As One Network

As One Network News November 2022

The fields and mountains begin to turn reddish red, orange, and yellow, and soon the entire valleys are woven into a gorgeous fabric like a brocade. The season is changing. The fallen leaves reflect the glory sunset, and soon be covered by the evening twilight, getting darker by the day.
It seems like only a few days ago that I thought the year 2022 had just begun. While I was occupied with immediate tasks, there are just two months left of this year. It is amazing how fast time flies.
In October, As One Network has a lot of activities around the various regions. A training camp was held in northeastern Japan. Brazil had the As One Seminar. In Switzerland and Germany, preparations a steadily underway for the ScienZ School and the As One Seminar over the year-end and New Year holidays. And the Suzuka Community is lively with many people visiting the tour every weekend. Many new encounters have been made, and we are already looking forward to the year 2023 with excitement.
This month we will continue to bring you the most up-to-dates from around the world in the AS ONE Network News.

https://mailchi.mp/240d11b9d4e9/news-nov2022-hp

Creating the Next Society - Part 9
Toward a society where people can live gently and without conflict
Masashi Ono, ScienZ Institute, Inc.



Could you imagine a company with no rules, no orders, no bosses, or no responsibilities?
In fact, such a company exists in this present capitalist society of Japan.　

Chapter 3
3-1. A company that satisfies the heart and soul
- "Mum's Lunchbox company"

We have established and kept operating our own community business, in order to create an economic foundation for "our aim. That is a society building which people can live gently and without conflict, just as they feel. Through community businesses, the entire community becomes affluent, and each person can live in affluence.
The Mum's Lunchbox company is now in its 16th year. It has about 50 employees. The company produces about 1,000 handmade lunchboxes a day and delivers even a single one with a pink car, and is well known by city dwellers in Suzuka and neighbor cities.
From the very beginning of the company's establishment, we had a clear image of the ideal company. However, things have not worked smoothly.
We are exploring toward a truly delicious lunchbox everyday, as well as challenging to create a company that is managed through conversations without hierarchy or orders.
In such an ideal company we are aiming for, there is no work to earn. Instead, an innovative work will emerge as people want to work because they are willing to do it.
That is, by doing such work, the person is fulfilled, and many others are fulfilled by receiving what is produced from such work.



Of course, however, since we started the company, we have faced many things.
For example, some customers would say, "Lunchboxes should definitely be delivered by 12:00 noon. We often found ourselves constrained to do as our customers insist, saying, "We are received money for it, so we should do it. In this way, we began to blame and manage each other for our own delays and failures. ・・・・・・
The "I have to" mentality is favored by almost of all people as a fiction that allows us to discipline ourselves and our society. However, it also carries with it the obligation to do. That is, the fear of not being allowed, attacked, or punished for not doing something. We, too, had become embedded with fear, and so that it had been difficult for us to free ourselves from the fiction that is the source of our fears.
When you are bound by such a fiction, even the company becomes awkward, doesn't it?
However, as our studies progressed, we were able to ask ourselves, "What do we want to do?"
Gradually we can see the world not as a result of what we "have to do". but as a result of what we really want to do.
When we go back to our own starting point, we can see that it is not "I have to deliver because I am ordered to," but rather the real wish, "I want to deliver delicious lunchboxes to those who are waiting for it". We have been able to discover the starting point of the company and the true spirit to do so in our hearts.
In this way, we have been able to create a work-environment, in which focuses on finding out the right place for each person to demonstrate their natural talent. And so that the number of people have been increasing, who feel comfortable doing things just because they want to use their skills, knowledge, and experience for the benefit of others and have others use them.
Now we are in the process of creating a company, in which we can talk anything what we have inside, and express each distinctive characteristic, as well as feel fulfilled.

Community Saijiki literary calendar

Brother - From the Family Landscape

坂井和貴(Kazuki Sakai)

Early in the morning, I walk toward the Mum's Lunchbox company (the following : the obento company).
It is every Friday.
When I first started going there, I couldn't walk without sunglasses because of the glaring sunlight.

I would always pass an elderly jogger in the same neighborhood. His clothings has changed from short-sleeved half pants to long-sleeved long pants, and this morning, white breath was coming out of his mouth.
What has not changed is the quietness of the city, many houses are still asleep, and the main road leading to the Suzuka Circuit is like an open zone, where I can cross anywhere without worrying about traffic lights.



When I arrived at the obento company about 10 minutes later, I found the kitchen staff working in cramped spaces, and "today's feast" was already lined up on the table in the serving room.
"Good morning," Lucio calls out, "First, put some sauce on the hamburg steaks and get them ready."
The members of today's group gather in groups, one by one. Soon after, Lucio says to us.
"Well, it's time to start serving the lunch boxes..." Lucio's voice urges everyone to gather in front of the serving line.

Kazuki Brother
I've been arranging the obento company's working shift every day.
How about you, Kazusan, once a week?
The hours are from 6:30 to 9:00.
I want you to come in.

It was around the beginning of September when I received this e-mail from Lucio.
I asked him, "What day of the week would you like to work with me?"

Lucio playfully replied, "You can come every day, hehehe."

We ended up exchanging our opinions, and we decided to go on Fridays. I have been going every week since then.



Lucio is his middle name, officially Shogo Lucio Minowa , a second-generation Japanese-Brazilian born and raised in Brazil.
His father, Hosuke, came to Brazil from Saku, Nagano Prefecture, and his mother, Mieko, came to Brazil from Tokyo in the 1930s, and they met in the Japanese community in São Paulo State.
Hosuke's pure and single-minded love for Mieko eventually bore fruit, and the couple eventually tied the knot. Lucio is their fifth son.
I have known Lucio for more than 30 years, but we only met occasionally when he came from Brazil.
I think we were just good friends. The reason why he became my "brother" has a lot to do with the past year.

Last fall, Lucio was still staying in Japan and was also doing supportive things in the community, such as taking the children to and from the house. He was also helping me on my house change and moving.
Then, he decided to settle down here in Japan for a while, in the Suzuka community, and his workplace became a obento company. Lucio has come to accept Academy students and practice program students, not to mention the daily arrangements, and we hear more and more from him about what kind of obento he wants to make and deliver, and what kind of workplace he wants to make the obento company into.

Outside of the workplace, Lucio has also taken on positions that require him to show off his talents, and he has participated in various meetings and opportunities accordingly.
I also began accompanying Lucio, who is not very fluent in Japanese, to banks and public institutions to help him with paperwork and various procedures.

Just around the same time that Lucio started going to the obento company, Lucio's wife, Nanako, started working at the same HUB-department as I did, and we began to work together on the information desk every day.
In addition to that, I became a member of the "Thursday-1 Family", one of the five "families" in the community, which I have mentioned several times in this Saijiki literary calender. We have weekly meetings, are in charge of the dining room, and have more opportunities to get to know each other.




Nanako told us at the family meeting about the time she attended the ScienZ School's camp course for the first time in a long time, as she was feeling much better this year....

She told us that an incident a few years ago had made her think to me, "I never want to work with this person," and that somehow we ended up in the same place of work.
"But after that, you gave me love and affection every day, and we got to know each other, and now you are like a "big brother" to me, but I don't know if that is because you have changed from before or if my feelings have changed. I just felt that if I couldn't really look at the situation I was in when I first got stuck, I would keep doing the same thing over and over again. So..."

Nanako wanted to share with the "family" members what she had noticed and discovered by observing and exploring her own way of seeing and perceiving with that real-life example, not what I was going through.
Looking back on what happened to me, I was so embarrassed that I wanted to crawl in if there was a hole in my heart, because I had a very highly-conscious and proud-sprited mindset that I could not be defeated.
However, even now, I sometimes have such a feeling in my head without being aware of it.
But at such times, Nana-chan, who is standing next to me, would say to me
"Brother~, don't look down on people from your high place on the clouds, come down to the ground!"
I am always saved by Nana-chan's immediate words of encouragement.
The night before I went out to celebrate my mother's 88th birthday, Nana-chan, who lost her mother at the age of 25 and her father at 27, told me, "Please enjoy going and taking care of your parents as much as I did."
This was one of the reasons why the time I spent with my parents changed so much.


Last week's daily bento menu was "fried young chicken with umami salt".
As usual, Lucio and Koji were carefully preparing a sample of what they wanted to serve today. The side dish should be placed here, the amount of pickles should be about this much, lettuce should be placed here, and three fried chicken pieces should be neatly arranged in a "mountain" on top of the lettuce, etc. I was in charge of arranging the fried chicken and I tried to follow the lines that they had drawn.



We were going to make hundreds of pieces in total, but after the first dozen or so, I thought it would be more beautiful to move the side dish up a little and arrange the three fried pieces in a "river" rather than a "mountain," so that the feathery batter of the fried pieces could be used to its fullest. I asked Lucio to take a look. Lucio looked at it.
Lucio said, "I think the sample is better!"
I thought, "Well, that's good!" I switched back and started working on it again.
But as I was doing it, my hands started to arrange the fried chicken again like a river, and I asked Lucio again, "How about this way?
How about this one?"

What was interesting was that neither Lucio nor I were particularly assertive, and neither of us had the slightest intention of getting our own opinions across. We just said what we thought and listened to each other. I don't think we ever decided that we would do this together. Lucio was the one who checked the fried food I had prepared and closed the lid. When I handed over my role to Sayri, who came after me, Lucio said, " Let's do it this way just like Kazuki-san does That's the most beautiful way..."
I thought, "Wow!" Anyway, the atmosphere was so open that it was as if we were playing together.

At dinner time, as usual, we sat around the round table and said to each other
"Hey, Otou-chan, did he fall asleep again?"
Nana looked up at the wall clock. Lucio, who is an early riser, often falls asleep at this time.
"I'll call him,"
Diego answered.
A few moments later, Lucio appears with a shy smile on his face. As soon as he sits down in his chair, he puts dinner aside and starts talking about obento company with Diego, Hiroya, Takuya, and the rest of the group. Just as they were about to start eating, the Academy students who had come to the dining room came by one after another and exchanged a few words to Lucio. After he finished eating, he settled into round chairs overlooking the dining room, staring at his smartphone as he planned a working shift at the obento company for the next day.
"Otou-chan, even when he is in the dining room, he is always talking about the obento ...,"
Nana-chan laments, but she looks somewhat happy.



"Okay, tomorrow's shift is ready!
By the time Lucio leaves the table with a satisfied look on his face, the dining room, which used to be so crowded, is now sparsely populated. We all head home.

It has been exactly one year since I started writing this Saijiki.
The first entry was titled 【Family Scenery...and More Than Family】
I feel that Lucio and Nana-chan are my brothers and sisters, and that we are becoming a real family. We are no longer strangers to each other, we just live and breathe together.
When I look back over the past year, I feel that we could not have become like this through our own personal efforts and thoughts.
Although the Suzuka community is a small society, we have become a family as we have been swayed by the economic, living, and nurturing aspects of the community, as well as by various other social mechanisms and systems.

If we had not lived in this society, Nana would have said, "I don't want anything to do with this person," and we might never have become"brother and sister. Lucio and I would not have been able to go beyond the realm of close friends.
I picked up Lucio and Nana-chan by chance, but that is nothing special. It is a normal thing here. Everyday everywhere, families are being born and the substance of families is growing.
Perhaps this is a society where anyone can become a real family.
We live in such a society.
Good family - good company - good society
I see this as being demonstrated through us today.
A gift for tomorrow, for the next generation.



“Kazuki, it's time!"
Lucio calls out to me, and I stop.
As I exit the kitchen door of the obento company, I hear the loud voices of children echoing from the Brazilian school across the street. I look at them and am easily charmed by their abundant Body Language.
Then I think of Lucio's boyhood, which he often talks about, and of the land of Brazil, which is enormous in scale.
The main road on the left is full of cars flowing at a brisk pace.
In the parking lot of Mother's obento company facing the road, the day's lunche boxs are beginning to be loaded onto the rows of pink boxcars.

Now, to the mouth and heart of each and every one of them.
Our obentos will be delivered to.

Mr. Kazuhiro Arai, co-president of "eumo", an empathetic community currency that proposes and practices a new way of money and society, visited As One Suzuka Community for the first time.
He visited us on the afternoon of Sunday the 23rd in conjunction with an open lecture hosted by GEN-Japan, and we showed him around the Mum's Lunchbox company, Suzuka Farm, and the community's HUB and space JOY.



Mr. Arai says that his mission is to realize an empathetic capital society, and he seemed to feel many things after being exposed to the actual As One Suzuka Community, which has been in existence for over 20 years.
He was especially interested in the fact that there is no conflict, no matter how different opinions may be, that there is a base for discussing anything, and that the society is based on the free will of every person.



As One Network also joined the "eumo" member stores this summer and is now able to accept "eumo" payments for participation fees for the Suzuka Tour.
With tomorrow's open lecture, we are very much looking forward to the future.

From October 9 to 15, 【As One Seminar】was held in Brazil.
The following is a report on the seminar in Brazil through the participants' impressions and the memoir of Leo, who participated as an overseas trainee while studying at the ScienZ Academy in Japan.



【The conflicts and bad feelings that were happening inside me magically disappeared】
While attending the As One Seminar meetings, I felt as if my state of mind was calming down and such a path was being clearly and easily shown to me.

I was also able to see the possibilities of how I want to build relationships with others.

What I felt at this seminar was that by changing the way I see the world, I can see the possibility of harmonious human relationships.

It was liberating to simply be aware of the way I had been wearing, the way I saw good and bad experiences, and to feel that nothing was attached to it.

It was as if all the conflicts and bad feelings that had been happening inside me magically disappeared. These realizations and understandings happened as I interacted with others and looked at myself.

I felt that this kind of movement within me also expressed itself in the well-being of others, and I felt that the feeling of a "big family" was also something that I could reach.

It seemed that the way of life and the way of seeing became very clear during these 7 days.
(From a participant's comment)



【From the memoir of Leo, who participated in this seminar as a staff member from Japan】
After doing the seminar
It was the first time for the participants to be exposed to the concept of exploration, and as they talked with people, many things became clear.
It was as if we could see the true nature of each person at each stage of his or her life.
I hope that people will be able to see their true feelings and true wishes, and live in accordance with them.

How much of a picture will come out in everyone's head...

After the seminar, how can we actually realize it?
I want to have a mother body that can accept such things.



It was decided that ［As One Seminar］would be held in Switzerland at the end of the year, and in Germany in 2023.
The circle is rapidly expanding to include Japan, Korea, Brazil, Switzerland, and Germany.