Japan Society was pleased to be one of the collaborating institutions for the half day event (agenda: http://bit.ly/9C63sk), which also included IN member Nana Watanabe, the author of two books, in Japanese, on social entrepreneurs called Changemakers.  For a summary of the sold out event and photos, visit the Tokyo Institute of Technology website here: http://bit.ly/czLzWw

While in Japan, Mr. Drayton also had a meeting with Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama.  The meeting was videotaped and can be seen here:  http://bit.ly/9CJA0X.

Rosanne re-visited the Kotobuki section of Yokohama to catch up with Innovators Network member, Tomohiko Okabe of Koto-Lab.  Rosanne was impressed with how Okabe-san and his colleagues have been able to reach out to local property owners to transform excess rooms into lodging for the backpacker set.  Where others see a neighborhood in dire need, Okabe-san saw a community asset–empty rooms–and turned it into an opportunity!      

The following day, she spoke at a public forum, “Regional Development in Urban Cities – Cases from the U.S. and Japan,” in Tokyo with Okabe-san.  Co-organized with Tokyo Foundation, 160 people attended the forum, many of whom are concerned about growing homelessness and poverty in Japan today.  The Tokyo Foundation has posted a transcript of the program on their website, which can be found here: http://bit.ly/8ZRvyg. 

In a more intimate setting, Rosanne had breakfast with about 20 young social and business entreprenuers at the ETIC offices.  The focus of breakfast dialogue was changing society through entrepreneurship and how the “social” and “business” aspects of social entrepreneurship co-exist.

Rosanne was also invited to speak at Meiji University.  Partnering with Professor Yasushi Aoyama, another member of the Innovators Network, Rosanne participated in a public forum at the university on “The Birth and Growth of Social Entrepreneurship in the U.S.”  She later was a guest speaker for a seminar class at the Graduate School of Governance at Meiji University.

And for something completely different, Rosanne appeared on a popular Japanese TV program “The Most Useful School in the World.”  The show aired February 27, and we hope to be able to post a link to the show soon, but alas, it will be in Japanese only.

Today, the World Monuments Fund announced the 2010 Watch List and the machiya, traditional Japanese townhouses, was selected along with 92 other at risk cultural heritage sites from around the world.   The selection will play a critical role in the Kyomachiya Innovators’ mission to inform and teach the world about the cultural and historical value of the machiya. 

Also here is a link to Dai Sato speaking about how to create anime characters.

On the last day of the two weeks, the students divided into 5 groups presented their work at the auditorium. Here is a link to the 15 second previews that each group created. The preview was presented along with their story proposals. Dai told me later that he was intrigued that how all the groups had the notion of  fate/destiny embedded in their theme. He also thought that all story proposals dealt with the issues of coping with diversity and different values. He felt that groups made up of Japanese high school students would have come up with totally different theme and story ideas. Dai also had a chance to meet up with his old acquaintance, Justin Leach, also an IN member, who currently works at the Blue Sky Studios as a Senior Pipeline Engineer.  We paid a visit to Blue Sky in Connecticut and Dai was invited to speak about his work and the creative process to the storyboard department staff. Then we all took a tour of the studio.  Dai kept on saying how amazingly better the work environment is for creators like him in the U.S.  It was indeed a beautiful office space with huge windows overlooking a forest outside. There were ping pong tables and pinball machines, too.

Justin Leach and Dai Sato

During the last week of August, the Kyomachiya preservation group was in town after attending a symposium in Boston on historic preservation. The occasion was to celebrate the 50th anniversary of sister city between Boston and Kyoto. It was great to see Fusae Kojima again, a machiya owner and the President and Executive Director of Kyomachiya Revitalization Study Group. She was one of the panelists at the symposium we organized in collaboration with Kyoto Center for Community Collaboration (Machisen) last November at Japan Society. The symposium summary is featured in a new book titled Machiya Revival in Kyoto edited by Machisen. It just came out in July.  As part of the Innovators Network activities, we continue to support the Kyomachiya preservation group’s effort to gain further recognition abroad.

Last but not least, we have some newly edited videos of the Social Design Forum we organized with JIDPO (Japan Industrial Design Promotion Organization) back in February.  I highly recommend that you watch Valerie Casey’s video on Design Thinking especially if you are a design student.

Masaaki Ikeda’s video, which touches on the history of  social design in Japan, is also quite interesting if you heard about Michael Linton, who had designed the LETS (Local Exchange Trading System).

(Fumiko)

Innovators Network member and anime scriptwriter Dai Sato was in New York to give a two-week summer immersion workshop for high school students at Japan Society.  Dai took some time out of his busy schedule to talk with Japan Society about his creative process.  In this video,   Dai muses about his “dream script,” discusses new features in Eden of the East, an anime series as of yet unreleased in the U.S., touches on the influence of authors Philip K. Dick and Haruki Murakami on his work, offers advice for future scriptwriters, and explains a few of the perception gaps between American and Japanese viewers regarding the TV series Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex. 

Dai’s scriptwriting credits also include Cowboy Bebop, Freedom, and Wolf’s Rain.

Before he evacuated, he had the foresight to bring his collection of photographs of Miyakejima.  An amateur photographer, he had taken beautiful photos of the island’s natural beauty, including sunsets, plants and the ocean, going back decades.  While in Tokyo, he had a number of photos printed as postcards, and sent them to many of his friends and neighbors from Miyakejima.  He made a special effort to send these postcards of home to many of the senior citzens.  Word spread about the postcards, and other residents requested to be on his mailing list.

The postcards helped this gentleman re-create his community in Tokyo, but in a completely different way.  Those who received his postcards told him that they waited in anticipation to receive the next card, and it played a tremendous role in keeping their spirits, and their hopes, high.  By the end of his time in Tokyo, he sent thousands and thousands of cards, at his own expense.

We were all so impressed with how what started as a simple gesture by just one person helped to create a real sense of community hundreds of miles from home and provided so many people with hope and happiness.

Miyakejima is beautiful, and the damage from the 2000 volcano eruption, and an earlier eruption, caused great damage.  One of the things we were so impressed with was the great spirit and sense of hope expressed by everyone we met with, young and old.

Here are some photos from the visit.

The ship from Tokyo to Miyakejima

Fishermen unloading the day's catch

Junior high school students

The road up Miyakejima's volcano

Richard McCarthy presenting Mayor Hiroyasu Hirano with a market umbrella

House of Wind