crQlr Summit 2023 JAPAN - Exploring bottom-up circular economy through the five senses

Nozomi Torii
Director, Value Books Inc.

Joined Value Books, Inc. (Ueda City, Nagano Prefecture), a company that buys and sells used books, in 2015.

Torii is currently working toward obtaining for her company the B Corporation™️ certification, an initiative aimed at transforming the global economy into one for all people, communities, and the planet. In parallel to the Value Books certification process, she has coordinated the translation B Corp Handbook: Measuring, Practicing, and Improving Good Business in collaboration with the Blkswn Publishers community. The translated handbook was printed in June, 2022, thus becoming the first publication of Value Books. Previously, Torii worked for Morgan Stanley MUFG Securities Inc. for 15 years.

Mari Matsuyama
Brand Editor / Radishbo-ya Mail Order Business Division Sales Planning Department, Oisix Ra Daichi Co.

After graduating from Keio University, Faculty of Policy Studies, Matsuyama has been involved in Radishbo-ya’s brand development at Oisix Ra Daichi. Her areas of work include planning and editing Ohanashi Salad, a quarterly magazine that connects producers and consumers, as well as planning, copywriting, and editing the brand website to communicate sustainable initiatives. 

Matsuyama is responsible for concept planning, sales promotion planning, and branding for Fuzoroi Radish, a food loss reduction project, and GURUGURU Radish, a project to promote circular economy. The former was a finalist for the Japan Sustainable Seafood Award 2021, while the later received the crQlr Awards 2022 Waste-Not Circular Design Prize.

Yuji Aono
CEO, PlayBlue Inc.

Deep interest in the circular local economy motivated Yuji Aono to become the owned media editor for a start-up learning platform aimed at working people owned media. In parallel, Aono also launched a media platform featuring local stories of his hometown.

Aono also produces a cup curry brand that brings the charm and story of local vegetables to consumers, hosts talk events to think about the future of local communities, and collaborates with food rescue services to promote regional development. Aono’s latest projects are Somete, an upcycling platform for re-dyeing clothes as a solution for apparel resource loss, and Machi Closet, a community that enables used clothes circulation.

Akihiko Higuchi
Associate Professor, Department of Environment and Society, Graduate School of Engineering, Kyushu University

Akihiko Higuchi has been engaged in maintaining and restoring landscapes and creating new natural spaces throughout Japan, mainly in the field of civil engineering and public works. In recent years, Higuchi has been working on the planning and implementation of various green infrastructures utilizing local historic masonry and local timber. 

Major awards include the Asian Urban Landscape Award (for the railroad trackside boardwalk plaza in Oita City) and the JSCE Design Award for the best design (for the Naga River construction section of the Tsuwano and Naga River restoration grant project).

Kotaro Iwaoka
Hidakuma CEO

In 2011, Kotaro joined the creative company Loftwork, Inc. with the idea of creating the world’s first cafe equipped with digital fabrication machines, FabCafe. In 2012, he opened the first FabCafe in Tokyo, where he worked as the Creative and Operations Director. In 2015, Kotaro contributed to the launch of Hida no Mori de Kuma ga Odoru (Hidakuma), a project aimed at promoting the woods and craftsmanship of Hida, Japan. In 2016 helped open FabCafe Hida and has served as the CEO of Hidakuma since 2019.

Atsuko Ogawa
Loftwork Kyoto Art Director

Atsuko Ogawa joinined Loftwork in 2020 and is the Project Manager of the Tokai Circular Economy Project, an initiative co-organized by the Chubu Bureau of Economy, Trade and Industry of Japan and the Ogaki Kyoritsu Bank.Tokai Circular aims to strengthen the circular economy system in the Tokai region. Atsuko has worked in Japanese department stores, and was engaged in planning and public relations at a lifestyle goods manufacturer. Later on, she participated in the establishment of the public relations department at a general real estate company, where she provided comprehensive design and managment direction.

Kousuke Kinoshita
FabCafe Kyoto MTRL Marketing and Production

Kousuke Kinoshita has been the Manager of FabCafe MTRL Kyoto since it’s open in 2017. MTRL (“Material”) supports material co-creation and innovation at manufacturing companies while FabCafe Kyoto is a technology and innovation-centered place for gatering a diverse community of creators, researchers, and companies. Through the management of online/offline workshops and the production of exhibition projects, Kousuke aims to create a place where chemical reactions occur and implement a contextual design that connects things and concepts from diverse fields.　

Kazuto Kojima
Loftwork Producer

After studying architecture at a vocational school, he has been involved in new brand, store, and product development, as well as PR plans, as designer, director and planner. Independently, Kojima also works as an artist under the name “Harmonism”, and creates works that transcend genres through collaborations in fashion, botanical research, urban vegetable gardening, and other fields.

Kojima joined Loftwork in 2018, and has been in charge of a wide range of projects including new business creation, co-creation space design, local industry promotion, and so on. Since 2020, he has been actively introducing SF prototyping and other methods to propose what companies and organizations should do in the future in a society where the future is uncertain. Kojima is interested in designing questions about the future, both as a business person and as an author. His nickname is “Hamo san”.

Sohei Hara (Mirai Gakki Lab)
Musical Instrument Inventor

Born in Aichi Prefecture, Japan, Sohei Hara is a percussionist and musical instrument inventor.

With the theme of “making music and musical instruments more accessible,” he has self-learned to create more than 140 types of musical instruments from plastic bottles, empty cans, and all kinds of everyday objects.

Based in Nagoya, Hara gives concerts and workshops throughout Japan, and as a member of the daily necessities instrument unit “kajii,” he has appeared in more than 40 TV programs. Recently, Hara has become addicted to creative musical instruments that include “karakuri”, or hidden mechanisms and tricks. Hara’s project Mirai Gakki Lab is a winner of the crQlr Awards 2022.