Japan in recent years has seen a rise of institutions called social-kei daigaku (lit. social network colleges) that offer a wide range of programs for casual learning. They include Shibuya University Network in Tokyo, Sapporo Odori University in Hokkaido, The University of Bizan in Tokushima, and Kobe Motomachi University in Kobe City, Hyogo Prefecture.

Takehide Murakami, who leads Kobe Motomachi University, is the representative director of Murakami General Construction Co., Ltd, a construction firm run by his family for three generations. A native of Kobe, he once wanted a job in nature conservation because he had developed a love for nature from childhood. It was the Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake that prompted him to look at communities, including nature.




Experience of the earthquake opens the door for Murakami to start his career in community development

Mr. Murakami's love for nature is probably linked to his mother, who is a conservationist, and to the fact that chemical-free vegetables were his family's choice of meals at home. Hoping to get a job in nature conservation, he studied ecology in undergraduate and graduate courses at Kyoto University.

I made the assumption that the construction industry destroys nature, or it is opposed to nature. So, I expected one of my three younger brothers to take over our family's construction firm.

Photo:Mr. Murakami as a college student. He had dyed blond hair, adhering to his principle of openly displaying his need for attention at the time.

The Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake occurred in January of the year when Mr. Murakami was a college senior.

I felt tremors in Kyoto. TV news programs reported on seismic intensities in the areas of Kyoto and Osaka, but I couldn't find any reports on Kobe. Later, I learned that Kobe was the epicenter. The next day, I went to Kobe on my motorcycle. Just after I crossed the Muko River in Nishinomiya City on my way, the scenery was completely different. I couldn't believe my eyes because everything had been destroyed.

On Port Island, Kobe, where my family lived at the time, roads were covered with 20-centimeter-thick mud from soil liquefaction. Our construction firm received numerous requests from neighboring residents to check or repair their houses. I drove the company's staff members to their customers on my motorcycle.

I was very sad to see that my beautiful hometown of Kobe had been devastated by the earthquake. Meanwhile, I changed my attitude about the construction industry, which I had previously regarded as destroying nature. I became aware that it works with communities while protecting nature, and thus offers support to people.

Photo:A street outside Murakami General Construction right after the earthquake. Mr. Murakami did volunteer work throughout Kobe.

After working as a researcher at a think tank in Osaka for three years, which he had joined after graduate school, Mr. Murakami entered his family's construction company at the age of 27 in order to take over the business. From 2010 to 2011, he worked on a project to support community development at Junior Chamber International Kobe. The project team explored a case study and looked at about 30 local communities around the country, selecting 12 communities which the team found particularly appealing. The study results were published as a book, "Hito no kizuna ga machi wo dezain (Human bonds design local communities)," by Junior Chamber International Japan through Pearl Back in 2011.


The Great East Japan Earthquake wakes Mr. Murakami's feelings for Kobe.

In March 2011, the Great East Japan Earthquake struck. Mr. Murakami participated in disaster relief activities in the affected Tohoku region and saw people breaking a sweat working hard for the reconstruction of the region, which reminded him of Kobe right after the Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake and what he had done at the time.

I'm sure I wanted to do something for Kobe at the time of the Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake. But I doubt if I actually did anything.

He promptly held discussions with three friends, who were also Kobe natives and business owners, and came up with the idea of establishing Kobe Motomachi University. They held the first preparatory meeting in the middle of June and offered the first class shortly after that on June 30.

Photo:Teachers from different walks of life give lectures at each class.

Kobe Motomachi University doesn't have any school buildings, and instead uses the Motomachi and Sannomiya districts of Kobe City as its large campus. Teachers are people who are actively involved on the front lines of Kobe. It is a project that aims to expand people's social networks through learning. But why did his desire to do something for Kobe take the form of Kobe Motomachi University?

With a population of about 1.5 million, Kobe has a suitable size for residents to cooperate with each other. But the city seemed fragmented, lacking the feeling of togetherness. In contrast, Portland in the U.S. has a population of some 600,000 and is known as a good example of a compact city, with a good mix of abundant nature and urban functions. Residents of Portland share a vision of producing rather than consuming.

Residents of Kobe must be of the same view as Portlanders, but haven't voiced their opinions due to limited opportunities to interact with each other. So I think the first step to liven up the local community to the fullest is to build "friend-of-a-friend" relationships among residents.

At Kobe Motomachi University, regular classes are held about once a month by invited teachers who are actively involved in the local community of Kobe. Regular classes are usually attended by 60 to 70 people each time: 20-30% of them are first-time attendees, another 20-30% are regular attendees, and the rest attend when the topic is of interest to them. With each session, more people come to participate in the development of the college. At present, there are some 50 college staff members.

Photo:All staff members are volunteers. They prepare for classes by communicating with each other via Facebook and other means.

In terms of the project's purpose of creating ties among people, the ideal size of a class is around 30 students. Also, since it is vital to establish new relationships, teachers are those who we don't know or who are from fields not related to ours. We find people who don't have previous connections with us.

For example, because of my job, I know quite a lot of people who are self-employed or who are involved in community development. But we only have tenuous links with those who work at large companies in Kobe, or researchers belonging to research institutes, or persons involved in public administration. By inviting these people to give lectures, we can establish ties with them.

At Kobe Motomachi University, there are some systems to encourage conversations among participants. One example is "Moto-dai bar," which serves alcoholic drinks before class. Participants are also encouraged to exchange impressions and opinions in groups after class. Staff members sometimes talk to them and encourage them to get to know people with similar interests.

More and more new classes are being born out of participants’ and staff members’ ideas. Other than regular classes, the university offers "Spark!" sessions, in which several teachers give presentations about ideas and approaches to design our future lives; "Plus+" sessions, where teachers are peeple who play an active role outside Kobe City; and "Picnic", experience-based field classes that take place at event venues or innovative facilities.

Photo:Mr. Tatsuya Oshika from Suma Aqualife Park Kobe delivers a short presentation about a concept of aquatic museums at the fifth "Spark!" session.


Social connections formed at the college and Mr. Murakami's vision of future Kobe

Four years have passed since the establishment of Kobe Motomachi University. The college has seen an increasing number of cases where people who met at the college have become business partners or launched new projects. Among them is Mr. Naoyuki Takeuchi, who developed the fountain pen ink "Kobe Ink Monogatari" series, which conveys images of Kobe. When he served as a teacher at Kobe Motomachi University, he met members of International Olive Academy Kobe, an organization that promotes the greening of Kobe by planting olive trees and aims to make olive trees a symbol of the city. This encounter led to the joint development of a new ink color "Kitano Olive Green."

Photo:Mr. Naoyuki Takeuchi is involved in product planning at Nagasawa Stationery Center, a stationery company that has been in business for 130 years.

During the past four years, I realized a lot of things. To cite an example, I find it interesting that a lot of people look at it in a positive light that Kobe is a quiet city. Community development is usually associated with enlivenment, which you can see in Shibuya in Tokyo, or Shanghai, to take an example from abroad. Kobe is no match for these cities in exhilaration. But people's favorable view of quiet Kobe reminded me of a good aspect of Kobe.

Photo:Participants write on these cards their opinions and what sort of classes they would like to attend.

Mr. Murakami thinks that residents of Kobe might be characterized by feelings concealed beneath the quiet.

In the city of Kobe, there are surprisingly a lot of clocks that stopped at the moment the Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake struck, reading 5:46 am. That moment became the starting point for people in Kobe. They banded together because of the earthquake and have recovered from the disaster. For them, the earthquake is more than just a sad and painful event.

However, after the Great East Japan Earthquake hit the Tohoku region, I heard voices saying, "Tohoku shouldn't follow the example of Kobe," for the reason that "Kobe is going back to what it was before the earthquake in 1995, not trying to grow into a new Kobe." I thought that was only too true. In the event of a catastrophe like the one we had, people would lose their capacity to be open to new ideas, and thus give in to conservative views.

Kobe boasts an excellent living environment surrounded by the sea and mountains, while also being compact and beautiful. However, because of the lack of new industries, young people leave the city. So, I want to realize a better working environment also for young people in Kobe by fostering new businesses.

Photo:Mr. Murakami says, "I like beginning with small things in everything," while having an ambitious vision for the future.

Mr. Murakami is now taking on a new challenge. To mark the first step, Kobe Motomachi University, in cooperation with two like-minded organizations, Kashiwa Machi-naka College based in Chiba Prefecture and Hama-no-Toudai based in Yokohama City, has established a forum to discuss the future growth of community colleges, with its first meeting held in Kobe in April 2015 by inviting founders of other numerous community-based colleges from around the country.

"I want to create more links between people by providing learning opportunities, and ultimately create an atmosphere in which everyone can discuss our community with each other." The seeds Mr. Murakami has sown at Kobe Motomachi University will spring forth here and there in Kobe.


(Interviewed and written by Noriko Yoshimoto)
This article was created with the cooperation of greenz.jp.