As One Network

Ohtsuchi is a town on the seashore, where 1277 people were affected by the disaster, including the mayor and 32 town staff. Efforts have been made to support the townspeople back to normal conditions; however, as of September 2015, many people are still living in temporary shelters. An assistant staffer, Yaeko says, “Everyone works hard with sincerity but the conditions are still severe. The staff are exhausted. The main difficulty seems to come from human relationships and money problems. Yaeko goes on to say that people complain and claim they are being treated unfairly, that some people receive more and better services than others.

Mr. Naomi Yoshida, a leader of a supporting group in Morioka city, points out that the same situations as Otsuchi are happening in almost of all disaster areas: “Immediately after the tsunami, people support each other peacefully. After several days, when goods were supplied and money started circulating gradually, the peaceful self-supporting condition among sufferers has totally changed to struggles for more share than others. Dissatisfaction and mistrust have spread among people. It has become difficult for people to do anything without money even in an emergency situation”.



In the face of this, Yoshida focused on how people could work together for reparation fairly, without money. He searched for examples free from monetary systems. One of them was As-One Community: “When I stayed there in 2012, although I could not understand very well in just three days about the whole system, I could be sure that they were free as individuals and they supported each other. Since then, Yoshida has started self-supporting farming and regular meeting with people in Morioka city. He will keep conversing with citizens on his site. Yoshida says, “It is necessary for people that there are several alternative systems of society. Ecovillage systems work and provide possible goals for humanity and society.”

It is in the very nature of people to keep conversations going under any conditions. However, it depends on the quality of conversation for people to be able to share the results willingly and happily.

Here are some interesting considerations on the sustainable conversation. Though they are not from disaster areas but from different cultural regions, I would still like to mention them as they are very relevant.

Pedro Araujo Mendes, a lecturer of Gaia Education and facilitator of Dragon Dreaming in Brasil, has stayed in the As-One Community for one month, in order to learn the Scienz, an approach based on the observation of reality, which was born from out of real processes of community building. Scienz is an abbreviation of Scientific Investigation of Essential Nature + Zero. Pedro says, “Objectivity is essential to build sustainable relationship through conversations. Scienz can allow us to have objectivity, which accelerates the ability to understand each other.”

Other Brasilians, Jane and Itamar say, “Relationship among people directly influences relationship with nature. When we worked on farming with younger Japanese here in the morning, we open each mind and looking into each self. We continued the conversation noting that is an easy process, young boys do it all the time, it is interesting and useful to get to know about each other and how we react with other people. ”
Pedoro Mendes adds, “Of course I don’t deny so-called any “mysticism”. However, we need more an objective viewpoint and attitude when we live with a wider range of people.

On August 30th, more than a hundred thousand citizens, including high school students and people with disabilities gathered to express their own opinion to the government around the National Assembly building in Tokyo. It was a honest expression. It shows that Japanese have gradually established each identity and can operate together in collaboration.
I think Ecovillage systems and expertise can practically demonstrate how we can be independent from the community as individuals, but also how we can work together peacefully to propose possible models for all citizens, by engaging in the sustainable conversation. We need to continue this investigation and conversation on the essential nature of humans and our societies with a diverse range of people for the common good.

https://ecovillage.org/japan-in-transition/
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Many refugees have settled in Kyusyu since the 3.11 big earthquake and Fukushima’s nuclear power plant disasters in 2011, eager for the practical development of a new path to living more sustainably. Mr. Shunro Yoshida is a co-founder of the Transition movement in Japan. He is also one of the refugees and lives in the center of Kyusyu. He made an on-site inspection of As-One Community in 2013 and encouraged it to join the Transition Town Movement to create a stronger path for all people. As-One Community has willingly participated in the movement as a member to work together towards new possibilities. The sixth annual All Transition Meeting was held in As-One this March and around 50 initiatives gathered from throughout Japan.

Shunro Yoshida reports on their latest condition:

Shunro Yoshida: In 2008, Hidetake Enomoto invited me to an interesting conference in Findhorn called Positive Energy Conference. Since that time, we have started the Transition movement in Japan. After experiencing the 3.11 earthquake and disaster, many wise people started restructuring their lives to reflect what they really want to do. Transition became attractive and caught the interest of those who were searching for alternative ways to live more sustainably. We founded the Non-government organization, Transition Japan, in 2009.
Since the days of our previously thoughtless energy consumption, where we depended on more than 30% of energy from nuclear power plants, we have started to search for better ways to live, for our planet and our children.
This March we held the 6th annual All Transition Town Meeting in Suzuka, Mie. It was a memorable day. We have had very good collaboration, learning and stimulating debates since Transition Suzuka (As One Community), joined the Transition Town network in 2013.
At the meeting we had an Open Space Technology Meeting, and came out with wonderful working groups.
One is the Transition Accommodation List throughout Japan (that all the Transition People have access to at an affordable price, or free), and getting a chance to meet other Transitioners. Another one we came up with is Grow our own Food Map within Transition Town of Japan, so we can trade or sell between our networks. The last one is the Inner Transition Project holding a being meeting within each initiatives.

We have been working on collaboration with other groups like Seven Generation (which is Japan´s part of Pachamama Alliance), and we have held a
“Change the Dream” Symposium in each of the Transition Initiatives on a voluntary basis.
We have been working very hard to make this movement more active in Japan, and the members of Transition Japan and each Transition Initiatives have become very close, and the movement is becoming a big family, making us more sustainable and stronger as a group.

Transition Town network is one of the broadest and largest sustainable groups in Japan. It plays a very important role and the importance is becoming larger all the time. With the network of Ecovillages and Permaculture, the sustainable group is becoming very visible and easier to access for the people who are trying to find new ways to live as a sustainable community.
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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.
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On the contrary, our efforts had rather caused opposition and fighting among ourselves. Some of our members found that we had no differences from other conventional organizations. Members then reflected on our state of community and identified certain problems both of the communication and decision making processes.

In order to look for some essential solutions to these problems, some members have been entrusted with the investigation of humans, and their societies, through the case-studies of our living problems since 2004. That is how the Scienz Institute was established. Scienz is coined as scientific investigation from zero. The institute becomes a NPO organization independent from the community for keeping zero-position, its objectivity, and openness for the public.

In addition to this, the institute members did not directly teach their study-results to others. Instead, they collaborated to establish the Scienz school as a NPO organization in 2006, where anyone can pleasantly experience and learn the approaches; getting to know essential points of view as well as how to use them for practical solutions. Community members, and volunteers, spontaneously started joining the school.

Through such processes, their relationships have gradually become easier and warmer in a rational manner, as well as new trials of social systems being created from the developing relationships: like one big family. The methods, and manner, of decision making has totally changed to one of flexible self-reliance, based on mutual support, and free from a centralized structure.

Since 2006, our new community businesses have emerged, managed in a new manner. One of these businesses, a hand-made-lunch box company, has become very popular. Recently, more than 1000 boxes a day are delivered to people in Suzuka city, thereby increasing local consumption of local products from SUZUKA FARM Co. Ltd.: the community farming company established by the younger generations in 2009. Another community business is Suzuka Culture Station, a cultural enterprise with a private school, established in 2010.

In our social activities, the ‘Farming Park Project’ has been running successfully since 2010. Supported by local enterprises and associations in Suzuka city, some members work on abandoned land, developing it for local people to enjoy farming and harvesting. Another social activity is the reforestation of Satoyama woodland, which had been designated as the most important biodiversity project by the city government, but subsequently neglected.

Some members learned to build a charcoal oven in the traditional way from an aged local person. Unprocessed timbers for charcoal making have been brought not only from the neighborhood, but also other neglected woodlands in the whole of Suzuka city, since the city government announced the project.

Our activities have gradually become popular in Japan. Transition Town movements in Japan, and the city government in Korea have both asked us give presentations, and so study-tours are increasing, from not only Japan, but also foreign countries. They are eager to create a reliable, thriving community that can stand on their own feet.

Students, and other interested people, have come to attend the Scienz School to realize their dream, and some stay on to gain practical experience of AS-ONE’s urban-style and not-closed community management. Still others attend ‘The Sustainable Society Building College’, in collaboration with an outside organization, Japan Eco-village Promotion Project (JEPP), since May, 2014.

AS-ONE COMMUNITY is still small and maturing, but we can still work effectively as an experimental site for sustainable community building. Now is the time to go forward towards the mutual target. If we can collaborate with GENOA and GEN, we will be greatly honored, and willingly open our 14 years of experiences as guides for all to realize and create happy societies.



https://ecovillage.org/japans-as-one-community/
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