Between March 21 and April 25, design fellow Akinobu (Aki) Yoshikawa led a series of five housing seminars at our MakiBiz office in Ishinomaki. These free seminars covered a wide range of themes, geared not only for people affected by the disaster, but for anyone considering building a house.
We found that each attendee had varying areas of interest within this topic, and attendees varied according to the theme of each seminar.
The first seminar, "Making a decision: Architect or House-maker," generated the most interest. At this seminar, it was revealed that our prediction that the architect's voice was being drowned by the many advertisements put out by housing makers was confirmed. It was noted that it would be valuable to hold a seminar comparing housing makers in our next round of seminars.
Aki leading discussions following his presentation.
Some other voices from the audience included that people are unaware of how to find an architect, and people's concerns all around were cost. Many questions around construction fees, architectural fees, earthquake resistance construction fees, combatting "sick house syndromes," and costs related to environmentally sustainable housing. Additionally we received an impression that many of the elderly population had given up on rebuilding their homes due to difficulty in taking out loans.
The questions and comments raised following the seminar sessions were invaluable to us, and will be carefully considered in round two of the housing seminar series, which we are planning to hold at a temporary housing complex.
Issue Date: 10 May 2013
Reporting Period: 4 May 2013 – 10 May 2013
Business of the Week
Business Name: Sanriku Hitotsunagi Nature School [existing business]
Business Profile: Satoshi Ito is the president of Sanriku Hitotsunagi Nature School. (In Japanese, "hito" means "a person" and "tsunagi" or "tsunagu" means "to connect".) After the disaster, he started with a volunteer group. In April 2012, he founded Sanriku Hitotsunagi Nature School to provide volunteer tourism (total of 67 trips with 1,333 attendees in 2012) and to hold events for children (total of 148 events with 773 attendees during weekdays and total of 21 events with 392 attendees during weekends in 2012). They also recruit volunteers for the affected area (total of 2,000 volunteers to date).
Satoshi Ito (left)
Satoshi started to get involved in the community development program after the disaster in Kamaishi, Iwate. He proposes a space that allows both local people and outsiders to communicate and get to know each other through outdoor experience that the area offers – such as farming, fishing and camping. He is planning on renovating a former daycare center in Kamaishi to use the facility as a lodging for tourists and volunteers as well as their office.
MakiBiz introduced our RFP program and other available grants to Satoshi. We will also review and refine their business plan and financial plan to make his business idea more feasible and sustainable.
- Milestones for the Quarter
- Milestone 1: Client In-take
- GREEN: on-going
- Total number of business owners that we contacted to date: 44 (+4 since last report)
- Total number of jobs created: 4 (+/- 0 since last report.)
- Milestone 2: The Center
- GREEN: Official press release of MakiBiz opening has issued on 8 May 2013.
OPERATION
- The registration of the MakiBiz logo in the U.S. and Japan is in process.
- Architecture for Humanity is developing the logo-use guideline for the internal use.
- Architecture for Humanity will make some adjustment to the introductory flyer for MakiBiz before we go to the press.
- Architecture for Humanity is going to have an internal training session on operational long-term strategy, communication, development and fundraising between 10 June 2013 and 14 June 2013.
- MakiBiz contacted KBT to order an exterior signage. We are waiting for the cost estimate and the production schedule from a signage manufacturer.
PROGRAM
- Business Seminar: MakiBiz and MAKOTO aim to hold the second Business Seminar series after our RFP award date.
- MakiBiz Forum (tentatively named): The guest speaker canceled his appearance for the first forum scheduled on 25 May 2013. MakiBiz is going to have a small open house instead, and invite community members, small business owners, other NPOs and community organizers to introduce us.
- GREEN: Official press release of MakiBiz opening has issued on 8 May 2013.
- Milestone 3: MakiBiz Build Back Better Tohoku Request for Proposal program
- GREEN: Applications are due on 7 June 2013
- Total number of initial consultation request received: 17 (+7 since last report)
- Total number of initial consultation conducted: 12 (We will conduct interviews for 5 businesses next week.)
- Total number of application submitted: 0 (We suspect many people will submit their application in the first week of June.)
- MakiBiz has distributed the flyers at Tachimachi Market Mall (20 stores), Ishinomaki Marche (6 stores), Onagawa Kibo-no-kane (46 stores) and Kesennuma Minami-machi Murasaki (54 stores) to promote the RFP. We distributed 500 flyers so far. We will continue to promote through social media and other outlet.
- The PDF of the flyer is available to download here.
- The PDF of the initial consultation request form is available to download here.
- Red Flagged Issues:
- Recruitment of the second business coordinator
Scheduled Completion (10/30/2012). NEW Anticipated Completion (5/31/2013)- A partnership with ETIC still needs to be sorted out. The need for this role will be re-assessed with the ETIC partnership in mind. We will update the status next week.
- Architecture for Humanity will hire an office manager in lieu of the second business coordinator. This addresses our immediate need of administrative support at MakiBiz. We also avoid unnecessary redundancy with the ETIC partnership.
- During the meeting between Prudential of Japan and MakiBiz on 1 May 2013, Prudential of Japan agreed to consider sending two volunteer administrative staff and one volunteer web designer to create websites for our clients.
- Recruitment of one Design Fellow and one Communications Associate
Scheduled Completion (3/31/2013). NEW Anticipated Completion (5/31/2013)- Architecture for Humanity will post job descriptions on the website in English and Japanese next week. This was delayed a week because of the strategic meeting and staff training that Architecture for Humanity had last week.
- Promotion of MakiBiz
- MakiBiz is searching for a PR firm to develop a PR strategy of MakiBiz.
- Architecture for Humanity has drafted a press guideline for MakiBiz. It is under internal review. We will share with Prudential in a week.
- Recruitment of the second business coordinator
- Milestone 1: Client In-take
End of Weekly Report
Issue Date: 3 May 2013
Reporting Period: 27 April 2013 – 3 May 2013
Business of the Week
Business Name: Yamayo Suisan [existing business]
Business Profile: Yamayo Suisan has been aqua-farming, processing and selling oysters and sea scallops since 1920s. The owner, Takeshi Komatsu, lost his farm and processing plant in the tsunami. Takeshi considered quitting his business after the devastating disaster. However, he set his mind to rebuild his business.
Takeshi Komatsu at work
He is planning on rebuilding his processing plant, but the size and location of his processing plant made his application for governmental grants ineligible. In order to build the plant as big as it used to be, he needs the construction funding of somewhere between 25 million JPY (approx. 252,000 USD) and 40 million JPY (approx. 404,000 USD). Currently Yamayo Suisan is offering the ownership program of their oysters. Consumers pre-purchase their end product (in this case, 20 oysters for 10,000 JPY – approximately 100 USD). As oysters mature, consumers get reports from Yamayo. Stewardship is very important for Yamayo. They also offers one-day aqua-farming experience if consumers would like to participate. Yamayo applies the fees for this fostering program to their operation cost as well as the reconstruction cost of their future processing plant.
Harvested Oysters
MakiBiz will help Yamayo to develop and refine their business plan and financing plan in order to become better equipped for various financing options for the reconstruction of their processing plant. We will also support obtaining a construction schedule as well as a cost estimate.
- Milestones for the Quarter
- Milestone 1: Client In-take
- GREEN: on-going
- Total number of business owners that we contacted to date: 40 (+1 since last report)
- Total number of jobs created: 4 (+/- 0 since last report.)
- Milestone 2: The Center
- GREEN: Official announcement of MakiBiz opening is scheduled on 7 May 2013.
OPERATION
- Architecture for Humanity is going to register the MakiBiz logo in the U.S. and Japan. Our lawyer advised Architecture for Humanity to start using the logo to establish the record of usage. MakiBiz will proceed to make an exterior signage.
- Architecture for Humanity is developing the logo-use guideline for the internal use.
- The introductory flyer for MakiBiz is ready for press. MakiBiz will proceed with printing and distribution.
- Architecture for Humanity is going to have an internal training session on operational long-term strategy, communication, development and fundraising between 10 June 2013 and 14 June 2013.
PROGRAM
- Business Seminar: MakiBiz and MAKOTO aim to hold the second Business Seminar series after our RFP award date.
- MakiBiz Forum (tentatively named): The guest speaker, Kenta Nakamura, canceled his appearance for the first forum scheduled on 25 May 2013. MakiBiz is in search of an alternate speaker.
- GREEN: Official announcement of MakiBiz opening is scheduled on 7 May 2013.
- Milestone 3: MakiBiz Build Back Better Tohoku Request for Proposal program
- GREEN: Applications are due on 7 June 2013
- Total number of initial consultation request received: 10 (+5 since last report)
- MakiBiz has distributed flyers and talked to people at chamber of commerce (Iwate and Miyagi) and city halls (Ishinomaki and Onagawa) to promote the RFP program. We will continue to promote through newspapers and other media outlet.
- The PDF of the flyer is available to download here.
- The PDF of the initial consultation request form is available to download here.
- Red Flagged Issues:
- Recruitment of the second business coordinator
Scheduled Completion (10/30/2012). NEW Anticipated Completion (5/31/2013)- A partnership with ETIC still needs to be sorted out. The need for this role will be re-assessed with the ETIC partnership in mind.
- Architecture for Humanity suggest hiring an office manager in lieu of the second business coordinator. This addresses our immediate need of administrative support at MakiBiz. We also avoid unnecessary redundancy with the ETIC partnership.
- During the meeting between Prudential of Japan and MakiBiz on 1 May 2013, Prudential of Japan agreed to consider sending two volunteer administrative staff and one volunteer web designer to create websites for our clients.
- Recruitment of one Design Fellow and one Communications and Development Associate
Scheduled Completion (3/31/2013). NEW Anticipated Completion (5/31/2013)- Architecture for Humanity will post job descriptions on the website in English and Japanese this week.
- Promotion of MakiBiz
- MakiBiz has contact with PR Link, and asked if they recommend any PR firms in eastern Japan. Unfortunately they do not have any connection. We will continue searching a firm.
- Architecture for Humanity reviewed and approved a draft of the press release announcing the opening of MakiBiz, and returned a revised draft to Hayashi-san on 18 April 2013. Prudential need to get the final approval from their legal department before we issue on 7 May 2013.
- Recruitment of the second business coordinator
- Milestone 1: Client In-take
End of Weekly Report
Issue Date: 26 April 2013
Reporting Period: 20 April 2013 – 26 April 2013
Business of the Week
Business Name: Bai-kado [existing business owner]
Business Profile: Bai-kado is an old established confectionary shop founded in 1918. The main factory and four stores in Shiogama, Miyagi (map) were heavily damaged by the tsunami, and they had to be demolished. Currently their production is based a small factory in Sendai, but its capacity is significantly less than the main factory used to provide.
Facility in Sendai
Bai-kado plans to complete rebuilding of the main factory in this fiscal year. They have already secured a governmental group subsidy for a portion of the reconstruction cost (about 220 million JPY / 2.2 million USD). They are going to apply for our RFP grant as well as loans from a local private bank and the Tohoku Kyoei Investment Fund in order to provide for the financing of the reconstruction.
Seal of Approval – The sign says that they provided their product to a party held by the Emperor and the Empress.
The business support partners of MakiBiz have been working with Bai-kado to develop their business plan, financial plan and repayment plan. MakiBiz will continue supporting the client for the RFP application.
- Milestones for the Quarter
- Milestone 1: Client In-take
- GREEN: on-going
- Total number of business owners that we contacted to date: 39 (+1 since last report)
- Total number of non-business related clients (MakiBiz housing seminar attendees): 15 (+3 since last report)
- Total number of jobs created: 4 (+/- 0 since last report.)
- Milestone 2: The Center
- GREEN: Official announcement of MakiBiz opening is scheduled at the end of April.
OPERATION
- Architecture for Humanity has forwarded the information to our attorney to transfer and complete the registration process on 22 April 2013. AFH need to get a timeline together when we anticipate registration, and provide it to a sign-maker.
- Architecture for Humanity is developing the logo-use guideline for the internal use.
- The introductory flyer for MakiBiz is ready for press as soon as the logo is authorized.
- Architecture for Humanity submitted the first quarterly report to the Foundation on 19 April 2013.
- Architecture for Humanity is going to have an internal training session on operational long-term strategy, communication, development and fundraising between 10 June 2013 and 14 June 2013.
PROGRAM
- Business Seminar: MakiBiz and MAKOTO aim to hold the second Business Seminar series after our RFP award date.
- Housing Seminar: The last housing seminar was held on 25 April 2013. We learned about environmentally sustainable housing design.
- MakiBiz Forum (tentatively named): MakiBiz has secured two guest speakers – Kenta Nakamura of Michinoku-shigoto on 25 May 2013 and Yuichi Tomohiro of Tumugiya on 29 June 2013.
- Milestone 3: MakiBiz Build Back Better Tohoku Request for Proposal program
- Scheduled roll-out (1/23/2013). ISSUED on 15 April 2013
- Total number of initial consultation request received: 5 (+3 since last report)
- We have reached out more than 30 organizations and individuals on our existing client list, announced on social media and other media outlet, distributed flyers at 14 chamber of commerce offices in Miyagi and Iwate. We will continue promoting at city halls, libraries, community centers, shopping street association's offices, and other support groups' offices.
- The PDF of the flyer is available to download here.
- The PDF of the initial consultation request form is available to download here.
- GREEN: Official announcement of MakiBiz opening is scheduled at the end of April.
- Milestone 1: Client In-take
- Red Flagged Issues:
- Recruitment of the second business coordinator
Scheduled Completion (10/30/2012). NEW Anticipated Completion (4/30/2013)- A partnership with ETIC still needs to be sorted out. The need for this role will be re-assessed with the ETIC partnership in mind.
- Architecture for Humanity suggest hiring an office manager in lieu of the second business coordinator. This addresses our immediate need of administrative support at MakiBiz. We also avoid unnecessary redundancy with the ETIC partnership.
- Recruitment of one Design Fellow and one Communications and Development Associate
Scheduled Completion (3/31/2013). NEW Anticipated Completion (5/31/2013)- Architecture for Humanity started to look for candidates.
- Promotion of MakiBiz
- MakiBiz has contact with PR Link who specializes in PR for NPOs and socially responsible organizations. They were reluctant to help us because they are based in western Japan. We will ask if they recommend any PR firms in eastern Japan.
- Architecture for Humanity reviewed and approved a draft of the press release announcing the opening of MakiBiz, and returned a revised draft to Hayashi-san on 18 April 2013. Prudential need to get the final approval from their legal department before we issue next week.
- Recruitment of the second business coordinator
To Be Continued in Weekly Report Part 2
3. Other Meetings and Opportunities that We Had During This Reporting Period
- MakiBiz attended a planning meeting of the Ishinomaki Reconstruction Vision Committee on 17 April 2013. The meeting was organized by Machizukuri Mambo, who are spearheading the reconstruction effort with several community groups. You can download the documents that distributed during the meeting here (only available in Japanese). The following is the summary of the document translated by Architecture for Humanity.
- The Ishinomaki Reconstruction Vision Committee provides the guideline for the reconstruction and the future of Ishinomaki to realize each Ishinomakian's dream.
- The committee consists of various municipal agencies and community groups such as the chamber of commerce, the tourism department, the cultural heritage preservation committee, Peaceboat, Ishinomaki 2.0, Tohoku University, Nikken and Machizukuri Mambo.
- The committee envisions their new Ishinomaki to develop various projects around the following three major themes.
- Resilient Ishinomaki – The town should be prepared for future disasters along the Old Kitakami River.
- Attractive Ishinomaki – The town should connect people through its culture, food and history of Ishinomaki.
- Innovative Ishinomaki – The town should accommodate new ideas and entrepreneurs to develop sustainable economy.
- The committee proposes to collaborate with the newly developed commercial area called Akebono/Hebita district, and position the old town Ishinomaki to become the center of cultural activities and tourism.
- Private organizations lead commercial and cultural facilities with the community members, and collaborate with the government who is taking initiative on rebuilding of infrastructure and public parks in order to realize the vision.
- The committee plans to develop various events and projects in the next two years before the city move onto physically rebuilding structures.
- As the immediate project, the committee would like to create a tourism map that can be easily carried around the town. The committee would like to make a map by this summer to attract more people coming to Ishinomaki.
End of Weekly Report
On the weekend of April 6-7th, the Japan Institute of Architects (JIA) hosted a symposium on rebuilding titled, "Miyagi Rebuilding Voice, Earthquake Disaster Rebuilding Symposium 2013, Thinking Support and Collaboration from Local Rebuilding - The Voice of Kitakami Ishinomaki."
A large audience attends the presentations
To start off, 14 organizations and individuals presented their rebuilding activities and raised their issues and concerns. Here, Architecture for Humanity participated by presenting our Tohoku rebuilding efforts in the past 2 years. Speakers included the head of the fishing association, mothers, architects, and various NPO organizations.
Design fellow, Aki presents Architecture for Humanity's Tohoku Rebuilding Efforts
Afterwards, groups were split up into themes of "business," "housing" and "welfare & education" for a round table discussion. Having worked on the market project at Kitakami, Architecture for Humanity was grouped into the "business" table, where members included local farmers and fishermen, professors, NPO organization, and a representative from the local government. Several honest opinions were exchanged and discussions held at this time.
Roundtable discussions held, where thoughts and opinions are exchanged
While many affected communities hold multiple issues towards rebuilding, this symposium showed us the strength, incredible optimism, and bonds within Kitakami as they work towards a collection vision of rebuilding in their community. For Architecture for Humanity, it made us think about the form of aid the community currently needs.
Issue Date: 19 April 2013
Reporting Period: 13 April 2013 – 19 April 2013
Business of the Week
Business Name: Yoshinori Ueno [new business owner]
Business Profile: Yoshinori visited MakiBiz to seek advice on the business plan and the construction of a guesthouse with a café that he would like to open in Hamasone-no-ichi, Watanoha, Ishinomaki. The area was devastated by the tsunami two years ago.
Yoshinori Ueno
Yoshinori currently works at the NPO On the Road after working at Peace Boat for 12 years as a staff member. On the Road primarily works in India and Jamaica to provide free education. They build and operate a guesthouse near a school where travellers stay, and the income from a guesthouse is put towards tuition for children and operation of a school. After the Great East Japan Earthquake, they mobilized the total of 16,000 volunteers in the affected area.
A local contributor is going to donate the land for his guesthouse. This guesthouse will also have a café and a shop that sells products from the online shop, Ishinomaki Genki Shoten, that On the Road co-manage with Yahoo! Japan. Yoshinori plans to promote the guesthouse for summer camps and school trips by using On the Road's connection with a travel agency that they partnered with for one of their projects.
Reviewing the business plan and the architectural plan
MakiBiz provided advice on pros and cons of an imported log house, the Fire Service Act, and the guesthouse business in general. We also encouraged him to apply for the MakiBiz RFP. On the Road has an excellent track record for mobilizing volunteers in the affected area, and a wide network in the area as well. We will cultivate our relationship through supporting their guesthouse business.
Business of the Week Updates
Business Name: Ripurasu [new business owner]
We featured the co-founder and owner of Ripurasu, Daigo Hashimoto, on 22 January 2013. MakiBiz helped him to rent a studio/office space.
Daigo Hashimoto. A proud new business owner.
He recently reported back to us saying that they completed the renovation, and passed the final inspection by the health department. He invited us to a sneak preview of his new nursing-care facility named "Studio Plus".
Studio space
Office space
Ripurasu will have an open house on 23 and 24 April 2013, and open its door officially on 1 May 2013. MakiBiz reminded Daigo to contact us whenever they need any support from our network of professionals.
- Milestones for the Quarter
- Milestone 1: Client In-take
- GREEN: on-going
- Total number of business owners that we contacted to date: 38 (+1 since last report)
- Total number of non-business related clients (MakiBiz housing seminar attendees): 12 (+2 since last report)
- Total number of jobs created: 4 (+/- 0 since last report.)
- Milestone 2: The Center
- GREEN: Official announcement of MakiBiz opening is scheduled at the end of April.
OPERATION
- Architecture for Humanity received the information about the Japanese attorney's office from Jonathan. We will forward the information to our attorney to transfer and complete the registration process. AFH need to get a timeline together when we anticipate registration, and provide it to a sign-maker.
- Architecture for Humanity received the final logo file and information on the fonts and colors from KBT. We will develop the logo-use guideline for the internal use.
- The introductory flyer for MakiBiz is ready for press as soon as the logo is authorized.
- Architecture for Humanity will issue additional data for the Foundation to help evaluate the financial model with the first quarterly report on 19 April 2013.
PROGRAM
- Business Seminar: Architecture for Humanity is waiting for MAKOTO's reply on their schedule for the second business seminar series. Shogo will suggest them to hold the sessions after our RFP award date, so that we start supporting those who do not receive our grant.
- Housing Seminar: The fourth housing seminar was held on 18 April 2013. We learned about seismic retrofitting.
- MakiBiz Forum (tentatively named), scheduled on 18 May 2013: The guest speakers who we contacted are not available on that day. We will secure guest speakers in next week. The topic of discussion is how much we enjoy to live and to work in Ishinomaki.
- Milestone 3: MakiBiz Build Back Better Tohoku Request for Proposal program
- Scheduled roll-out (1/23/2013). ISSUED on 15 April 2013
- Total number of initial consultation request received: 2 (as of 18 April 2013)
- We have reached out more than 30 organizations and individuals on our existing client list, announced on social media and other media outlet, started distributing flyers in various public areas.
- Yoichi met Shinkin Central Bank and Higashi-nihon Shien Kikoh on 11 April 2013. The government runs Higashi-nihon Shien Kikoh, which buys old loans from banks. They are very interested in our RFP program, and agreed to distribute the flyers to credit unions in Miyagi, Iwate and Fukushima. MakiBiz will continue our conversation with them for a possible future collaboration.
- The PDF of the flyer is available to download here.
- The PDF of the initial consultation request form is available to download here.
- GREEN: Official announcement of MakiBiz opening is scheduled at the end of April.
- Red Flagged Issues:
- Recruitment of the second business coordinator
Scheduled Completion (10/30/2012). NEW Anticipated Completion (4/30/2013)- A partnership with ETIC still needs to be sorted out. The need for this role will be re-assessed with the ETIC partnership in mind.
- Recruitment of one Design Fellow and one Communications and Development Associate
Scheduled Completion (3/31/2013). NEW Anticipated Completion (5/31/2013)- Architecture for Humanity started to look for candidates.
- Promotion of MakiBiz
- Dentsu indicated their services would be fee-based. V.J. Luna has not gotten back to us. We will keep following up with him.
- MakiBiz is in contact with PR-Link who specializes in PR for NPOs and socially responsible organizations.
- Wakabayashi-san will get in touch with his Dentsu connections as well.
- Recruitment of the second business coordinator
- Milestone 1: Client In-take
End of Weekly Report
Issue Date: 12 April 2013
Reporting Period: 6 April 2013 – 12 April 2013
Business of the Week
Business Name: Hidemaruya [existing business owner]
Business Profile: We featured Hidemaruya on 8 March 2013. The owner, Junichi Shuto, and his wife run a small craft store in Ishinomaki, which was severely damaged by the tsunami. In March, Shuto-san asked our support to fill out the application for a reconstruction grant offered by the prefecture. The prefecture pays for 50% of the total repair cost up to 3 million JPY (approx. 30,000 USD at today's exchange rate). A construction project needs to be completed by the end of March 2014 in order to receive the grant.
Shuto-san
We reviewed all documents together, and submitted them to the prefecture on 8 April 2013. MakiBiz will follow up with Shuto-san during and after the repair work.
Application forms
- Milestones for the Quarter
- Milestone 1: Client In-take
- YELLOW: on-going
- Total number of business owners that we contacted to date: 37 (+/- 0 since last report)
- Total number of non-business related clients: 10 (MakiBiz Housing Seminar attendees to date)
- Total number of jobs created: 4 (+/- 0 since last report.)
- We anticipate that issuance of our RFP next week connects to more businesses that need our support.
- Milestone 2: The Center
- GREEN: Opening event should be rescheduled in April.
OPERATION- Architecture for Humanity received updates from Jonathan on 9 April 2013 stating that the Japanese law firm that he worked with on the early stages is checking with the patent attorneys as to whether they have any desire for the Japanese firm to remain involved as a liaison or not. He would like to sort this out this week.
- Architecture for Humanity is creating a branding guideline for its internal use. We asked KBT to send the final logo file and information on the fonts and colors that they used. Hiromi and Shogo will follow up next week.
- The introductory flyer for MakiBiz is ready for press as soon as the logo is authorized.
- AFH need to get a timeline together when we anticipate registration, and provide it to a sign-maker.
- Architecture for Humanity will issue additional data for the Foundation to help evaluate the financial model with the first quarterly report on 15 April 2013.
PROGRAM
- Business Seminar: Architecture for Humanity is waiting for MAKOTO's reply on their schedule for the second business seminar series. Hiromi and Shogo will follow up next week.
- Housing Seminar: The third housing seminar was held on 11 April 2013. We learned about the sick house syndrome. The feedbacks from the attendees included that they were surprised so many chemicals in building materials cause the sick house syndrome, and they would like to know the cost difference between using conventional materials with chemicals cause the sick house syndrome and materials with less chemicals. We will answer such requests and input from the attendees during our future sessions. The fourth housing seminar is scheduled on 18 April 2013. We will be discussing the seismic retrofitting.
- MakiBiz Forum (tentatively named), scheduled on 18 May 2013: Miku identified and contacted three guest speakers. We will have more detailed information about this event next week.
- GREEN: Opening event should be rescheduled in April.
- Red Flagged Issues:
- Recruitment of two business coordinators
Scheduled Completion (10/30/2012). NEW Anticipated Completion (4/30/2013)- A partnership with ETIC still needs to be sorted out.
- Hiromi and Shogo will have a meeting with Communa to receive a current status report and to discuss our next step.
- Build Back Better Tohoku Request for Proposal program
- Scheduled roll-out (1/23/2013). REVISED roll-out (15 April 2013)
- On 10 April 2013, MakiBiz staff and Architecture for Humanity had a strategy meeting, and ironed out any wrinkles in the guidelines and the process before the roll-out.
- We will promote the program through a press release to the Japanese press, local newspapers, radio and TV, flyers, social media, and our partners' network.
- The PDF of the flyer is available to download here.
MakiBiz RFP Schedule (local time)
Activity Start Date End Date Duration RFP Issuance Monday 4/15/2013 - 1 day Response Time Monday 4/15/2013 Friday 6/7/2013 8 weeks Deadline Friday 6/7/2013 - 1 day Review Period Monday 6/10/2013 Friday 6/21/2013 2 weeks Award Wednesday 6/26/2013 - 1 day Contract Thursday 6/27/2013 Wednesday 7/24/2013 1 month Design/Construction Thursday 7/25/2013 Wednesday 12/11/2013 5 months
- Recruitment of two business coordinators
- Recruitment of one Design Fellow and one Communications and Development Associate
Scheduled Completion (3/31/2013). NEW Anticipated Completion (5/31/2013)- Architecture for Humanity will post job descriptions for these positions.
- Promotion of MakiBiz
- Hiromi contacted with Dentsu and V.J. Luna for a possible partnership to develop our PR strategy. She hasn't heard back from them yet. She will follow up next week.
- Wakabayashi-san will get in touch with his Dentsu connections as well.
- Milestone 1: Client In-take
- Other Meetings and Opportunities that We Had During This Reporting Period
- Architecture for Humanity attended the Reconstruction Symposium 2013 organized by Japan Institute of Architects (JIA) Tohoku chapter on 6-7 April 2013. The report will be issued separately via e-mail.
- Sue Hajdu
- A former design fellow, Takaharu Saito, introduced MakiBiz to Sue Hajdu. Sue is a Hungarian artist who primarily working in Vietnam and Fukushima.
- One of her projects is Fukushima Cabbage. She visits a people's house, cooks a meal for them, and talks about ongoing issues of a community while they share a meal. This project could take the form of cooking workshops with community members as well.
- She is looking for a facility to hold a such workshop in Ishinomaki. MakiBiz referred her to Hiyori Kitchen (we featured them in the Business of the Week section on 22 February 2013) that is only open on weekends so far, and suggested to contact several establishments such as Yugaku-kan and Miyagi COOP Hebita that has a large kitchen for a workshop.
End of Weekly Report
Issue Date: 5 April 2013
Reporting Period: 30 March 2013 – 5 April 2013
Business of the Week
Business Name: Yukari Matsuoka [new business owner]
Business Profile: Before the earthquake, Yukari was working at a seafood processing plant with the Women's Group of Tokura Fishermen's Union in Minami-sanriku-cho. She has also been teaching craftwork using silkworm cocoons at local elementary schools. After she settled in a temporary housing, she started to look for a job other than seafood processing work because the fishing industry had been suffering catastrophic damage caused by the tsunami. A local community support group, Lambs, requested her silkworm craftwork then, and it triggered her to start her business "Mayu Kobo Irodori (Silkworm Craft Workshop 'Irodori')".
Silkworm craft
She sells her craft at a pop-up shop at events in Tokyo using her connection with a support group, and takes orders over the phone and e-mail. The number of local stores that sells her products is increasing as well. She has taken marketing surveys, and expanded her standard produce line to include seasonal and ceremonial products.
Workshop
Her workshop is located in the temporary housing complex where she currently lives. She is planning to build her own house in future, and she would like to build her workshop on the site as well. Yukari and a member of a local supporting group visited MakiBiz a few weeks ago to receive our architectural advice and construction funding through our RFP program. We continue to work with her on both architectural and business aspects.
- Milestones for the Quarter
- Milestone 1: Client In-take
- YELLOW: on-going
- Total number of business owners that we contacted to date: 37 (+/- 0 since last report)
- Total number of jobs created: 4 (+/- 0 since last report.)
- Shogo has been out sick. We currently lack of manpower to contact with new businesses and to follow up with our existing clients at the same time.
- Milestone 2: The Center
- GREEN: Opening event should be rescheduled in April.
- Architecture for Humanity contacted MAKOTO regarding to the second series of MAKOTO Business Seminar. We plan to hold the second series in May and June depending on Mr. Takei's availability.
- Architecture for Humanity agreed to obtain the legal ownership of the MakiBiz logo, and our general counsel to file all patent and trademark work. Prudential needs to provide the contact information of their patent attorney to AFH.
- Architecture for Humanity will create a branding guideline for its internal use.
- The introductory flyer for MakiBiz is ready for press as soon as the logo is authorized.
- AFH need to get a timeline together when we anticipate registration, and provide it to a sign-maker.
- MakiBiz re-scheduled the first monthly community forum (to be named soon) to mid-May to avoid the Golden Week and to allow us and guest speakers to develop the contents.
- The second housing seminar was held on 4 April 2013. We discussed how to select an architect and a contractor and the design and construction process. The third housing seminar is scheduled on 11 April 2013. We will be learning about sick house syndrome.
- MakiBiz needs to hire a PR firm, and develop its PR strategy. By making the public aware of our presence in Ishinomaki, the number of new businesses to support and seminar attendees will increase. We will contact with several firms this week.
- GREEN: Opening event should be rescheduled in April.
- Red Flagged Issues:
- Recruitment of two business coordinators
Scheduled Completion (10/30/2012). NEW Anticipated Completion. (4/30/2013)- There has been no inquiries from any of the thirteen institutions that we have posted job openings with so far.
- We believe that with the addition of Wakabayashi-san to the MakiBiz staff, in combination with a partnership with ETIC, a second business coordinator may be redundant. We will continue a search for a second position and evaluate on an ongoing basis.
- Build Back Better Tohoku Request for Proposal program
- Scheduled roll-out (1/23/2013). REVISED roll-out (April 2013)
- No feedback has been submitted on the RFP documents as of 4 April 2013. We therefore assume that the governance committee has no objections to the proposed criteria.
- Architecture for Humanity will issue additional data for the Foundation to help evaluate the financial model with the first quarterly report on 15 April 2013.
- We will promote the program through the following media.
- introduce the program and announce the RFP on radio in Ishinomaki and Kesennuma.
- run advertisement on local newspapers and newsletters.
- distribute flyers at local chamber of commerce, city hall, library, community center, shopping streets, and temporary housing complexes.
- Recruitment of two business coordinators
- Other Meetings and Opportunities that We Had During This Reporting Period
- Architecture for Humanity will attend the Reconstruction Symposium 2013 organized by Japan Institute of Architects (JIA) Tohoku chapter. The symposium will be held on April 6 and 7.
- MakiBiz started to use Facebook and Twitter (@MakiBiz) to promote our events and programs. The team appreciates if everyone could spread the word through your network.
- Milestone 1: Client In-take
End of Weekly Report
Issue Date: 29 March 2013
Reporting Period: 23 March 2013 – 29 March 2013
Business of the Week
Business Name: Sato Shipyard [existing business owner]
Business Profile: We featured Sato Shipyard on 27 November 2012. They have been in operation of building fishing vessels in the Watanoha district in Ishinomaki for three generations. Their facility and equipment got washed away by the tsunami. However, they restarted their operation of repair and maintenance of vessels at only one dock survived the tsunami.
The owner visited MakiBiz to receive our architectural/engineering and financial advice and support. Currently they are looking for a crane. They need an advice on what type of crane they would need. MakiBiz took the owners of Sato Shipyard to Yamanishi Shipyard in Ishinomaki, which is the biggest shipyard in Tohoku, to investigate their options. Their main concerns are the impact to the neighboring residential community, the climatic impact, and the funding.
Yamanishi Shipyard
MakiBiz will provide advice on the business plan, support the selection process of their equipment, and make an architectural model for them to fully rebuild their business.
The owners of Sato Shipyard getting a tour of Yamanishi Shipyard – Fumihiko Sato (center) and Takaaki Sato (right)
- Milestones for the Quarter
- Milestone 1: Client In-take
- GREEN: on-going
- Total number of business owners that we contacted to date: 37 (+/- 0 since last report)
- Total number of jobs created: 4 (+/- 0 since last report.)
- The team could not reach out to a new client during this reporting period because they were focusing on the first architectural seminar.
- Milestone 2: The Center
- GREEN: Opening event should be rescheduled in April.
- The second MAKOTO seminar is planned after the architectural seminar.
- We are also seeking other seminar and/or workshop possibilities.
- Logo and Service Marks are currently being filed by Patent Attorney. Final legal ownership of the Mark is being reviewed by AFH/Prudential. AFH/Prudential need to get a timeline together when we anticipate registration, and provide it to a sign-maker.
- Architecture for Humanity has submitted the organization overview to accompany the branding guideline to the governance committee on Wednesday 20 March 2013. The team is waiting for the committee's decision who is going to develop the branding guideline. We have two options to develop the branding guideline – KBT or Prudential's PR department. KBT, the designer of the logo, to create the branding guideline. KBT estimates 2 weeks to create the guideline at a cost of $2,000.
- The introductory flyer for MakiBiz is ready for press as soon as the logo is authorized by Prudential legal.
- MakiBiz tentatively scheduled the first monthly community forum (to be named soon) on Saturday 20 April 2013. Currently we are developing a plan to have a lunch with interesting local business owners to promote Ishinomaki to young entrepreneurs. MakiBiz identified several interesting guest speakers to invite such as a tomato/chrysanthemum grower, an orthopedic clinician who also owns a café, and a publisher who promotes various local products to outside of Miyagi.
- GREEN: Opening event should be rescheduled in April.
- Red Flagged Issues:
- Recruitment of two business coordinators
Scheduled Completion (10/30/2012). NEW Anticipated Completion. (4/30/2013)- There has been no inquiries from any of the thirteen institutions that we have posted job openings with so far.
- We believe that with the addition of Wakabayashi-san to the MakiBiz staff, in combination with a partnership with ETIC, a second business coordinator may be redundant. We will continue a search for a second position and evaluate on an ongoing basis.
- 1st Build Back Better Tohoku Request for Proposal program
- Scheduled roll-out (1/23/2013). REVISED roll-out (April 2013)
- Architecture for Humanity sent the package of all documents for RFP by e-mail to the governance committee on 27 March 2013. We greatly appreciate if the committee could review and comment by the end of business day on Wednesday 3 April 2013 (Pacific time).
- The Foundation and Architecture for Humanity are reviewing the financial model.
- We will promote the program through the following media.
- introduce the program and announce the RFP on radio in Ishinomaki and Kesennuma.
- run advertisement on local newspapers and newsletters.
- distribute flyers at local chamber of commerce, city hall, library, community center, shopping streets, and temporary housing complexes.
- Recruitment of two business coordinators
- Other Meetings and Opportunities that We Had During This Reporting Period
- Architecture for Humanity will attend the Reconstruction Symposium 2013 organized by Japan Institute of Architects (JIA) Tohoku chapter. The symposium will be held on April 6 and 7.
- MakiBiz started to use Facebook and Twitter (@MakiBiz) to promote our events and programs. The team appreciates if everyone could spread the word through your network.
- Notable News and Statistics
- Japanese public television station, NHK, conducted a survey among survivors of the Great East Japan Earthquake in three affected prefectures (Miyagi, Fukushima and Iwate) between December 2012 and February 2013, and about 1,000 people answered questionnaires. The result became available recently with nice infographics, and we would like to share with you.
Japanese version of the infographics
English version of the infographics
You can Download Japanese report in PDF.
- Japanese public television station, NHK, conducted a survey among survivors of the Great East Japan Earthquake in three affected prefectures (Miyagi, Fukushima and Iwate) between December 2012 and February 2013, and about 1,000 people answered questionnaires. The result became available recently with nice infographics, and we would like to share with you.
- Milestone 1: Client In-take
End of Weekly Report
NHK released interesting data of the disaster here. The site is only available in Japanese, so we translated the numbers below:
20,852 - The number of people dead or missing since the disaster. 99% of the dead has been identified.
315,000 - The number of people live in temporary housing including relatives' and friends' houses. This is 29,000 less than last year. It shows some people started to rebuild their house and/or to rent or own new housing. There are three reasons that many people still in temporary housing: 1) the slow progress of the government providing subsidized public housing, 2) the aging population cannot afford to move, and 3) the lack of job opportunities prevent people to find permanent housing options.
-9,076 - The number of people who moved out of three affected prefectures exceeded those moved in between March 2012 and February 2013. Fukushima lost 12,276 people. Iwate lost 2,476. However, 5,676 people moved IN to Miyagi.
9,000 - The number of earthquakes in the past two years that people could feel.
1.4 trillion JPY - (approx. 15 billion USD) The total governmental funding for reconstruction. The national government restricted the use at first, but they opened up for more variety of use recently such as the disaster prevention center and parks after the affected prefectural governments criticized their strict policy.
365 billion JPY - (approx. 3.9 billion USD) The total donation received by Japanese Red Cross, NHK and Central Community Chest of Japan in the past 2 years.
0.3% - The percentage of completion of the subsidized public housing project. The project's plan is to build 23,000 units for those who cannot rebuild their house on their own. The main reason is the difficulty in securing buildable sites. The national government is considering to delay the move-in date from March 2014 to March 2015.
35% - The percentage of completion of the removal of rubbles. 26,690,000 metric tons of rubbles are to be removed from three affected prefectures, but only 35% of it has been removed. The Ministry of the Environment estimates to complete by March 2014, but it has been delayed because of the difficulty processing non-combustible rubbles and sediments brought up by the tsunami, and the delay in building temporary incinerators. In 8 towns in Fukushima affected by the radiation, almost none of the rubbles has been processed yet.
19.7% - The percentage of completion of the decontamination of houses in the area OUTSIDE of the evacuation area around the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant. (The decontamination of 11 towns within the evacuation area around the power plant will be funded and implemented by the national government. The work in 101 affected towns in 8 different prefectures will be funded by the national government, but implemented by local municipalities.) The reasons of delay are: 1) the increase in the number of houses to be decontaminated, and 2) the delay in the time to get understanding from residents on the decontamination procedure.
>500 - The total number of government workers in three affected prefectures who were sick off for more than one month between April 2012 and January 2013. More than 50% of them are reported mental illnesses such as depression. This number brought out that many governmental employees are in high level of stress as the reconstruction progresses.
1.25 - The ratio of job offers and job seekers in Miyagi as of January 2013. This was the highest in the nation. All three affected prefectures marked the highest number (Iwate 1.0 and Fukushima 1.23) since the disaster. The national average is 0.85 (job offers are less than job seekers). Reconstruction projects are the key to this increase.
1.1 million - The number of people in three affected prefectures experienced change in employment condition or status after the disaster. This is 43% of the total workers before the earthquake. 81,400 people lost their jobs. 638,500 people took a leave of absence or temporarily stopped working. 385,600 people experienced pay-cut and/or loss of hours, etc. 33,600 people who lost their jobs were not working after a year since the disaster. Even if they found a new job, more than 50% of those are working part-time or in temporary basis.
44% - The estimated percentage of the elderly in Ishinomaki who will need nursing care in future. This is about 20 points higher than the national average. The elderly who lost their jobs because of the disaster have not returned to work. They also live in a small temporary housing. Therefore they are not physically and mentally active any more.
41 species - The number of seafood that the distribution from ports in Fukushima is restricted due to high radiation levels. There are similar distribution restriction in Miyagi, Iwate and Ibaraki.
Japanese public television station, NHK, conducted a survey among survivors of the Great East Japan Earthquake in three affected prefectures (Miyagi, Fukushima and Iwate) between December 2012 and February 2013, and about 1,000 people answered questionnaires. The result became available recently with nice infographics, and we would like to share with you.
Japanese version of the infographics
English version of the infographics
You can Download Japanese report in PDF.
Issue Date: 22 March 2013
Reporting Period: 16 March 2013 – 22 March 2013
Business of the Week
Entrepreneur Name: Tamiko Abe [new business owner]
Business Profile: Tamiko has been an aqua-farmer (oysters, sea scallops and seaweeds) and a mother at the same time. She lost her house and workplace in Minami-sanriku for the tsunami, but she has resumed her mail-order business with her colleagues in October 2012. They package seasonal products in partnership with other seafood processing plants in the area, and sell them as "Tamiko's Ocean Pack".
Tamiko Abe
She mostly sells her seafood boxes through her website and Facebook page. She sometimes sells at local events as well. Her business is successful, and another mother works for her. The number of customers is increasing, and many of them are repeat customers. She would like to develop her own products to expand her business. She believes it would make her business more sustainable.
Sample of "Tamiko's Ocean Pack" seafood box
She visited MakiBiz to learn how to access to a construction grant for her product development and seafood processing plant. We recommended her to apply for our RFP program. MakiBiz will also help her researching and developing stronger marketing strategy.
- Milestones for the Quarter
- Milestone 1: Client In-take
- GREEN: on-going
- Total number of business owners that we contacted to date: 37 (+2 since last report: 2 business and architectural consultations)
- Total number of jobs created: 4 (+/- 0 since last report.)
- We are currently working with Wakabayashi-san and his network to expand our search for businesses in need.
- Milestone 2: The Center
- GREEN: Opening event should be rescheduled in March.
- The first MakiBiz Architectural Seminar was held on Thursday 21 March 2013. Our design fellow, Akinobu Yoshikawa, led the discussion with 7 attendees about pros and cons of hiring architects and housing makers when people start thinking about building their house.
The first architectural seminar. Lecturer: Akinobu Yoshikawa - The second MAKOTO seminar is planned after the architectural seminar.
- We are also seeking other seminar and/or workshop possibilities.
- Logo and Service Marks currently being filed by Patent Attorney. Final legal ownership of the Mark is being reviewed by AFH/Prudential.
- Architecture for Humanity has submitted the organization overview to accompany the branding guideline to the governance committee on Wednesday 20 March 2013. We have two options to develop the branding guideline – KBT or Prudential's PR department. KBT, the designer of the logo, to create the branding guideline. KBT estimates 2 weeks to create the guideline at a cost of $2,000.
- The introductory flyer for MakiBiz is ready for press as soon as the logo is authorized by Prudential legal.
- MakiBiz will hold the first monthly community forum (to be titled later) in April. Currently we are developing a plan to have a Saturday lunch with local farmers, café owners and restaurateurs. We may have this event open to public as well to promote their products and services.
- The first MakiBiz Architectural Seminar was held on Thursday 21 March 2013. Our design fellow, Akinobu Yoshikawa, led the discussion with 7 attendees about pros and cons of hiring architects and housing makers when people start thinking about building their house.
- GREEN: Opening event should be rescheduled in March.
- Red Flagged Issues:
- Recruitment of two business coordinators
Scheduled Completion (10/30/2012). NEW Anticipated Completion. (4/30/2013)- There has been no inquiries from any of the eleven institutions that we have posted job openings with so far. Communa will send two more inquiries to two universities this week.
- We believe that with the addition of Wakabayashi-san to the MakiBiz staff, in combination with a partnership with ETIC, a second business coordinator may be redundant. We will continue a search for a second position and evaluate on an ongoing basis.
- 1st Build Back Better Tohoku Request for Proposal program
- Scheduled roll-out (1/23/2013). REVISED roll-out (April 2013)
- Architecture for Humanity will share the package of all documents for RFP with the committee next week. It was delayed due to the complexity of the documents, and extended reviewing process because of that fact.
- The Foundation is currently reviewing the financial model.
- We will promote the program through the following media.
- introduce the program and announce the RFP on radio in Ishinomaki and Kesennuma.
- run advertisement on local newspapers and newsletters.
- distribute flyers at local chamber of commerce, city hall, library, community center, shopping streets, and temporary housing complexes.
- Recruitment of two business coordinators
- Other Meetings and Opportunities that We Had During This Reporting Period
- Milestone 1: Client In-take
End of Weekly Report
Issue Date: 15 March 2013
Reporting Period: 9 March 2013 – 15 March 2013
Business of the Week
Entrepreneur Name: Ryo Sato [new business owner]
Business Profile: Ryo would like to renovate his grandfather's house, and turn it into a shared house for young entrepreneurs who would like to start their business in Ishinomaki.
Exterior view of his house
Housing prices (both rental and own) are soaring in Tohoku. After two years after the disaster, many buildings that NPOs and other organizations have been using in Ishinomaki are in line for demolition. We expect the demand and prices for housing keep going up. As a result, both long-term residents and short-term residents will suffer from housing shortage even more.
Ryo (a man standing on the right) envisions his house to become a place where local people and visitors get together.
Ryo now plans to open up his place as a guesthouse to those who would like to stay in Ishinomaki regardless of length of stay. MakiBiz will help researching similar lodging facilities in the town, list up necessary equipment and services, and establish an appropriate price point. We also will support marketing and promotion.
- Milestones for the Quarter
- Milestone 1: Client In-take
- YELLOW: on-going
- Total number of business owners that we contacted to date: 35 (+/-0 since last report)
- Total number of jobs created: 4 (+/- 0 since last report.)
- The team could not make contact with a new business because we were focusing on the preparation for the second anniversary event this week.
- We are currently working with Wakabayashi-san and his network to expand our search for businesses in need.
- Milestone 2: The Center
- GREEN: Opening event should be rescheduled in March.
- MakiBiz Second Anniversary Event
- MakiBiz held a second anniversary event showcasing housing - a continuing issue for survivors who have lost their homes to the tsunami. (See the latest statistics at the bottom of this report.)
- We invited four architects from the Mori-no-iezukuri-network (Wooden House Network) to present affordable ecological housing to override the preconception that architect-designed homes are more expensive and complicated to build than those produced by corporate housing manufacturers. Please go to the report on 12 March 2013 in Updates section of MakiBiz page on Worldchanging for more information about this event.
- Local governments are preparing for buildable land on higher grounds, but most of sites are not going to be available until 2014. (Please see the latest statistics of the construction progress on public housing for survivors.)
- MakiBiz and those four architects agreed to collaborate and reach out to more people in temporary housing. We will have a strategy meeting on 15 March 2013.
- MakiBiz Architectural Seminar's flyers were printed. We are going to distribute them at temporary housing, libraries, and the City Hall, and advertise on the Kasetsu Kizuna Shimbun on 14 March 2013. The seminar starts on 21 March 2013.
- The second MAKOTO seminar is planned after the architectural seminar.
- We are also seeking other seminar and/or workshop possibilities.
- We are currently awaiting word from Jonathan regarding any potential legal issues of the logo such as the copyright and the trademark.
- Architecture for Humanity has drafted the organization overview to accompany the branding guideline. We will share the draft with the governance committee before the next meeting. We have an option of using KBT, the designer of the logo, to create the branding guideline. KBT estimates 2 weeks to create the guideline at a cost of $2,000.
- The introductory flyer for MakiBiz is ready for press as soon as the logo is authorized by Prudential legal.
- MakiBiz will have a monthly forum (to be named soon) to provide an informal gathering opportunity for local people and outsiders. For the first event, we will have an open house with food and drink to get to know each other. Miku is in charge of organizing this event. She will provide the date and time, a possible presenters for future event, and target media for promotion.
- MakiBiz Second Anniversary Event
- GREEN: Opening event should be rescheduled in March.
- Red Flagged Issues:
- Recruitment of two business coordinators
Scheduled Completion (10/30/2012). NEW Anticipated Completion. (3/31/2013)- There has been no inquiries from any of the ten institutions that we have posted job openings with so far.
- We suggest to hold a job fair in collaboration with other NPOs in the area because many organizations are suffering from lack of skilled workers.
- We believe that with the addition of Wakabayashi-san to the MakiBiz staff, in combination with a partnership with ETIC, a second business coordinator may be redundant. We will continue a search for a second position and evaluate on an ongoing basis.
- Recruitment of a Director of Strategic Partnerships
- The Director of Strategic Partnerships starts on 15 March 2013.
- 1st Build Back Better Tohoku Request for Proposal program
- Scheduled roll-out (1/23/2013). REVISED roll-out (March 2013)
- Architecture for Humanity will share the package of all documents for RFP with the committee by 22 March 2013.
- The Foundation is currently reviewing the financial model.
- We propose the following as a marketing strategy for the RFP.
- introduce the program and announce the RFP on TV and radio.
- run advertisement on local newspaper and newsletter.
- distribute flyers at local chamber of commerce, city hall, library, community center, shopping streets, and temporary housing complexes.
- announce at local events.
- Recruitment of two business coordinators
- Other Meetings and Opportunities that We Had During This Reporting Period
- Architecture for Humanity will attend the Reconstruction Symposium 2013 organized by Japan Institute of Architects (JIA) Tohoku chapter. The symposium will be held on April 6 and 7.
- Notable News and Statistics
- Ishinomaki Mayoral Race
- Mayoral election in Ishinomaki will be held on 21 April 2013. There are three candidates including the current mayor, Hiroshi Kameyama.
- Other candidates are Toshihiko Fujita, the director of the Association for the Revitalization of Ishinomaki (ARI) and Marie Fukushima, an adjunct professor at Tohoku University.
- Statistics: Housing
- Land preparation of permanent public housing has been developing slowly. One of reasons is many sites need to be investigated for buried cultural property. Currently 9 coastal towns estimate up to 40 locations need to have archeological investigations, which takes six to twelve months to complete.
- The governments are also concern of shortage of construction workers and building materials once these plans go into high gear.
- Ishinomaki Mayoral Race
- Milestone 1: Client In-take
End of Weekly Report
Exactly two years have passed since the unforgettable catastrophe struck Tohoku and took away thousands of lives. We would like to send our condolences to all the victims and those who are still waiting for their loved ones to be identified.
To commemorate this day, the Ishinomaki office held an event showcasing housing - a continuing issue for victims who have lost their homes to the tsunami. We invited four architects from the "Wooden House Network (Mori-no-iezukuri-network")in Tohoku to present affordable ecological housing to override the preconception that architect-designed homes are more expensive and complicated to build than those produced by corporate housing manufacturers.
The architects who generously presented their work were:
Kinya Hayakawa, Hayakwa Architects + Partners
Hayakawa-san's Work
Yoichi Adachi, SPAZIO
Adachi-san's Work
Hirofumi Takada, Tsuki Sekkei
Takada-san's Work
Fumihiko Sasaki, Sasaki Architect
Sasaki-san's Work
The first to present was Hayakawa-san, the youngest member of the network. He also wears the hat of coordinator of a Minka(traditional Japanese housing) preservation group and DIY community services group.
His so-called 2.5 household residence(parents, son's family, and single daughter) proposed solutions to a peaceful relationship among the three households. Per his client's request, he separated entry ways for the parents and son's family to respect each other's privacy. One of the guests also pointed out that as children grow up they occupy different rooms, and it would be convenient to have a flexible floor plan. The architects responded that they make a conscious effort to accommodate dynamic shifts in life, as it is a crucial design element.
Hayakawa-san answering questions
Following was Adachi-san, who is a master of interiors. Japanese or Western, his interiors were beautifully executed with attention to detail. The audience was particularly taken away by his bathroom designs. We also had an active discussion about storage, which troubles architects a great deal. Adachi-san incorporates plenty of storage and fixed-furniture in his design, which the crowd agreed as a wise choice.
Adachi-san pointing at his model
Takada-san had a very clear proposal for disaster-relief housing: 1. Have an Engawa patio to facilitate communication with the community 2. Plant a tree 3. Incorporate an iconic element(e.g. stain-glass window) for a conversation starter with neighbors. It was also interesting to learn that his client's son's Eczema cured after moving into his house - a good example that ecological design can make a difference in people's lives.
The Takada's explaining their design philosophy
Last but not least was Sasaki-san, designer of Kitakami We Are One Market. Sasaki-san showed us footage of his office and house in Kitakami being washed away by the tsunami. It was quite shocking to see the entire structure disappear from our sight, but we were happy to hear that his new office and house also in Kitakami is almost finished. Sasaki-san has been building model homes of affordable one-story units. Learning from home manufacturers that have model homes of various designs and sizes, he believes that there is nothing more attractive and convincing than a one-to-one scale model home to sell his design to future home owners.
Sasaki-san going through drawings of his projects
Other issues raised were the lack of contractors and carpenters in Tohoku. The longer it takes to find one, the more expensive construction fees become, and clients shy away from building homes. It is a wide-spread issue not only architects, but also home manufacturers face.
We look forward to updating you again in a couple weeks on our improved Housing Seminar Series!
Issue Date: 8 March 2013
Reporting Period: 2 March 2013 – 8 March 2013
Business of the Week
Entrepreneur Name: Hidemaruya [existing business owner]
Business Profile: We featured Hidemaruya on 8 January 2013. The owner, Junichi Shuto, and his wife run a small craft store in the old town Ishinomaki. Everything in their store was washed away by the tsunami, and they had to repair their store.
Owners of Hidemaruya
Shuto-san came back to MakiBiz to ask our support to fill out the application for a reconstruction grant offered by Miyagi prefecture. The requirements to apply for this grant are: 1) a small business owner, 2) a facility was completely damaged or majorly damaged by the tsunami, and 3) a business owner who would like to rebuild his/her business in Miyagi. The prefecture will pay for 50% of the total repair cost (up to 3,000,000 JPY – approx. 32,000 USD).
A mountain of paperwork
The grant can be applied for repairs that have already completed. Hidemaruya falls into this category. MakiBiz will read through these documents, and help them fill out the form correctly and gather all necessary supporting documents by the deadline. The prefectural government is accepting the application from 25 March 2013 to 26 April 2013.
- Milestones for the Quarter
- Milestone 1: Client In-take
- GREEN: on-going
- Total number of business owners that we contacted to date: 35 (+/-0 since last report: 1 business consultation)
- Total number of jobs created: 4 (+/- 0 since last report.)
- Milestone 2: The Center
- GREEN: Opening event should be rescheduled in March.
- MakiBiz is hosting a second anniversary event. We will have three local architectural firms provide advice on permanent housing options.
- MakiBiz Architectural Seminar's flyer has been made. We are going to advertise on the next issue of Kasetsu Kizuna Shimbun on 14 March 2013. The seminar starts on 21 March 2013.
- The schedule of FLight/Business Creation Square is fully booked in March. Shogo is negotiating with Mr. Kasama of FLight/Business Creation Square about the possibility of holding a marketing seminar in April or May.
- We are also seeking other seminar and/or workshop possibilities. Perhaps we can tap in Wakabayashi-san's network.
- Jonathan is looking into legal issues of the logo such as the copyright and the trademark.
- Architecture for Humanity has drafted the organization overview to accompany the branding guideline. We will share the draft with the governance committee before the next meeting. We have an option of using KBT, the designer of the logo, to create the branding guideline. KBT estimates 2 weeks to create the guideline at a cost of $2,000.
- The introductory flyer for MakiBiz is ready for press as soon as the logo is authorized by Prudential legal.
- Milestone 1: Client In-take
- Red Flagged Issues:
- Recruitment of two business coordinators
Scheduled Completion (10/30/2012). NEW Anticipated Completion. (3/31/2013)- There has been no inquiries from any of the seven institutions that we have posted job openings with so far.
- We suggest to hold a job fair in collaboration with other NPOs in the area because many organizations are suffering from lack of skilled workers.
- Recruitment of a Director of Strategic Partnerships
- Architecture for Humanity has sent the offer letter and the agreement to the candidate for the Director of Strategic Partnerships position on 7 March 2013. He is scheduled to start on 15 March 2013. (He verbally accepted our offer on 7 March 2013.)
- 1st Build Back Better Tohoku Request for Proposal program
- Scheduled roll-out (1/23/2013). REVISED roll-out (March 2013)
- No feedback has been submitted on the RFP criteria as of 1 March 2013. We therefore assume that the governance committee has no objections to the proposed criteria. The release of the RFP is currently waiting on conclusion between Architecture for Humanity and Prudential Foundation about funding mechanisms.
- Architecture for Humanity received drafts of the judging criteria and other supplemental documents on 1 March 2013. We will share the documents with the committee after we incorporate our comments and translate them in English.
- We propose the following as a marketing strategy for the RFP.
- introduce the program and announce the RFP on TV and radio.
- run advertisement on local newspaper and newsletter.
- distribute flyers at local chamber of commerce, city hall, library, community center, shopping streets, and temporary housing complexes.
- announce at local events.
- Recruitment of two business coordinators
- Other Meetings and Opportunities that We Had During This Reporting Period
- Architecture for Humanity will attend the second anniversary event in New York City – Ippo x 365 x 2: Reflections on the Japanese Front on Saturday 9 March 2013.
- Architecture for Humanity will attend the Reconstruction Symposium 2013 organized by Japan Institute of Architects (JIA) Tohoku chapter. The symposium will be held on April 6 and 7.
End of Weekly Report
Issue Date: 1 March 2013
Reporting Period: 23 February 2013 – 1 March 2013
Business of the Week
Entrepreneur Name: Toshiyuki Abe [existing business owner with new business plan]
Business Profile: Toshiyuki's family has a dairy and livestock farm in Tokura area of Minami-sanriku-cho in Miyagi prefecture. The Abes would like to expand their business to food processing, and also to develop their own distribution system in collaboration with other businesses in the area. Toshiyuki aims to rebuild his family business and the local economy more sustainably with this approach known as the senary industry.
Toshiyuki Abe
He visited MakiBiz to seek our support to build a processing plant to make pickles using locally harvested vegetables such as daikon radishes, bokchoys and carrots, and dairy products using milk from his farm.
Diagram: Primary, Secondary, Tertiary and Senary Industries
MakiBiz encouraged him to apply for our RFP to receive the construction funding. We suggested developing his plan further. We will research precedents and advise. We will connect with our partner, Mr. Takeru Kasama of Business Creation Square/FLight in Sendai to conduct a marketing research and development. Business Creation Square mainly provides marketing support for small local business owners. One of possible future opportunities is Tohoku Rockenpark which promotes various local products throughout Tohoku in a store located in downtown Sendai. It provides an opportunity to test what kinds of products are more appealing to consumers.
- Milestones for the Quarter
- Milestone 1: Client In-take
- GREEN: on-going
- Total number of business owners that we contacted to date: 35 (+1 since last report: 1 business consultation)
- Total number of jobs created: 4 (+/- 0 since last report.)
- Milestone 2: The Center
- GREEN: Opening event should be rescheduled in March.
- MakiBiz Architectural Seminar's flyer will be available next week. (Most likely this flyer will not have our logo due to the timing.)
- The schedule of FLight/Business Creation Square is fully booked in March. Shogo is negotiating with Mr. Kasama of FLight/Business Creation Square about possibility of holding a marketing seminar in April or May.
- We are also seeking other seminar and/or workshop possibilities.
- The logo design was approved by the governance committee. Jonathan is looking into legal issues such as the copyright and the trademark.
- MakiBiz has contacted with KBT if they can create the branding guideline for us. KBT will provide us with the schedule and the fee estimate next week.
- The introductory flyer of MakiBiz is ready for press as soon as the logo is authorized by Prudential legal.
- Milestone 1: Client In-take
- Red Flagged Issues:
- Recruitment of two business coordinators
Scheduled Completion (10/30/2012). NEW Anticipated Completion. (3/31/2013)- We have posted the job descriptions at Akita University through Communa. There is no inquiry from any of seven institutions that we have posted job openings so far. Communa is also in contact with Akita International University.
- Recruitment of a Director of Strategic Partnerships
- Architecture for Humanity has concluded its interview process for the Director of Strategic Partnerships position, and recommended the best candidate to the governance committee via e-mail sent on 27 February 2013. We are planning to extend to him a letter of offer by the end of the week.
- 1st Build Back Better Tohoku Request for Proposal program
- Scheduled roll-out (1/23/2013). REVISED roll-out (March 2013)
- No feedback has been submitted on the RFP criteria as of 1 March 2013. We therefore assume that the governance committee has no objections to the proposed criteria. The release of the RFP is currently waiting on conclusion between Architecture for Humanity and Prudential Foundation about funding mechanisms.
- Architecture for Humanity are expecting to receive drafts of the judging criteria and other supplemental documents early next week. We will share with the committee after we translate the documents.
- We will develop a marketing strategy within the next two weeks.
- Recruitment of two business coordinators
- Other Meetings and Opportunities that We Had During This Reporting Period
- Architecture for Humanity have invited to the Reconstruction Symposium 2013 by Japan Institute of Architects (JIA) Tohoku chapter. The symposium will be held on April 6 and 7. The topic of the symposium is how professionals in different fields collaborate with communities and governments to build back better Tohoku. We believe this is a great opportunity for us to share our experience and promote our program to local professionals by engaging in a discussion. MakiBiz will plan to attend the event unless there are objections from the governance committee.
End of Weekly Report
Issue Date: 22 February 2013
Reporting Period: 16 February 2013 – 22 February 2013
Business of the Week
Entrepreneur Name: Miki Amano [new business owner]
Business Profile: Miki is an architect. She has been working on various renovation projects in Ishinomaki including workshops on how to renovate timber frame houses after the earthquake. Currently she is renovating her restaurant "Hiyori Kitchen" which is going to open at the end of March. Her new business is funded by the Cabinet Office's "Bunka na shigoto souzou jigyou (creation of cultural occupation project)". Her business concept is to provide traditional homemade dishes using game meat from the Oshika Peninsula, and to promote local food culture to both tourists and residents of Ishinomaki.
Miki Amano
Local ingredients such as game meat and rice are the key marketing elements. Game meat that she will provide at Hiyori Kitchen is going to be supplied by the Marushin Wild Meat, which provide deer antler to OCICA*. Miki asked MakiBiz to come up with an item using rice from Miyagi as well as to help her renovation project. We will also help her finding a chef.
Exterior of Hiyori Kitchen [under construction]
*OCICA is supported by Tumugiya that has also been helping Oshika House (a.k.a. Boppora Shokudo) funded by Architecture for Humanity.
- Milestones for the Quarter
- Milestone 1: Client In-take
- GREEN: on-going
- Total number of business owners that we contacted to date: 34 (+1 since last report: 1 business consultation)
- Total number of jobs created: 4 (+/- 0 since last report.)
- Milestone 2: The Center
- GREEN: Opening event rescheduled in late February.
- MakiBiz Architectural Seminar's flyer will be available next week.
- The schedule of FLight/Business Creation Square is fully booked in March. Shogo is negotiating with Mr. Kasama of FLight/Business Creation Square about possibility of holding a marketing seminar in April or May.
- The introductory flyer of MakiBiz is ready for press as soon as the logo is finalized. KBT sent us the revised logo design on Friday 22 February 2013.
- Milestone 1: Client In-take
- Red Flagged Issues:
- Recruitment of two business coordinators
Scheduled Completion (10/30/2012). NEW Anticipated Completion. (3/31/2013)- The business coordinator, Miku Kano, started working at MakiBiz on Friday 15 February 2013. She received training sessions at Architecture for Humanity's headquarter office in San Francisco from 19 February 2013 to 23 February 2013.
- We have posted the job descriptions at Iwate University and Yamagata University through Communa. There is no inquiry from any of seven institutions that we have posted job openings so far.
- We have not heard from Japan NGO Center for International Cooperation (JANIC) on our inquiry if they could refer an appropriate personnel.
- Communa has inquired Masako Inaba, the president of Yui Net, a company that provides occupational training and also coordinates rebuilding related staffing for town halls along Miyagi coast. She said it is rather difficult as this is contractor thing and not a staff position. However, she offered to let us know when she meets somebody who would be interested in the job.
- Recruitment of a Director of Strategic Partnerships
- Architecture for Humanity scheduled one in-person interview on Monday 25 February 2013 and two phone interviews on Monday 25 and Tuesday 26 February 2013.
- The name of the Center
- KBT submitted the revised logo design on Friday 22 February 2013. We should make a final decision next week.
- 1st Build Back Better Tohoku Request for Proposal program
- Scheduled roll-out (1/23/2013). REVISED roll-out (Late February 2013)This will coincide with our opening event, and provide a forum for announcing the RFP.
- The team is waiting for feedback on a draft RFP (the application form and submission guideline) submitted on 28 January 2013.
- The marketing strategy should be developed for the RFP.
- Recruitment of two business coordinators
End of Weekly Report
Issue Date: 15 February 2013
Reporting Period: 9 February 2013 – 15 February 2013
Business of the Week
Entrepreneur Name: Naoya Takahashi, seaweed farmer [existing business owner with new business ideas]
Business Profile: Naoya was born and raised in Utatsu, Minami-sanriku, Miyagi. He has worked as a seaweed farmer since he turned 20 years old. The tsunami destroyed his workplace, and he lost all his equipment. He worked in the construction industry for a while as many aqua-farmers and fishermen have done after the disaster to pay their bills. (Many of them still stay in the construction industry because it is more lucrative than aqua farming.) However, he did not give up on the rebuilding of his seaweed farm. In November 2011, he resumed seaweed farming.
Naoya Takahashi
His business is back on track, but he would like to make Utatsu's aqua-farming industry more sustainable. He suggests "blue tourism" to diversify the town's economic structure. His proposal includes a place where tourists and local people enjoy fresh seafood, and various programs to easily engage in fishing and aqua-farming. He believes that it is also a great opportunity to bring back fishermen and aqua-farmers who quit their business to work in more profitable industries after the disaster.
Rental boots for women and children tourists - they don't have to bring their own gear
Naoya owns a property that has been leveled and ready to be built. He is planning to build a café for both tourists and locals with a playground for children who are unable to play on the beach that has been closed due to the construction of a seawall. He asked the MakiBiz Architectural team to come up with a conceptual design sketch, so that he can start discussions with other stakeholders to make his dream a reality.
Naoya's property overlooking the bay
- Milestones for the Quarter
- Milestone 1: Client In-take
- GREEN: on-going
- Total number of business owners that we contacted to date: 33 (+1 since last report: 1 business consultation)
- Total number of jobs created: 4 (+1 since last report: Daigo Hashimoto of Ripurasu, who was featured on 22 January 2013, hired one employee.)
- Milestone 2: The Center
- GREEN: Opening event rescheduled in late February.
- MakiBiz is going to host an architectural seminar in March/April. The following is the schedule. We will create a flyer for distribution, and place an advertisement in Kasetsu Kizuna Shimbun, a newsletter for residents in temporary housing.
MakiBiz Architectural Seminar
Date Time Topic Thursday 3/7/2013 19:00-20:30 Architect or Housing manufacturers? Thursday 3/14/2013 19:00-20:30 Building your home with an architect Thursday 3/21/2013 19:00-20:30 Sick-house syndrome Thursday 4/4/2013 19:00-20:30 Seismic retrofitting Thursday 4/11/2013 19:00-20:30 Green/Sustainable homes Thursday 4/18/2013 19:00-20:30 Construction Loans - Shogo is discussing the possibility of inviting Mr. Kasama of FLight/Business Creation Square in Sendai to teach a marketing seminar at MakiBiz. We will share more details next week.
- MakiBiz hosted a meeting with Toshiko Mori, an architect and a board member for Architecture for Humanity, local architects, business owners and entrepreneurs on Monday, 11 February 2013. The details are available in the report sent to you separately.
- The introductory flyer of MakiBiz is ready for press next week unless there is an objection.
- Milestone 1: Client In-take
- Red Flagged Issues:
- Recruitment of two business coordinators
Scheduled Completion (10/30/2012). Anticipated Completion. (1/31/2013)- The business coordinator, Miku Kano, will start working at MakiBiz on Friday 15 February 2013. She will receive training sessions at Architecture for Humanity's headquarter office in San Francisco from 19 February 2013 to 23 February 2013.
- We have posted the job descriptions at Miyagi University of Education through Communa. There is no inquiry from any of five institutions that we have posted job openings so far.
- Communa also asked Japan NGO Center for International Cooperation (JANIC) if they could refer an appropriate personnel. JANIC is a supportive organization of non-profits in Japan.
- Recruitment of a Director of Strategic Partnerships
- Architecture for Humanity will take lead on the first evaluation of 5 candidates that we have the resumes.
- Architecture for Humanity plans to have in person interviews for the one or two strongest candidates at the San Francisco headquarter office.
- The name of the Center
- The team is finalizing the design based on feedback. We are considering changing the name on the logo to Japanese.
- 1st Build Back Better Tohoku Request for Proposal program
- Scheduled roll-out (1/23/2013). REVISED roll-out (Late February 2013)This will coincide with our opening event, and provide a forum for announcing the RFP.
- The team is waiting for feedback on a draft RFP (the application form and submission guideline) submitted on 28 January 2013.
- Michael met with Jonathan at POJ, and started the financing brainstorming session. Jonathan needs to pull together his contacts and move this forward from his end. Michael suggested Architecture for Humanity help Jonathan by providing some contacts from UBS and local credit unions, etc. via Hideyuki Watarai and V.J. Luna.
- The marketing strategy should be developed for the RFP.
- Recruitment of two business coordinators
- Other Meetings and Opportunities that We Had During This Reporting Period
- Michael's trip to Japan
- Michael's trip was cut short due to a family emergency. He met with V.J. Luna and Hideyuki Watarai of TRIAID.
- V.J. Luna recommended one candidate for the Director of Strategic Partnership position as requested by us last week.
- Michael's trip to Japan
End of Weekly Report
Issue Date: 8 February 2013
Reporting Period: 2 February 2013 – 8 February 2013
Business of the Week
Entrepreneur Name: Hirofumi Masuda, artist [new business owner]
Business Profile: Hirofumi was based in Yokohama before the earthquake, but he relocated to Ishinomaki to record the disaster through Hiyoriyama Art Center and other platforms. He has been researching and documenting communities, and embody the essence of "something special" that has lost in day-to-day activities. One of his projects is called "The Scenery before the Construction of the Sea Wall along the Old Kitakami River." He successfully raised the funds (500,000 JPY) for the production of the film through a cloud funding campaign. He used to teach arts at schools as a substitute teacher in Yokohama, so he would like to open his studio, and teach children arts in Ishinomaki. Currently he is looking for his studio space, and also seeking funding sources.
Hirofumi Masuda
We referred Hirofumi to our landlord who has a vacant office space on the second floor of the building MakiBiz is in. We have also advised him to apply to our RFP program for the start-up capital. Shogo also helped him on legal matters such as a confidential agreement and a copyright agreement that he would need in future.
- Milestones for the Quarter
- Milestone 1: Client In-take
- GREEN: on-going
- Total number of business owners that we contacted to date: 32 (+2 since last report – 1 new seminar attendee and 1 business consultation)
- Milestone 2: The Center
- GREEN: Opening event rescheduled in mid-February.
- The last MAKOTO Business Seminar was held on Friday 2/1/2013. The topic was "Lesson Learned: Three Common Mistakes that Business Owners Make". We had six attendees for our last seminar.
- MakiBiz is going to host an architectural seminar in February. We are developing the syllabus, which we will share next week.
- Shogo is discussing a possibility of inviting Mr. Kasama of FLight/Business Creation Square in Sendai to teach a marketing seminar at MakiBiz. We will share more details next week.
- MakiBiz is going to invite Toshiko Mori, an architect and one of the board members of Architecture for Humanity, and host a meeting with G1 summit attendees, local architects, business owners and entrepreneurs on Monday 11 February 2013.
- Milestone 1: Client In-take
- Red Flagged Issues:
- Recruitment of two business coordinators needed when the Center opens its door.
Scheduled Completion (10/30/2012). Anticipated Completion. (1/31/2013)- The business coordinator, Miku Kano, is moving to Ishinomaki next week.
- We have posted the job descriptions at four local universities (Tohoku University, Miyagi University, Miyagi Gakuin Women's College and Tohoku Gakuin University). We have not gotten any reply from any of these schools yet.
- In general, it is appropriate to attach a company brochure when we post a job description at universities in Japan. Shogo sent a draft of the MakiBiz brochure on 24 January 2013, but we have not received any feedback yet. The team would greatly appreciate if we get the approval from the committee next week.
- Recruitment of a Director of Strategic Partnerships
- Ohta-san and Shogo interviewed the second candidate on 7 February 2013. They will share their evaluation before the next governance call.
- We are coordinating schedules among Ohta-san, Shogo and Fukasawa-san to interview with the third candidate.
- Architecture for Humanity have received a resume from the fourth candidate. We will share the information with Ohta-san and Fukasawa-san, and follow the same procedure with other three candidates.
- The name of the Center
- The team is proceeding with option A with further design refinements. The design team, KBT, will provide iterations next week.
- 1st Build Back Better Tohoku Request for Proposal program
- Scheduled roll-out (1/23/2013). REVISED roll-out (Late February 2013)This will coincide with our opening event, and provide a forum for announcing the RFP.
- The team is waiting for a feedback on a draft RFP (the application form and submission guideline) submitted on 28 January 2013.
- Architecture for Humanity and Prudential of Japan have a conference call scheduled on Friday 8 February 2013 to discuss the financial matter. We will pursue the RFP based on the outcome and the input from Prudential of Japan.
- The marketing strategy should be developed for the RFP.
- Recruitment of two business coordinators needed when the Center opens its door.
- Other Meetings and Opportunities that We Had During This Reporting Period
- Michael's trip to Japan
- Michael is in Japan from 6 February 2013 to 14 February 2013.
- V.J. Luna visited Shogo at MakiBiz on February 2nd and 3rd. They discussed the current status of Ishinomaki, and asked his assistance on recruitment of the Director of Strategic Partnership.
- Architecture for Humanity issued the 2012 4th quarter report with the 2013/2014 budget and schedule on Friday 1 February 2013.
- Michael's trip to Japan
End of Weekly Report
The MAKOTO Business Seminar ended in success, but ironically, the topic of the final seminar was about failure in business, and particularly about every business owner's fear: bankruptcy.
According to our instructor, failure comes in three forms: failure of being overly confident, failure to accept constructive criticism, failure to acknowledge the reality. And companies lead by CEO's with those characteristics are prone to bankruptcy.
It was interesting to learn that CEOs with strong credentials have the tendency of being too proud of their accomplishments and avoiding the reality of their company's decline in business. Regardless of scale or targeted market, enterprises need to cope with the fact that failure is inevitable. The clever way to deal with that reality is to have a practical leader with a deep understanding of the enterprise's scope and capability. This message was a great warning to the six attendees who have owned or in the process of owning an enterprise.
Our instructor and the six attendees
To wrap up the seminar, we asked attendees to fill out an inquiry about services they desire from MakiBiz. We received strong requests for networking events for local business owners and entrepreneurs.
Attendees listening to lecture
The conclusion of the seminar series reinforced our passion to continue expanding our network within the Ishinomaki community and tailor our services towards the needs of residents and business owners helping to rebuild the local economy.
MakiBiz office during the lecture
Issue Date: 1 February 2013
Reporting Period: 23 January 2013 – 1 February 2013
Business of the Week
Entrepreneur Name: Naomi Sato, "We Are One" Kitakami [new business owner]
Business Profile: Architecture for Humanity has provided the construction funding and design and construction services to build a market that also houses a youth center. Naomi and mothers who now live in a temporary housing complex nearby proposed this unique facility. Their ambitious goal was to create a space: 1) to provide fresh food for the community where the closest supermarket is 15-minute drive away, which creates a huge burden especially for elderly people; 2) to provide children to play and study in a safe and comfortable environment, which is hard to come by in a very cramped temporary housing; and 3) to provide jobs to mothers who lost their jobs and/or spouses for the tsunami. The floor plan allows them to watch their children from the market per their request.
Naomi would like "We Are One" Kitakami to be the reconstruction hub of the community. She would like to provide a small playground for smaller children to play outside when the weather warms up. Outdoor spaces where children can play safely is also lacking in many temporary housing complexes. Design Fellow, Akinobu Yoshikawa, and our intern, Nobuko Fujioka, helped Naomi to design a simple playground.
Naomi (left) is listening to Nobuko (center) explaining different options for the playground while Aki (right) watches their interaction as an architect.
On business side, the market has been successful for the past year. However, it may be at the point that they need to evaluate their performance, and to re-strategized. MakiBiz will work with them by providing necessary professionals.
- Milestones for the Quarter
- Milestone 1: Client In-take
- GREEN: on-going
- Total number of business owners that we contacted to date: 30 (+4 since last report – 3 new seminar attendees and 1 architectural consultation)
- Milestone 2: The Center
- GREEN: Opening event rescheduled in mid-February.
- The fifth MAKOTO Business Seminar was held on Friday 1/25/2013. Six participants learned how to access capital.
- The last MAKOTO Business Seminar is scheduled on Friday 2/1/2013.
- MakiBiz is going to host an architectural seminar in February. The details will be available in a week.
- Shogo is discussing a possibility of inviting Mr. Kasama of FLight/Business Creation Square in Sendai to teach a marketing seminar at MakiBiz.
- Milestone 1: Client In-take
- Red Flagged Issues:
- Recruitment of two business coordinators needed when the Center opens its door.
Scheduled Completion (10/30/2012). Anticipated Completion. (1/31/2013)- The proposal from ETIC came in on 23 January 2013. Their scope of work for the coordinator and value proposition needs to be clarified. The target should be set to make them accountable. Prudential Foundation and Architecture for Humanity need to come up the financial strategy to pay for their services.
- The business coordinator, Miku Kano, is looking for housing in Ishinomaki.
- Recruitment of a Director of Strategic Partnerships
- Ohta-san (in-lieu of Fukasawa-san), Shogo, Eric, Michael and Hiromi interviewed one candidate over the phone on 28 January 2013. Their evaluation form will be available for the next governance committee.
- We are going to interview another candidate on 7 February 2013.
- We have received a resume from the third candidate. We are going to schedule an interview with the candidate in a week.
- The name of the Center
- Architecture for Humanity received three logo design options from KBT on 26 January 2013. POJ will provide their decision.
- 1st Build Back Better Tohoku Request for Proposal program
- Scheduled roll-out (1/23/2013). REVISED roll-out (Late February 2013)This will coincide with our opening event, and provide a forum for announcing the RFP.
- Architecture for Humanity submitted a draft RFP (the application form and submission guideline) for the MakiBiz to the governance committee for their review and comments on 28 January 2013.
- The financing and marketing strategy should be developed for the RFP.
- We estimate at least three weeks to establish the guidelines and the judging criteria with several revisions, and another week to ramp up marketing for the roll-out.
- Recruitment of two business coordinators needed when the Center opens its door.
- Other Meetings and Opportunities that We Had During This Reporting Period
- Michael's trip to Japan
- Michael will be in Japan from 6 February 2013 to 14 February 2013. First, he will stay in Tokyo for a couple of days to meet with our partners and potential partners.
- Michael is meeting Hideyuki Watarai of TRIAID. Hide has over 20 years of experience in the banking business. Eric and Hiromi met him previously, and he left us with a positive note.
- He also has a meeting set up with V.J. Luna, who was an advisor to the mayor of Sendai. He was highly recommended by Mark Dytham of Klein Dytham Architect and a founder of PechaKucha.Prior to Michael's meeting with V.J., V.J. is going to visit MakiBiz on February 2nd and 3rd for an introduction to the center and discussions with Shogo on his on-going involvement and assitance.
- Architecture for Humanity will issue the 2012 4th quarter report with the 2013/2014 budget and schedule on Friday 1 February 2013.
- Michael's trip to Japan
End of Weekly Report
This week Ishinomaki has been chillier than ever. With snow and sub-zero temperatures day and night, it has been very difficult to leave the indoors. We would like to thank the six attendees (including one newcomer) who came out in the cold for the fifth MAKOTO Business Seminar on “Basics of Business Finance.”
Regular attendee and instructor
Welcoming back Tomohiro Takei(MAKOTO) as our instructor, the seminar commenced with and overview of the six major funding resources for enterprises: 3F(founder, family, and friends), government grants, crowd funding, etc.
Attendees taking notes
A pragmatic entrepreneur himself, Takei enlightened us with the reality that oftentimes obtaining funds from outside of your personal connections is troublesome. For example, government grants require a lengthy application process. Attendees found it helpful to learn the pros and cons of each financing method, supported by statistics listed in the lecture handout.
Regular attendees
We look forward to seeing regulars and new comers at our final seminar next week. Please stay tuned!
Issue Date: 22 January 2013
Reporting Period: 16 January 2013 – 22 January 2013
Business of the Week - Follow-up
Entrepreneur Name: Daigo Hashimoto of Ripurasu (new business)
Business Profile: Shogo, who has a professional experience in real estate, has provided support to Daigo when he was looking for a rental office – to advise on what to watch out for renting an office, to find an appropriate office space, and to review the rental agreement. We have also helped improving graphics on their presentation material. Daigo is also attending the MAKOTO business seminar without absence. The instructor, Mr. Takei, helped him improving the business plan that Daigo drafted. He also signed up for the "Challenge Star" cloud-incubation site, which was developed by MAKOTO, in order to look for funding, equipment for his nursing-care facility and a staff member. We have connected Daigo and NPO Work Link Onagawa to expand the search for a staff. We aim to add some "jobs created" numbers by this referral to the contact that we have established a few weeks ago.
Daigo (left) is reviewing his business plan with Mr. Takei (right), the instructor of MAKOTO Business Seminar.
- Milestones for the Quarter
- Milestone 1: Client In-take
- YELLOW: on-going
- Total number of business owners that we contacted to date: 26 (+/- 0 since last report.)
- Shogo has been following up with existing contacts such as Ryo Sato and Daigo Hashimoto.
- A new business coordinator will help Shogo by reaching out to new and existing clients.
- Milestone 2: The Center
- GREEN: Opening event rescheduled in mid-February.
- The fifth MAKOTO Business Seminar is scheduled on Friday 1/25/2013.
- Work Link Onagawa is promoting the MAKOTO seminar on their Facebook site.
- MakiBiz is planning on holding an architectural seminar and a marketing seminar in February. The details should be available in a week.
- Milestone 1: Client In-take
- Red Flagged Issues:
- Recruitment of two business coordinators needed when the Center opens its door.
Scheduled Completion (10/30/2012). Anticipated Completion. (1/31/2013)- The proposal from ETIC has not been received yet. We are following up with them.
- The business coordinator, Miku Kano, is going to join us on 15 February 2013. She started to look for a housing, which is a big challenge. If any of our team members knows a lead on this issue, please let us know.
- Recruitment of a Director of Strategic Partnerships
- We have two strong candidates so far. We will interview with both candidates in this week.
- The name of the Center
- Architecture for Humanity has updated webpages and other documents with the new name.
- 1st Build Back Better Tohoku Request for Proposal program
- Scheduled roll-out (1/23/2013). REVISED roll-out (Late February 2013)This will coincide with our opening event, and provide a forum for announcing the RFP.
- We are proceeding with drafting the guidelines and the judging criteria in advance of solidifying the distribution mechanism of the grant.
- We estimate at least three weeks to establish the guidelines and the judging criteria with several revisions, and another week to ramp up marketing for the roll-out.
- Recruitment of two business coordinators needed when the Center opens its door.
- Other Meetings and Opportunities that We Had During This Reporting Period
- We need to start promoting our program to seek more opportunities (clients, staff, volunteers, partners etc.) by using printed materials as well as the social network.
- We have asked for several logo design options from the design team who worked on the renovation of MakiBiz office. They will submit options by Friday 1/25/2013 for our review.
- On 22 January 2013, Shogo is going to meet with Associate Professor Michio Ubaura of Tohoku University who has been working on the urban planning of Ishinomaki. We would like to seek possible collaboration on the planning effort.
- Michael Steiner, a new program manager at headquarter, is going to visit Japan in mid-February. He will visit MakiBiz and tour our project sites with Toshiko Mori. Toshiko is a Japanese architect and one of our board members. The team is organizing a networking event at MakiBiz with our clients and some attendees of G1 Summit that Toshiko is attending. Toshiko is going to invite Yoshito Hori, the CEO of Globis. Globis is the organizer of the G1 Summit.
- Architecture for Humanity and Prudential Foundation are going to review funding options for the program.
End of Weekly Report
Issue Date: 15 January 2012
Reporting Period: 9 January 2013 – 15 January 2013
Business of the Week
Entrepreneur Name: Satoru Onuma, Manager at NPO Work Link Onagawa
Business Profile: Shogo read about NPO Work Link Onagawa in the local newspaper article, and visited their office last week. Work Link Onagawa is located in the temporary shopping center, Kibo-no-Kane, in Onagawa. They provide recruitment services and job training. We agreed to collaborate and promote each other's services. We asked to distribute the flyers for MAKOTO seminars at their office. In exchange, we will promote their services once they create their marketing materials. We also provided architectural advice how to temporarily mitigate condensation problem that they have in their pre-fab office.
Satoru Onuma at NPO Work Link Onagawa
MAKOTO Seminar flyers at NPO Work Link Onagawa
- Milestones for the Quarter
- Milestone 1: Client In-take
- GREEN: on-going
- Total number of business owners that we contacted to date: 26 (+2 since last report.)
- Milestone 2: The Center
- GREEN: Opening event rescheduled in mid-February.
- The fourth MAKOTO Business Seminar was held on Friday 1/11/2013. Eight participants learned the basic accounting.
- The fifth MAKOTO Business Seminar is scheduled on Friday 1/25/2013.
- Architecture for Humanity has begun programming an architectural series of seminars to follow up on the first MAKOTO session. These seminars will continue to work with the existing community of business owners, but will address common problems of rebuilding, such as how to find a reliable contractor. A full syllabus will be made available in one week’s time.
- Milestone 1: Client In-take
- Red Flagged Issues:
- Recruitment of two business coordinators needed when the Center opens its door.
Scheduled Completion (10/30/2012). Anticipated Completion. (1/31/2013)- Architecture for Humanity sent the offer letter to the candidate on Tuesday January 8, 2013. This business coordinator will start on 15 February 2013.
- We met with Mr. Abe of ETIC on 1/10/2013, and discussed our partnership. ETIC agreed to send us their proposal in this week.
- Recruitment of a Director of Strategic Partnerships
- The job opportunity has been posted on ECentral. Architecture for Humanity will review any incoming candidates immediately prior to the weekly governance call and update in person.
- The name of the Center
- The committee voted on "MakiBiz" as the name of the Center. Architecture for Humanity will update all webpages and other documents with the new name.
- 1st Build Back Better Tohoku Request for Proposal program
- Scheduled roll-out (1/23/2013). REVISED roll-out (Late February 2013) This will coincide with our opening event, and provide a forum for announcing the RFP.
- We are on hold drafting the guidelines and the judging criteria until the Prudential Foundation (SW and LR) and Architecture for Humanity (KS) advise us how to distribute the grant.
- We estimate at least three weeks to establish the guidelines and the judging criteria with several revisions, and another week to ramp up marketing for the roll-out.
- Recruitment of two business coordinators needed when the Center opens its door.
- Other Meetings and Opportunities that We Had During This Reporting Period
- Wakabayashi-san is going to apply for the Director of Strategic Partnership position.
- The Japanese cabinet approved a stimulus package of 13 trillion JPY (147 billion USD) on 11 January 2013. (News link here.) They aim to boost the economy suffering from the long-term stagnation, and create 600,000 new jobs. The new prime minister, Shinzo Abe, also pledged to spend 19 trillion JPY (212 billion USD) through 2015 to support the reconstruction in Tohoku. We will monitor the status closely.
End of Weekly Report
Happy New Year!
At our first business seminar of year 2013, we were excited to see eight people gather at the office for the "Basics of Accounting" lecture. This time we welcomed Gaku Hamamoto, staff of MAKOTO, as lecturer.
Attendees learning about cash-flow statements
To alleviate concerns that accounting is troublesome and difficult to learn, Mr. Hamamoto gave simple computation problems throughout the lecture, beginning with calculating the break-even-point of a ramen shop.
We are also happy to see more attendees stay after the seminar and update Mr. Takei and AFH members on their business funding issues.
Attendees chatting with Mr. Takei
Our Design Fellow, Akinobu Yoshikawa toured Tohoku with Chilean artist Alfredo Jaar in mid-December. Alfredo Jaar came to Japan to visit the site for Aichi Triennale that is scheduled this summer, and to see the disaster area of Tohoku. Architecture for Humanity is briefly mentioned in the Japanese section of the Aichi Triennale blog.
Issue Date: 8 January 2013
Reporting Period: 2 January 2013 – 8 January 2013
Happy New Year! This is the first weekly report of 2013.
Business of the Week
Entrepreneur Name: Hidemaruya
Business Profile: The owner, Junichi Shuto, and his wife run a small craft store in the old town Ishinomaki. Junichi is our landlord as well. Everything in their store was washed away by the tsunami. They currently sell souvenir t-shirts. The area has been suffering the economic decline after the tsunami, and they are not the exception. Junichi visited the Center for an advice to rebuild their store. It is difficult to be profitable by just selling buttons and yarns. We advised to come up with a high-value-added product with a compelling story using their existing goods and distribution routes. "Fishermen's Hammock" and "OCICA" are some of good examples.
Owners of Hidemaruya
- Milestones for the Quarter
- Milestone 1: Client In-take
- GREEN: on-going
- Total number of business owners that we contacted to date: 24 (+/- 0 since last report due to holidays.)
- Milestone 2: The Center
- GREEN: Opening event - t.b.d.
- While we will not have a 'hard' launch, we will look for opportunities to drive more traffic to the center.
- The fourth MAKOTO Business Seminar is scheduled on Friday 1/11/2013.
- Milestone 1: Client In-take
- Red Flagged Issues:
- Recruitment of two business design fellows needed when the Center opens its door.
Scheduled Completion (10/30/2012). NEW Anticipated Completion. (1/31/2013)- We have decided on a candidate. Architecture for Humanity will send the offer letter by Friday January 11, 2013.
- We still need to hire one more business coordinator. He/she must be experienced in the business support field. We hope to partner with ETIC to identify the second candidate.
- The name of the Center is a critical item. Please see the latest list of suggested names here.
- The team will appreciate if we could get the decision made for the name in this week, so that we can order the signage and other necessary materials (stationaries, marketing materials, introduction flyers, and opening event programs) by the time of the opening event. It will take 2-3 weeks for printed materials, and the signage for 3-4 weeks after we make the design decision.
- 1st Build Back Better Tohoku Request for Proposal program
- Scheduled roll-out (1/23/2013).
- We are on hold drafting the guidelines and the judging criteria until the Prudential Foundation (SW and LR) and Architecture for Humanity (KS) advise us how to distribute the grant.
- We suggest to delay the roll-out date to mid-February. That will coincide with our opening event, and provide a forum for announcing the RFP.
- We estimate at least three weeks to establish the guidelines and the judging criteria with several revisions, and another week to ramp up marketing for the roll-out.
- Recruitment of two business design fellows needed when the Center opens its door.
End of Weekly Report
Issue Date: 28 December 2012
Reporting Period: 19 December 2012 – 25 December 2012
Business of the Week
Entrepreneur Name: Manabu Endo, CEO, NPO DoTank Miyagi
Business Profile: Manabu is the leader of NPO DoTank Miyagi, which has twelve members. They have created a map of local businesses in collaboration with local high school and college students. Currently they are in search of a location for a small screening of a documentary film about the disaster. We are going to help them to find a place after we check the contents, preferred dates and a target audience. We hope this event will create a forum among young people and newcomers in Ishinomaki to exchange ideas and opinions for the future. We also told him that there is a complementally advising session with a certified public tax accountant and a judicial scrivener on 1/23/2012.
CEO Manabu Endo on the right
- Milestones for the Quarter
- Milestone 1: Client In-take
- GREEN: on-going
- Total number of business owners that we contacted to date: 24 (+1 since last report.)
- Shogo has contacted aforementioned Manabu Endo about their mapping project in collaboration with local students. It was a part of the academic classes, so it took two months from the development to the implementation and two more months to compile the data. Shogo asked Manabu about our plan of the door-to-door visit to local businesses, and Manabu told us that it was the key for them to have a close relationship with those schools beforehand. We will investigate whom we should partner with after we clarify the number and the target of businesses that we would like to approach.
- Milestone 2: The Center
- GREEN: Opening event scheduled on 1/23/2013.
- The third MAKOTO Business Seminar was held on Friday 12/21/2012. The number of participants was 4. The reason for the decrease in the attendance was partially to blame on a M5.3 earthquake happened just before the seminar, and some participants canceled their plan to come in. It was also on Friday during the year-end party season (bonen-kai). We should be mindful of any events such as this when we schedule future seminars.
- The fourth MAKOTO Business Seminar is scheduled on Friday 1/11/2013. We have received several inquiries to start attending the seminar after the new year, so we expect the number of attendees will come back up in January.
- Milestone 1: Client In-take
- Red Flagged Issues:
- Recruitment of two business design fellows needed when the Center opens its door.
Scheduled Completion (10/30/2012). NEW Anticipated Completion. (12/31/2012)- Shogo and Fukasawa-san had a phone interview with a candidate on Tuesday 12/18/2012. Hiromi and Shogo had a phone interview with another candidate on Thursday 12/20/2012. Based on our evaluation of both candidates, we shall make a hiring decision for at least one Business Coordinator by the end of this month.
- The name of the Center is a critical item. Please see the latest list of suggested names here.
- The team will appreciate if we could get the decision made for the name in the first week of January, so that we can order the signage and other necessary materials (stationaries, marketing materials, introduction flyers, and opening event programs) by the time of the opening event. It will take 2-3 weeks for printed materials, and the signage for 3-4 weeks after we make the design decision.
- We selected the top three from our favorites. (Please refer to the Japanese version of this report for the Japanese translation of the suggested names.)
- MakiBiz Design
- Michinoku Rebuilding Lounge
- Tohoku Business Design Port
- 1st Build Back Better Tohoku Request for Proposal program
- Scheduled roll-out (1/23/2013).
- We are on hold drafting the guidelines and the judging criteria until the Prudential Foundation (SW and LR) and Architecture for Humanity (KS) advise us how to distribute the grant. In order to maintain the scheduled roll-out on 1/23/2013, the team would like to finish drafting the guidelines and the judging criteria by 1/2/2013, have them reviewed by the governance committee, and finalize by 1/16/2013 to allow us to make any refinement before the roll-out date.
- Ohta-san provided his comments to Shogo by phone on 12/21/2012 for the e-mail about ETIC that Eric sent on Thursday 12/20/2012.
- Recruitment of two business design fellows needed when the Center opens its door.
End of Weekly Report
On yet another chilly Friday evening in Ishinomaki, three entrepreneurs congregated at the Tohoku Business Lounge for the third Makoto Business Seminar on "Launching a Small Business." The lecture focused on the three pillars of a successful business: feasibility, profitability,and competitiveness, when competing with larger companies.
Attendees listening to lecture
Alluding to examples in Japanese and European history, in which small troops defeated its larger counterparts with intelligent formations attacking their blind spot, lecturer Takei advised the attendees to cultivate a niche market larger corporations have yet to and unable to target.
Learning about niche markets
After the lecture, while enjoying a light meal prepared by our business manager Shogo, the group shared one another's struggles of starting a business - for example team management and time management.
Seeking advice from lecturer Takei
We hope to continue enhancing this business seminar series as a platform for local entrepreneurs to exchange ideas and receive advice from experienced business owners.
Issue Date: 18 December 2012
Reporting Period: 11 December 2012 – 18 December 2012
Business of the Week
Entrepreneur Name: Yasuaki Kubota
Business Profile: Yasuaki is planning on opening a café in Shichigahama, which is about 30 minutes east of Sendai, where young people can enjoy a cup of coffee and listening to live music. He was awarded a grant from the national government's Cabinet Office. He plans to open a café using a trailer (mobile) house, and is negotiating with the local government to obtain a permit to use a portion of "red zone" (the distressed area) land. In order to grant the permit, the government requested he include a public use function. He would like to open a "beach house" to investigate what the types of public space needed by the community and tourists. We advised him to consider including a program such as a watchtower or an evacuation tower for public use, and provided him with a preliminary cost estimate for the beach house (4 Million JPY / 48,000 USD).
Client, Yasuaki Kubota
- Milestones for the Quarter
- Milestone 1: Client In-take
- GREEN: on-going
- Total number of business owners that we contacted to date: 23 (+1 since last report.)
- We have been following up with clients including Ryo Sato (a share house project) and Manabu Hamamoto (an lodging for volunteers/retirement home project).
- We are in the process of creating a flyer to introduce our program to local businesses.
- We need to strategize the door-to-door visits: how many businesses can we visit per day? how many days total are we perform? etc.)
- Shogo will contact Manabu Endo, who is mapping local businesses' needs by having students survey businesses.
- Milestone 2: The Center
- GREEN: Opening event scheduled on 1/23/2013.
- The second MAKOTO Business Seminar was held on Friday 12/14/2012. We had 7 enthusiastic participants. All of whom participated in the first seminar. We have received many positive feedbacks. Some even stay longer to ask for Takei-san and Wakabayashi-san's advice on their business plans.
- The third MAKOTO Business Seminar is scheduled on Friday 12/21/2012.
- Milestone 3: 2012 Build Back Better Tohoku Request for Proposal program
- YELLOW: Scheduled roll-out (1/23/2013).
- We are on hold drafting the guidelines and the judging criteria until the Prudential Foundation (SW and LR) and Architecture for Humanity (KS) advise us how to distribute the grant. In order to maintain the scheduled roll-out on 1/23/2013, the team would like to finish drafting the guidelines and the judging criteria by 1/2/2013, have them reviewed by the governance committee, and finalize by 1/16/2013 to allow us to make any refinement before the roll-out date.
- We are waiting for advice of Prudential of Japan (SO) on how to collaborate with ETIC.
- Milestone 1: Client In-take
- Red Flagged Issues:
- Recruitment of two business design fellows needed when the Center opens its door.
Scheduled Completion (10/30/2012). NEW Anticipated Completion. (12/31/2012)- Shogo and Fukasawa-san conducted an interview with one of two candidates on Friday 12/14/2012. A phone interview is scheduled with another candidate on Tuesday 12/18/2012. Based on their evaluation of both candidates, we will make a hiring decision for at least one Business Coordinator.
- Shogo and Fukasawa-san had an introductory meeting with a person who was referred by a director of the Prudential group. He is applying for the Director of Strategic Partnership position. He has local (Ishinomaki) connections and financial background.
- The name of the Center is a critical item. Please see the new list of suggested names here.
- Recruitment of two business design fellows needed when the Center opens its door.
- Other Meetings and Opportunities that We Had During This Reporting Period
- Michael and Hiromi had an introductory meeting with Hideyuki Inoue of Social Venture Partners Tokyo (Founder and President). His nationwide connection to investors, politicians and community organizers could be very beneficial for our program. We should keep communication lines open, and maintain a good relationship. Mr. Inoue will visit Shogo this week.
- Shogo met with Masaaki Ito of Ishinomaki HelloWork (Employment Security Bureau of Ishinomaki) about the current job market conditions in Ishinomaki.
- The job-offers-to-seekers ratio in Ishinomaki in October was 1.29 (The number of job offers exceeded the number of job seekers.)
- The construction industry continues to offer more jobs, however, they do not have enough qualified (licensed) workers. Many construction workers come from outside of the area, but lack of accommodation continues to be a big issue.
- On the other hand, there are not enough administrative job positions, which many people are interested in applying for.
- The seafood processing industry is Ishinomaki's main industry, but people are not interested in applying to these jobs. Ishinomaki HelloWork is promoting the seafood processing jobs by organizing field trips to processing plants to make the public more familiar with their work.
- When people moved into temporary housing, they were often placed in areas far away from their community. Therefore people are hesitating to commit to long-term employment. In addition, unstable living conditions in temporary housing are affecting their choice of employment.
End of Weekly Report
The magnitude 5 earthquake last week in Ishinomaki incidentally coincided with our second MAKOTO Business Seminar and lead us to shift our subsequent seminars a week forward. We are relieved to hear that the original participants were all safe.
This week, the group of seven participants,composed of entrepreneurs and aspirers, eagerly listened to lecturer Tomohiro Takei's tactics of effective business plan writing. Beginning the lecture by referencing catchy yet informative press releases, Takei delivered easy-to-follow methods of business plan writing, which can be a tiring and lengthy process.
participants reading up on a sample business plan
We received positive feedback particularly from those who were in the midst of applying for private loans and grants. Takei and seminar mentor, Wakabayashi, kindly stayed after the seminar and provided specific advice on a participant's business plan for elderly care.
a participant seeking for advice on his business plan
Thank you for sharing your expertise Mr. Takei and Mr. Wakabayashi,and we look forward to seeing more local entrepreneurs in the next four sessions!
Issue Date: 11 December 2012
Reporting Period: 4 December 2012 – 11 December 2012
Business of the Week
Entrepreneur Name: Kyoko Watanabe
Business Profile: Kyoko is one of the attendees of our MAKOTO Business Seminar. She is eager to learn how to start a business to match together vacant shops in old downtown Ishinomaki with residents who would like to stay in the area. By renovating damaged stores and providing mixed-use buildings in the area, she envisions the old downtown as a hub of entrepreneurs bringing businesses to the area. We intend to provide, or refer her to, necessary resources to realize her idea through the follow-up sessions after each seminar.
Client, Kyoko Watanabe
- Milestones for the Quarter
- Milestone 1: Client In-take
- GREEN: on-going
- Total number of business owners that we contacted to date: 1 (+1 since last report due to Shogo's illness.)
- We need to recruit 10 volunteers to visit local businesses door to door to introduce ourselves. We will design a flyer to distribute. The name of the Center should be finalized before we print the flyers.
- Milestone 2: The Center
- GREEN: Opening event scheduled on 1/23/2013.
- The second MAKOTO Business Seminar is rescheduled on Friday 12/14/2012 due to the strong earthquake happened on Friday 12/7/2012.
- We provided the draft of the invite list and the run of show to the Foundation and POJ. We need to finalize the list of guests, and send out the invitation.
- The name of the Center is a critical item. Please see the new list of suggested names here.
- Milestone 3: 2012 Build Back Better Tohoku Request for Proposal program
- YELLOW: Scheduled roll-out (1/23/2013).
- We are in a holding pattern on the drafting of the guidelines and the judging criteria until the governance committee advises us how to distribute the grant.
- We are waiting for the governance committee's advise on how to collaborate with ETIC.
- Milestone 1: Client In-take
- Red Flagged Issues:
- Recruitment of two business design fellows needed when the Center opens its door.
Scheduled Completion (10/30/2012). NEW Anticipated Completion. (12/31/2012)- We have sent all information about finalists to Fukasawa-san on 12/10/2012. Shogo and Fukasawa-san will conduct interviews with them in the coming week.
- We have sent the job description and suggested salary range for Director of Strategic Partner position to Malamud-san on 12/6/2012.
- Recruitment of two business design fellows needed when the Center opens its door.
- Other Meetings and Opportunities that We Had During This Reporting Period
- Shogo attended a symposium organized by Ishinomaki Fishing Industry Recovery Committee (Ishinomaki Suisan Fukko Kaigi), "Future of Fishing Industry in Ishinomaki", on 10 December 2012. They discussed the plan of Fishery Recovery Center (tentatively named) by March 2015. The center is going to be located in the 108-hectare site of the seafood processing plant complex, which is the largest in Tohoku. They hope the center to be a hub of tourism, internationalization, development of new industry, work-study programs as well as a disaster resiliency program. The leader of the committee is Ryuichiro Hiratsuka of Yamatoku Hiratsuka Marine Products Co., Ltd, whom we met at Tohoku Planning Forum last week. We will develop a relationship with the committee to seek a possible collaboration opportunity for the reconstruction of the fishing industry of Ishinomaki.
- For further information about the Ishinomaki Fishing Industry Recovery Committee (Ishinomaki Suisan Fukko Kaigi), please read this local newspaper article.
End of Weekly Report
Issue Date: 4 December 2012
Reporting Period: 28 November 2012 – 4 December 2012
Business of the Week
Business Name: CDI, Co., Ltd.
Business Profile: Keiichi Abe was born in Onagawa, and has lived in Ishinomaki for all his life. He lost his job (communications system and security) after the disaster. He never gave up, and got a certificate of CAD technician (first class) in May. He is concerned about the loss of employment, especially for younger generation. There are only a few places offering professional CAD training despite the large demands from the booming construction industry in Ishinomaki, so he decided to open a school to provide CAD training. We intend to help by designing a brochure and promotion strategy. His new business was funded by Groundwork Mishima, which was one of 12 organizations who received a governmental grant for entrepreneur training entrepreneurs in the affected area. He anticipates opening the doors in February 2013.
Owner, Keiichi Abe
- Milestones for the Quarter
- Milestone 1: Client In-take
- GREEN: on-going
- Total number of business owners that we contacted to date: 21 (+1 since last report)
- We plan to create a brochure to distribute among local businesses by deploying volunteers to visit door-to-door to seek more opportunities. We need to finalize the name of the center before we print brochures.
- Milestone 2: Opening the Center
- GREEN: Completed on 11/23/2012.
- The second MAKOTO Business Seminar is scheduled on Friday 12/7/2012.
- The opening event is scheduled on Wednesday 1/23/2013.
- We will provide the draft of the invite list and the run of show to the Foundation and POJ prior to this week’s governance call.
- Milestone 3: 2012 Build Back Better Tohoku Request for Proposal program
- YELLOW: Scheduled roll-out (1/23/2013).
- Wakabayashi-san advised us to reduce the burden of candidates by asking only critical information. However, we need to establish clear criteria for applicants, judging committee and donors in order to judge in fair manner.
- Prof. Masahiko Fujimoto was recommended by the vice president of Tohoku University and Ohta-san as one of the judges to evaluate business side of applications. At least some of the judges should have an architectural background.
- To begin, we will provide some initial thoughts on judging criteria prior to this week's governance call.
- Milestone 1: Client In-take
- Red Flagged Issues:
- Recruitment of two business design fellows needed when the Center opens its door.
Scheduled Completion (10/30/2012). Anticipated Completion. (11/30/2012)- What we're doing about the delay:
- Based on interviews and references, we have decided on one candidate.
- We will forward our personnel needs to ETIC for them to evaluate their capacity to provide us the second business coordinator. We will provide enough detail about the needs and criteria such that ETIC can prepare an appropriate proposal for our needs.
- What we're doing about the delay:
- Recruitment of two business design fellows needed when the Center opens its door.
- Other Meetings and Opportunities that We Had During This Reporting Period
Tohoku Planning Forum- The workshop organized by ARUP was held on Saturday 12/2/2012. We were invited to speak at the workshop.
- About 15 people attended. Attendees shared information and discussed what we can do for Ishinomaki.
- Mr. Hiratsuka of Yamatoku Hiratsuka Marine Products Co., Ltd in Ishinomaki shared his concerns about the decline of fishing industry of the area.
- 60% of fishermen only makes 40% of what they made before the disaster.
- Fishermen have a problem leasing equipment as prices have doubled.
- There are plenty of work in the fishing industry, but not enough fishermen are willing to go back because construction jobs are more lucrative for them than fishing or aqua culture.
- Recently, a supermarket ad offered 1,000 JPY/hour for a cashier. It used to be 700 JPY/hour. The traditional fishing industry cannot compete with this wage hike. The national government believes there is no fishery work, but in reality, the industry is suffering a serous manpower drain.
- Ms. Watanabe from Ishinomaki 2.0 shared information as well.
- Many volunteers are in need of places to stay, and some are even thinking of staying permanently. Many of them are currently living in shared housing. We wonder if there is a way to share the city’s resources to better provide for volunteers, and even to provoke more clear and open communication between outsiders (volunteers, entrepreneurs, new business owners, NPO workers etc.) and long-term residents of Ishinomaki.
- Ishinomaki needs a community building for live/work with market selling local produce.
- We need to brand Ishinomaki to promote local products to locals as well as outsiders. Currently local farms are competing with each other instead of with other markets.
- Ishinomaki needs a facilitator between generation, businesses and region. Everyone is doing their own thing and do not know what others are doing. It was proposed that the Center could take this role. The Center could be a one stop information center for the people in Ishinomaki with information about what is going on in the city, what is available, what others are doing, who is looking for what, etc.
End of Weekly Report
Issue Date: 27 November 2012
Reporting Period: 21 November 2012 – 27 November 2012
Business of the Week
Business Name: Sato Shipyard
Business Profile: Sato Shipyard has been in operation for more than 80 years in Watanoha District of Ishinomaki, and acting a big role as a backbone of the local fishing industry by providing ships to more than 100 fishermen and fishing companies. The tsunami washed away all of the equipment and facilities except for one dock. The third generation owner, Fumihiko Sato, and his brother have been working hard to rebuild their shipyard and the local fishing industry since the day after the tsunami. Mr. Sato visited Tohoku Business Lounge to ask for legal assistance to sort out a governmental grant application, which they mistakenly filled out under their father's name instead of the company's name. They also sought engineering advice on the process of installing a crane. The Lounge referred them to an attorney to help them reapply for the grant, and an engineer to investigate the possibility of obtaining a permit from the city government.
Damaged rails for ship launching (Photo source: Tohoku Kyouei Investment Fund)
Sato Shipyard owners: Fumihiko Sato (left), Takaaki Sato (right)
- Milestones for the Quarter
- Milestone 1: Client In-take
- YELLOW: on-going
- Total number of business owners that we contacted to date: 20 (+11 since last report)
- Milestone 2: Opening the Center
- GREEN: Completed on 11/23/2012.
- The construction was completed in time for the first Business Seminar by MAKOTO, which was held on 11/23/2012. We had 15 attendees (anticipated 15). For detailed updates, please see the Worldchanging Updates page below titled "Tohoku Business Lounge Opens its Doors".
- The team propose 1/24/2012 for the opening event. Strategy for the opening event will be discussed on the 11/29/2012 governance call. Role of KGA and Global Communications group to be clarified.
- Milestone 3: 2012 Build Back Better Tohoku Request for Proposal program
- GREEN: Scheduled roll-out (1/23/2013).
- Shogo is working with Wakabayashi-san and Watarai-san to develop the guidelines and judging criteria, which will be available for review by the governance committee by 11/30/2012.
- Milestone 1: Client In-take
- Red Flagged Issues:
- Recruitment of two business design fellows needed when the Center opens its door.
Scheduled Completion (10/30/2012). Anticipated Completion. (11/30/2012)- What we're doing about the delay:
- Candidate #1's reference checked by Hiromi.
- Candidate #2's references checked by Hiromi.
- We have received a resume from Candidate #4 via Fukasawa-san. Shogo is scheduled to talk with her.
- What we're doing about the delay:
- Onagawa: Shogo met with Onagawa town officials and indicated that we did not have the $1.5M to support their project, but encourage them to apply to our RFP in January.
- Recruitment of two business design fellows needed when the Center opens its door.
- Other Meetings and Opportunities that We Had During This Reporting Period
- Nobuko Fujioka joined Tohoku Business Lounge as a volunteer. Her background is architecture. She will be helping us with researching grants and funding opportunities for small businesses as well as baseline data for our monitoring and evaluation.
End of Weekly Report
On November 23rd, Tohoku Business Lounge opened its doors to the Ishinomaki community. Thirteen people, from all walks of life, congregated at the newly renovated office for the first MAKOTO business seminar, a six-series seminar intended to promote local entrepreneurship.
Attendees at the introduction of the seminar
Following the lecture on constructive business idea formation, attendees split into four groups, applying the taught strategies to their own marketing proposals for "sasakama," a local specialty made of minced fish.
Attendees discussing their ideas
Please feel free to drop by at the office if you are around the neighborhood!
Issue Date: 20 November 2012
Reporting Period: 14 November 2012 – 20 November 2012
Business of the Week
Client Name: Town of Onagawa
Client Profile: Town of Onagawa was announced by the Ministry of Reconstruction as the model town. The groundbreaking ceremony for the town’s reconstruction was held on 29 September 2012. They plan to start land acquisition by the end of November 2012. The population of the town was 10,000 before the disaster, and lost 2,000 people. They plan to increase the population to 9,000. They have two immediate plans to attract more people to move back as well as tourists. One potential project is to create a temporary market with a tourist information booth, a tour boat facility and an outdoor stage. This will create jobs as well as income for the town. Another potential project is to provide a sports facility for the residents. Currently there is no sports facility for them to use because the existing field is going to be the site for a permanent housing complex.
More detailed information for each project is available at the end of this report.
Temporary shopping mall “Kibo-no-kane”
The site of the proposed temporary market is to the left-hand side in this picture.
- Milestones for the Quarter
- Milestone 1: Client In-take
- YELLOW: on-going
- Total number of business owners that we contacted to date: 9 (Shogo was in the U.S. for training all week, so it created some difficulty getting touch with potential clients.)
- In-take form is now available on Salesforce for a better tracking.
- Milestone 2: Opening the Center
- YELLOW: Scheduled Completion (11/19/2012). Anticipated Completion (11/23/2012)
- The installation of plumbing fixtures and paint was delayed due to the difficulty in securing labor. The construction will be completed on 11/22/2012, and all furnishing will arrive on 11/23/2012.
- Milestone 3: 2012 Build Back Better Tohoku Request for Proposal program
- GREEN: Scheduled roll-out (1/23/2013).
- Shogo, Eric and Hiromi discussed the logistics with our web team to coordinate the roll-out scheduled on 23 January 2013.
- The draft guideline and judging criteria will be available for review by the Governance Committee by 30 November 2012.
- Milestone 1: Client In-take
- Red Flagged Issues:
- Recruitment of two business coordinators needed when the Center opens its door.
Scheduled Completion (10/30/2012). Anticipated Completion. (11/30/2012)- What we're doing about the delay:
- Eric, Shogo and Hiromi interviewed Candidate #2. We are in the process of checking her references.
- We would like and update from the Governance Committee on any efforts by POJ in recruitment before we proceed.
- Reference check for all three candidates will be in this week. We’ll report you back with our decision for the next week’s report.
- Ohta-san, Fukasawa-san and Shogo met with Miyagi-san, Yamauchi-san and Abe-san of ETIC on Tuesday 11/20/2012 to discuss the recruitment issue and other partnering opportunities. ETIC is interested in collaboration with AFH. Ohta-san requested ETIC to propose their idea of partnership with AFH. Shogo is going to meet with Abe-san at the Tohoku Business Lounge to discuss further on any restriction or limitation for our potential partnership on 21 November 2012.
- What we're doing about the delay:
- Recruitment of two business coordinators needed when the Center opens its door.
- Other Meetings and Opportunities that We Had During This Reporting Period
- Detailed information about two proposed projects in Onagawa
- Temporary market place near the Onagawa port (estimated 123 million JPY, approximately 1.57 million USD)
The idea is to modify shipping containers to provide a snack stand, a ticket booth for the tour boat, and an information center that would later be relocated to the site near the new train station permanently (ticket booth, bathrooms to remain). It also has a stage for performance. The town of Onagawa has realized currently all the visitors coming to see the disaster sites simply drive up to the hospital on the hill near the port, look down the devastation, snap a couple of pictures and leave. There is only a small cafe at the hospital. There is a temporary shopping mall with 50 businesses, but it is about 5-10 minutes drive away. Many tourists do not visit because it is off the main highway. The town sees this as an opportunity to bring in money to sustain the business in the town while rebuilding. They also seek facilities that would tell the stories about what happened there. The following pictures are the current facility they have, which are not good enough to serve the purpose they seek for their future.
Current temporary ticketing booth for tour boats
Current temporary information booth for tourists - Futsal court for children (no cost estimate as of yet)
Onagawa previously used sport as an economic driver for the town. They would like to continue that idea for the rebuilt town as well. Currently there is no sports facility that the residents can use. (The existing public sports field is turning into the site for the permanent public housing complex.) The foot of the hospital is a potential site they suggested to have a futsal field. They can host events with teams from nearby towns, bringing more people to Onagawa. The site is secured, but they need to raise the ground for the field to be constructed. They can prioritize the site to be raised early as soon as they secure the funding for the project. NOTE: The raising of the site for the Futsal field will still be a part of the larger effort of raising the whole town of Onagawa.
The red line indicates how high the ground needs to be raised around the Onagawa Port.
- Temporary market place near the Onagawa port (estimated 123 million JPY, approximately 1.57 million USD)
- You can find the meeting minutes from a meeting with the Onagawa town official that Shogo attended here.
- Detailed information about two proposed projects in Onagawa
End of Weekly Report
Date 9:00 AM (JST)-10:00 AM (JST) Thursday, November 15, 2012
Place Teleconference
Attendees Members:
Prudential: Sharon Wright McMahon (SW)
Prudential Foundation: Lata Reddy (LR)
POJ: Hitomi Fukasawa (HF), Jonathan Malamud (JM), Shunji Ohta (SO)
AFH: Eric Cesal (EC), Kate Stohr (KS), Shogo ‘Marukawa (SM)
Observer: POJ: Misaki Nakano (MN)
Minute Taker: Jonathan Malamud
1. SW called the meeting to order and reviewed the agenda that she had sent to members prior to the call. These agenda items are:
(i) Staffing
(ii) Opening of Center, Launch Date;
(iii) Partners Vetting Process; and
(iv) Onogawa Town projects
2. SW opened the meeting by noting that the Staffing issue was a Red Flag issue, meaning it was of critical importance to be resolved.
(a) SW noted that, from the November 14, 2012 Weekly Report posted on the Project page, it appeared that the Business Design Fellow named is likely to be changed to Business Coordinator. The governing committee approved the name change for the position.
(b) SW also noted that the Weekly Report indicated that AFH has interviewed or is in the process of interviewing several candidates for the Business Coordinator positions. SW asked the status of the interviews. EC noted that there were several candidates in the pipeline but that AFH is not overly excited about any one candidate at this point. SW also noted that candidate Kano appeared to have some relevant experience.
(c) SW noted that the ETIC meeting is scheduled for next week (November 20) and SO noted that this is an important meeting with Miyagi-san of ETIC as his schedule is quite limited and this is an opportunity for the Project, not only for their help in recruitment but other possible joint activities. SM noted that he was preparing for the meeting and that a dress rehearsal for the meeting would take place in San Francisco this week with KS and EC. It was agreed that SM, HF and SO will meet one hour prior to the meeting which is scheduled for 2:30 pm at Prudential Tower.
(d) HF noted that she was in contact with the Miyagi University for Entrepreneurs and suggested that SM should also join the process.
(e) JM reported that he was in touch with the Dean of the Hitotsubashi Business School, Christina Ahmadjian, and is set to meet with her to further discuss the possibility of the Business School being a source of candidates.
(f) HF advised JM that the job description for the two Business Coordinator positions could now be posted on the ACCJ eCentral job posting system.
(g) SW wanted to repeat the immediate emphasis of the Project is the recruitment of Staff.
3. Naming of the Center. SW noted that the Action Item to reach a decision on the naming of the center seems to be completed ahead of schedule. The English name of the center is Tohoku Business Lounge. The question about the use of the Prudential Foundation name was resolved that all signage and references will indicate “Supported by the Prudential Foundation”.
4. Launch Date of the Center. SM and KS reported that the “soft” opening of the Center will be on November 23, 2012 which is the date that the first Makoto seminar will take place. SW noted that the official opening of the center should be delayed somewhat but noted that informal publicity concerning the “soft” opening will probably be helpful. LR agreed that the official opening should be delayed to allow for PR preparation. She also ntoed that she would like the opening to take place in mid-January 2013. AFH agreed to a mid-January date. SW noted that a delay in the official opening will also allow for the center to demonstrate success to prospective partners. The governing committee approved the mid-January target date and it was agreed that the date should be finalized asap after checking schedules etc. ACTION ITEM the date should be agreed upon by next week’s meeting and SM will communicate two potential choices.
4. LOGO DESIGN KS raised anew issue and suggested that the design of a logo for the center should proceed. ACTION ITEM A preliminary design of the LOGO will be presented to the governing committee no later than the November 29, 2012 meeting.
5. PARTNER VETTING PROCESS JM reported on his draft for the Partner Vetting Process and emphasized that the general scope of the draft was to promote transparency and flow of communication to all members of any potential partners. The draft is not meant to create any burdensome process or record-keeping. The Project should strive to ensure that at least one AFH and one Prudential representative is always aware fo the identification or consideration of any prospective partner. JM also noted that the draft does provide for Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) compliance (where necessary and appropriate). JM will discuss FCPA issues with the Prudential lawyer who supports the Prudential Foundation.
EC raised one point to inquire whether or not the list of prospective partners which was presented to the Prudential side during the Sendai meetings in October needed to be vetted and it was agreed that it is not necessary to do so,
6. Onogawa Town. SM reported that he met last week with representatives of the Town and noted that there were two projects that were being considered by the Projhect: (i) the development of a futsul field for children and (ii) the development of a temporary market place (details of which are set out in the Weekly Report). EC noted that the next steps were to clarify the budget necessary for each project and to confirm and obtain kore details as to the purpose and intention of the projects. EC also noted that the grant budget for AFH has approximately U.S.$600,000 available for micro projects but that the two Onogawa projects would significantly deplete the budget. At this point in time, there is no need for Prudential to become involved as the next steps are for SM and KS to meet with the respective representatives of the proposed projects and conduct an assessment and cost estimates. ACTION ITEM SM and KS will report the status of their assessment and possible recommendations no later than two weeks from now (November 29, 2012).
HF raised the question or whether or not any other party is being spoken to by Onogawa with respect to assisting them on these two projects. SM indicated that he was not sure but will check. ACTION ITEM
7. ANY OTHER BUSINESS
(a) KS noted that AFH intends to return to the governing committee within two weeks with a step-by-step list of the points that are considered when AFH assesses proposed construction projects.
(b) KS also noted that an ongoing item to keep in mind is the development of an agreed view on how to leverage the U.S.$600,000 budget item. It was agreed that this issue needs to be agreed upon by the governing committee and AFH will work to have a report and recommendations available within one month, ACTION ITEM The delivery by AFH of a report and recommendations December 13, 2012. SW noted that there should be a side discussion between the Prudential Foundation and AFH before any fuller discussion with the governing committee and this was agreed.
(c) SO raised a question ith respecdt to the item in the Weekly Report indicating that a meeting with Tohoku University was held and Professor Fujimoto was recommended as becoming involved in the Project. SO noted that he has already met with Professor Fujimoto and does recommend him to become involved in the Project.
(d) SO also raised a question concerning the scope and nature of discussions that have been held with Wakabayashi-san. SM answered that he has met Wakabayashi on several occasions and that Wakabayashi has introduced several people to the Project.
(e) JM gave an update that he had contacted Professor Oshima of the University of Washington Architectu
Issue Date: 14 November 2012
Reporting Period: 6 November 2012 – 13 November 2012
Business of the Week
Business Name: Yumi Abe
Business Profile: She worked at a sewing factory before the earthquake but everything had been washed away and she lost her job. Supported by Yappesu, the government, and Wakabayashi-san (Ohta-san introduced him to us), she will start her own sewing shop in Ishinomaki, (just 50 meters away from our office) in December or early January. Last week, we helped installing sewing machine and network in her shop. We intend to provide a referral service for marketing in collaboration with Wakabayashi-san.
- Milestones for the Quarter
- Milestone 1: Client In-take
- YELLOW: on-going
- Total number of business owners that we contacted to date: 7 (no change since last report)
- Milestone 2: Opening the Center
- GREEN: Scheduled Completion (11/19/2012).
- The construction is under way.
- We are holding the first business seminar by MAKOTO on Friday 11/23/2012.
- Milestone 3: 2012 Build Back Better Tohoku Request for Proposal program
- GREEN: Scheduled roll-out (1/23/2013).
- We are consulting with Wakabayashi-san, and developing the draft guidelines and judging criteria in two weeks. Then we need to translate the draft in English for the internal review between Architecture for Humanity and Prudential Foundation.
- Milestone 1: Client In-take
- Red Flagged Issues:
- Recruitment of two business design fellows needed when the Center opens its door.
Scheduled Completion (10/30/2012). Anticipated Completion. (11/30/2012)- What we're doing about the delay:
- We have interviewed Candidate #1.
- We are going to interview Candidate #2 on Thursday 11/15/2012.
- Ohta-san, Fukasawa-san and Shogo will meet with Miyagi-san, Yamauchi-san and Abe-san of ETIC on Tuesday 11/20/2012 to discuss the recruitment issue.
- Taka Saito has identified 1 new candidate this week and a resume is being forwarded.
- We will arrange the interview this week with Candidate #3.
- Komei Ishikawa, the research division manager of ETIC, has shared our business case management fellows (business design fellows) inquiry with his colleagues at ETIC. He will let us know when they find a candidate.
- We will get in touch with Hideyuki Inoue of Social Venture Partners this week about our business case management fellow position and other possible partnership opportunities.
- What we're doing about the delay:
- Date of the office opening public event. AFH suggests either early December or mid-January.
- Recruitment of two business design fellows needed when the Center opens its door.
- Other Meetings and Opportunities that We Had During This Reporting Period
- We issued the third quarter report on 12 November 2012.
- We met with Mr. Ito of Onagawa Reconstruction Promotion Department to discuss the situation of Onagawa and possibility of collaboration. From our conversation, we came up with two possible opportunities: 1) a temporary market place near the Onagawa port (estimated 123 million JPY) and 2) a futsal court for children (no cost estimate as of yet).
- We met with Eiji Hyodo, vice president of Tohoku University, and asked to introduce us someone who would like to participate in the evaluation of RFP program. He recommended Prof. Masahiko Fujimoto at Department of Economics.
End of Weekly Report
Issue Date: 6 November 2012
Reporting Period: 24 October 2012 – 5 November 2012
- Milestones for the Quarter
- Milestone 1: Client In-take
- YELLOW: on-going
- Total number of business owners that we contacted to date: 7 (+2 since last report)
- We expect the rate of in-take increase significantly when we open the Center, hire two business case managers/design fellows, and roll-out the RFP program.
- Milestone 2: Opening the Center
- GREEN: Scheduled Completion (11/19/2012).
- Ohta-san introduced Mr. Yoichi Wakabayashi to Shogo. Wakabayashi-san is a business consultant in Sendai who has a lot of local connections such as SME consultants, accountants, attorneys, interior designers, graphic designers, event planners, etc. We can leverage his network to strengthen our office.
- Shall we start planning the opening event? We suggest the timing to be in the early December or in the middle of January.
- Milestone 3: 2012 Build Back Better Tohoku Request for Proposal program
- GREEN: Scheduled roll-out (1/23/2013).
- Met with Hideyuki Watarai of TRIAID to discuss potential partnership for our business support program. His initial suggestions are: 1) daily support for Shogo, 2) an analyzer of clients and applicants for RFP, and 3) a monitor for business after RFP grants are awarded. He also offered to assist establishing the evaluation criteria for RFP and reviewing applications.
- Milestone 1: Client In-take
- Red Flagged Issues:
- Recruitment of two business design fellows needed when the Center opens its door.
Scheduled Completion (10/30/2012). Anticipated Completion. (11/30/2012)- Reasons for delay: It is difficult to find a qualified candidate who is willing to relocate to Ishinomaki and commit full-time.
- What we're doing about it:
- We sent the job description in Japanese to Fukasawa-san.
- POJ reached out to ETIC for the “right-arm” person to work as a fellow at our office.
- Susan Onuma, the board of director at U.S.-Japan Council, introduced us to Barbara Hibino, who has been active in helping entrepreneurs in Palo Alto, CA. Barbara then introduced us to Hideyuki Inoue, a professor at Keio University and the managing director of ETIC Social Venture Center and Komei Ishikawa, the research division manager of ETIC.
- Jonathan Malamud kindly offered to reach out to the University of Washington Business School while he is in Seattle this week.
- Possible help that we need: We’d like POJ to spread the word, and help us find qualified candidates.
- Recruitment of Communications Associate and/or additional program coordinator.
- Naming of the office: AFH has suggested the following:
- POP (People’s Opportunity) Center
- Tohoku Business Lounge (ToBiLa)
- Ishinomaki Business Lounge
- MakiBiz /?Biz
- Ishinomaki Working Lab
- Nariwai Lounge
- StartUp Tohoku
- Date of the office opening public event. AFH suggests either early December or mid-January.
- Recruitment of two business design fellows needed when the Center opens its door.
- What are we doing next week?
- Meet with Mr. Ito of Onagawa Reconstruction Promotion Department to ask for the situation of Onagawa and possibility of collaboration on 11/8/2012.
- Follow up with Inoue-san and Ishikawa-san at ETIC about recruitment.
- Meet with Eiji Hyodo, vice president in Tohoku University to ask for introducing someone who can participate in the evaluation of RFP program.
- AFH will start developing the guidelines and judging criteria for RFP.
- Other Meetings and Opportunities that We Had During This Reporting Period
- Met with Yoshie Muramatsu of Arup Japan to discuss potential partnership for engineering work.
- Met with Mark Dytham and Astrid Klein of Klein Dytham to discuss the current status of the reconstruction in architects’ perspective. They suggested contacting with ArchiAid for a partnership in general as well as recruitment purpose. Also they mentioned that major construction companies in Japan (Hazama, Nikken, etc.) might help sending design fellows and volunteers to the Ishinomaki office.
- Met with Yasuyuki Yanagisawa and Nicolai Kruger of American Institute of Architects (AIA) Japan chapter to discuss potential involvement of the chapter.
End of Weekly Report
Issue Date: 17 May 2013
Reporting Period: 11 May 2013 – 17 May 2013
Business of the Week
Business Name: NPO Watari Ichigokko [existing business]
Business Profile: NPO Watari Ichigokko was founded to provide healthy meals to survivors and volunteer workers in May 2011. Since then, they have been expanding their programs to respond to the community needs. They currently run three major programs – a community café, Terakoya Ichigokko (a tutoring/mentoring program provided by college student volunteers) and Ichigokko Ohanashi Kikitai (a community forum to encourage interaction among residents).
CEO Teruko Baba
So far they created 10 jobs. They try not to rely on governmental grants alone for their income so that their operation becomes more sustainable. They make and sell strawberry preserves and tomato-basil sauce using local fruits to supplement their revenue.
A dessert made and served at the community café.
All these activities are currently happening in a pre-fab building that they are leasing. They would like to build a permanent center and workshop in order to turn their program into long-term sustainable model. They have already secured a site next to the current temporary building.
Inside of the current pre-fab facility
Watari Ichigokko is applying the MakiBiz RFP. MakiBiz will continue seek other funding opportunities and support their operation to become stable and self-reliant.
OPERATION
PROGRAM
Scheduled Completion (10/30/2012). NEW Anticipated Completion (5/31/2013)
Scheduled Completion (3/31/2013). NEW Anticipated Completion (5/31/2013)
End of Weekly Report