Japan

Spring has come. Under the soft and warm sunlight, Mom’s Lunch-Box Shop, of As-One Community, becomes very busy with orders for local people’s spring events in Suzuka city, Japan. But there is also another reason to be busy this year. Hiroko Katayama / As-One Community Suzuka, representative of GEN-Japan, reports.

The members of the As-One-Community are getting busy being guides for the participants of a study-trip. There is a new stream in Japan of people that are facing the real conditions in Japan and who are becoming sincerely interested in creating new ways of living on their own sites. Such challenges have been gradually increasing. That is why people come to study the As-One’s open management system in the city.
On 1st March, an eco-conscious E-Book has been published by a NGO ENOWA with a collaboration of 30 diverse groups, which are leading the sustainable life in Japan now and also contribute each story to the book. The responsibility of this project lies with Ms. Kaori Uchizono, who introduces and edits the e-book “Tomoiki Community”. The book shows the latest state of co-existing and various kinds of communities in Japan that are aiming to create a sustainable life, to live in harmony with nature, local people and life streams of past-present-future. The areas of their activities are much diversified, such as residential style, farming, education, welfare, renewable energy and the gift economy. Readers will be surely inspired by the 30 stories of how each activity was started, aparticularly after the tragic 3.11 Tsunami disasters.
These thirty groups belong to various movements, such as the Transition Town movement, Permaculture, ecovillages and others. They think they need to get to know how they can start creating a flexible and warm base of community atmosphere. As-One community is happy to share the fifteen years experiences for them as references.
Some of them stay at Suzuka for a week to a few months to learn how to study scientifically from zero-base called Scienz in realities of community life. Some others have a meeting at As-One Community coinciding with a study trip. Ms. Yuko Tsurushima, 50 years old professional communication trainer, plans for two years stay at As-One community for learning of Scienz. And the others regularly commute from their sites. Such collaboration is starting in study and feedback basis. Japanese ecovillages and related movements are going to the next step now.