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I hope this email finds you well.
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Thanks to your support, last month, Kokoro Media was able to celebrate its first anniversary! We could have not made it without you, and on behalf of the Kokoro Team, I would like to express our gratitude to all of our readers who have subscribed to our newsletter and donated a tip via Buy Me a Coffee. We will keep doing our best to provide diverse, useful, and inspiring content!
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Our interviewees this month share two things in common: a love for Japan and its culture, and their desire to do things their way, even if that means taking an unusual path.
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Keisuke and Rui Izumi are brewers at Manaturu Brewery, a 270-year-old sake brewery. Innovation is not well perceived in this field. However, they have decided to follow their instinct and create unusual sake tastes and bottle designs, while keeping the tradition of making sake by hand.
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Go Nakano used to work for a big advertising agency, where he realized he did not like to work for companies that did not match his values. After making peanut butter for fun with his skater friends, they decided to start their own peanut butter company based on honesty and quality.
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Cyril Coppini, a French national, has worked for years as a translator and an interpreter, powered by his love for the Japanese language. Passionate about rakugo, a form of Japanese comedy, he became a rakugo performer by following a path that is not the traditional one.
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John Wolff, who comes from Detroit, has always loved Japanese video games. After working in the video game industry in Japan, his passion carried him to become a consultant, a game producer, and an independent game creator.
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I hope you will learn as much as we did through these interviews, and that they will make you want to dare take a new path!
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Amélie, chief editor of Kokoro Media
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"In traditional Japanese industries, there is a tendency to believe that protecting the traditions is 'good,' and changing anything is 'bad.' However, I believe that 'tradition' is about adding innovation to elements that have been protected for many years, so that it fits new times, and can be loved by people for as long as possible."
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Keisuke and Rui Izumi are brewers at Manaturu Brewery, a 270-year-old sake brewery. They have found their own way to bring innovation to a traditional industry in which pre-fixed notions usually hardly change.
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"I would like Happy Nuts Day to become a success story for rural industries in Japan. I want other producers to think, 'If these skaters were able to build a business this size from peanuts, we can succeed too.' It would be great if we could encourage people to start something new."
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Go Nakano quit his job at a big advertising company to create Happy Nuts Day, and hopes to encourage the birth of new regional ventures in Japan.
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"I often refer to rakugo as 'sit down comedy'. The rakugoka or 'storyteller' is not merely telling the story, he or she is acting it. The story is explained by the characters themselves, and the rakugoka is playing all of them. "
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Cyril Coppini is a French national who has been living in Japan for more than 20 years. His love for the Japanese language has led him to live in Japan, where he is working as a translator, now specializing in manga such as "Detective Conan."
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Cyril is also a performer of rakugo, a genre of Japanese comedy in which a single storyteller interprets many characters.
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"Working at a Japanese company in general, as you might know, is tough. I was one of only three foreigners that worked at the company. It was a Japanese video game startup, so it was a unique experience. (...) At first, I was excited to do this, but once we started working those long hours, I didn’t think it was cool at all. In this way, my cultural values clashed often while working there."
John Wolff, an independent game creator, talks about his time in Japan, what it was like to work for a Japanese video game company, and more.
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This Month's Most Read Column
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Anthony celebrates a year of writing for Kokoro Media by sharing three of the most memorable business lessons from the interviews he's written so far.
The lessons learned from these interviews can benefit people all over the world, regardless of whether they will ever set foot in Japan as a tourist.
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Our Farm
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Each month, receive a piece of the Japanese countryside in your mailbox. Feel relaxed by our partner farmer Masamichi's gentle mood, by the green and the sound of nature. Take a look at how our vegetables are growing and gain some knowledge about Japanese organic farming.
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Help us choose what vegetables to sow for this winter and get a chance to win Japanese organic vegetables!
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All the details are in our article ↓
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Last month, Japanese organic farmer Masamichi showed us how fast plants had grown and the consequences of the rainy season.
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Now that the rainy season is over, how do you tend the vegetables in the terrible Japanese summer heat?
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From Japan to the World
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Many of Japan's traditions, inventions, and cultural products have crossed the country's borders to expand all over the world. Did you know about the following?
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Have you ever heard of yosakoi?
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It is a Japanese dance coming from Kochi Prefecture in which dancers have a lot of freedom. Nowadays, it is performed in festivals all around Japan and in many other countries too.
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Did you know that the secret of its popularity is that it welcomes dancers of all origins, genders, and abilities?
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Did you know that these yellow blocks on the side of the roads are "Braille blocks," a Japanese invention?
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They are made to help people with visual impairments to navigate the public space. Here is their backstory, and some of the concerns they raise.
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The Kokoro Media editorial team members share their personal stories regarding Japanese media and pop culture, and how it influenced their relationship with the country.
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Ramen has been increasingly popular all over the world during the last 10 years.
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In this article, we introduce three ramen restaurants in Tokyo, featured in three Michelin Guides: Tokyo, San Francisco, and New York.
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If you enjoy this email, please consider forwarding it to someone who would also appreciate it. If you were forwarded this email, you can sign up to receive it by clicking here.
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If you like what we do, you can support us by buying us a coffee (or rather, green tea). We would be grateful for your contribution!
Your donations will help us invest in our writers, technology, and more, so that we can bring you stories from the farthest reaches of Japan.
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Do not hesitate to give your opinion on this newsletter by writing to us at info-media@kokoro-jp.com.
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