked with deadfalls and overgrown with evergreen trees
like cedar and cyprus. As wildlife encroaches
and landslide-prone hillsides become overburdened, the consequences are often
deadly and self-reinforcing. The Ministry ofAgriculture, Forestry and Fisheries has put
the damage caused by birds and beasts in2018 at about 15.8 billion yen ($150 million),with 157 people hurt and two deaths fromanimal attacks. This makes the communities near satoyama less productive, leading to even more rural abandonment andurban crowding. “It will take not just struggling local governments, but also the more
funded and competent urban institutions tomanage these lands,” Yiu said.
The seaside was similar: Local communities once fished and maintained industries
such as fish farming, but always withinsensible limits. Depopulation is also the villain here, with the added enemy of government mismanagement. Nearly 50 percent
of Japan’s 35,000 kilometers of coastlinehas been covered or somehow altered bytetrapods and other forms of concrete. Thebreakwaters in particular are hurting thecoastlines they were built to protect, causing heated seas and “coastal deserts’’ bereftof seaweed. Yiu notes an interesting statistic: “At ¥100,000 a tetrapod block, there areperhaps other reasons these things are still
being built.”
How are breakwaters and abandoned
forests linked? Yiu thinks it is obvious.
“Satoumi and satoyama are not separate

Breakwaters lining Noto Island, Ishikawa Prefecture facing the tranquil Toyama Bay EVONNE YIU

issues. They are intrinsically linked. Everything on land — from the plastic we burn inour crowded cities to sewage runoff — could
end up in the ocean eventually. And somuch of what the sea gives us — fish, fresh
air, salt — is incredibly important for oursurvival.” As past generations understood, tothreaten satoyama or satoumi is to threaten
Japan itself.
Even with so much to do, Yiu radiates
confidence. Her organization, IPSI, showcases inspiring case studies from both herein Japan and abroad. In Japan these are often
organized by private companies. This is aunique aspect of Japan: Instead of being thevillain, big business is the opposite. “TheKeidanren” — Japan’s top business lobby— “are actually some of our biggest supporters of SDGs,” Yiu said. From Sony’s private
forest in Aichi to food processor and chain
restaurant owner Aleph’s work to preserve
Lake Biwa, IPSI’s site offers many examples.

Panama Ambassador Carlos Pere (second from the front) and Second
Secretary Georgette Constantino (front) welcome Tohoku University
professors and students who visited the embassy to learn about Panama’s
public policies on Nov. 24. EMBASSY OF PANAMA

Indian Ambassador
Sanjay Kumar Vermareads out a message
from Prime Minister
Narendra Modi while
giving the openingremarks at an eventto celebrate Vishwa
Hindi Diwas (WorldHindi Day) on Jan. 13.
EMBASSY OF INDIA

Noto Island farmers setting up an electric fence against wildlife encroachment in July 2016

EVONNE YIU

PAGE: 6IPSI also offers outside examples for Japan’s
government officials. “Taiwan is ceasing
installation of breakwaters and implementing satoyama concepts in their environment
policies, while Philippines is switching backto biodiverse solutions like mangroves andcoastal forests.”

Local wisdom to global actionMore needs to be done, which is why Yiu
was out on that boat, testing the water withher own hands. “The people who know themost — about both the issue and the traditional solutions — these aren’t academics orpoliticians or business leaders, but the local
people. They might be humble, but it’s humbling for me when I can connect with them.
I’m inspired to be a voice for them, and that’s
what IPSI does best.”
Yiu’s mission is a mission for everyone
in Japan, and it is easy to help. While Yiu
said, “It’s never too late to join the UnitedNations!” a job change isn’t required to help
the forests and the sea. Instead of supermarkets, buy from farmer co-ops like Co-op
Sanchoku.
Skip Sunday shopping to spend time inforests like Aokigahara. Search online for“beach clean-up,” like the ones organized by
Minimal Living Tokyo. You might find yourself side by side with a certain Singaporean
activist with a big smile, great stories and asense of purpose we can all share.