Creating a Business Magazine With Culture Through Dissatisfaction, Discomfort and Love

Loftwork, together with the Tokyo Metropolitan Government, produced the business magazine “IT’S OUR BUSINESS!” with the goal of designing and prototyping projects to expand the base of innovation in 2021.

The magazine was produced by editor Hitoko Hirano (HEAPS), who conducted in-depth interviews with eight entrepreneurs, email interviews with another 18 entrepreneurs and roundtable discussions with 17 young people across Gen Y and Gen Z.

Although projects marking the third year of the Reiwa in Tokyo in 2021 were canceled in light of the COVID-19 pandemic, the magazine was distributed for free, sharing perspectives that helped the city’s activities.

The project began at the same time as the arrival of the pandemic. During the course of the project, the relationship between life and work, urban and rural and local and global values changed dramatically. However, it became clear that the trigger for the birth of new values in any situation wasn’t hard to find and that some things remain constant despite the circumstances.

“IT’S OUR BUSINESS!” aims to inspire people living in cities to find a new way of doing business. The project started with the question, “Why does the word ‘entrepreneur’ seem to have nothing to do with me?”. As it proceeded to unravel the word “entrepreneurship”, the theme of “locality” – something rooted in the person – came to light. Rather than aiming for something large-scale, we interviewed people who ran their businesses in sizes and manners that were comfortable for them and created a business magazine that allows readers to freely explore work, business, entrepreneurship and innovation from a variety of angles.

This magazine is provided under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0). Anyone can reproduce and redistribute the material in any media or format as long as they comply with the license.

Shoko Ryuzaki (Hotel Producer) / Eru Akazawa (Fashion Brand Director)
Why am I an entrepreneur? Dissatisfaction, Dreams, Uncomfortable Feelings, Answers

Soma Suzuki (Urban Analysis / Researcher)
“There is No 100%” Between Science, Sensibility and Logic: The Long Journeys of Researchers and Entrepreneurs

Buta Terao (Japanese/Taiwanese music producer)
“Small Economies Zone” DIY. “Try and Fail”: Asia’s Independent Music Scene

Naohiro Niiyama (Intown Designer) / Kazutaka Mori (Project Manager)
Becoming “a Member of This Town” and Not a Member of Tens of Thousands. You Can Find Cultivation From “Nothing”

Kimi Tsuchiya (Food Director)
The Things You Can Do Because You Are “A Food Store”. The “Delicious!” Of Food Directors Who Makes The Most of Food From Various Food Professionals

Tomoma Odagiri (Saturday Factory)
“What to Make and How to Make it”: Combining Craftsmanship and Resources to go Beyond Manufacturing.

11PM, EPISTROPH, THE ROOT BEER JOURNEY, Eel’s Bed, 4Nature, Bookstore Lighthouse, Tomo Cola, ITONAMI, Culture University TOKYO

• The Night Before the Long Interview: U-25 Roundtable Discussion
  “Not Far, But Not Close Either: The Distance to Entrepreneurship XXX”
• A Book and a Line as a Good Luck Charm, Sometimes Placed
  Kazuya Sano, Xiaoxiayo Chen, Sanjiro Minato, Fumi Goda, Kenta Kawara, Daichi Isogawa, Yuya Yoshida, Shohei Koyama, Daiki Tsutsumi

Of course you can read the book carefully in order, but we recommend you open it to wherever you feel like and read the parts that interest you.

Even if it’s just one paragraph, we’ve tried to structure the book in a way that you’ll be able to find something new or reconfirm something. Please feel free to open the book and read only the parts that interest you.

In our business magazine, we list out innovative people who propose new values.

“People who propose new systems, values and ideas for improvement that make sense to them.”
“People who renew with the atmosphere of the times, based on their own questions, doubts, feelings of discomfort, guiding principles, love, relationships and other ‘localities’”.

In the course of defining the above, the project gave us the opportunity to ask ourselves if we are living, working and acting in the same way.

As a magazine, we want to tell people what innovative means, but we also need to embody it ourselves.

Although the project is now over, we wanted to turn “IT’S OUR BUSINESS!” into an activity with this in mind.

*This is an activity held between Loftwork, “IT’S OUR BUSINESS!” editor-in-chief Hitoko Hirano, and external members.

When the team thought about how to distribute the articles, they thought that it would be best to look at it from the perspective of familiarity – “You can put it on your desk, in your kitchen or in the bathroom, and you may want to flip through it whenever you feel like it or share it with your friends”. The easiest way to do this is on paper. The result was a free business magazine with over 100 pages. The team printed 1,000 copies.

Instead of distributing the magazines all at once in bulk, the team planned to distribute them little by little, hunting down places to distribute them every month, with the hope of bringing the reader joy.

For those who can’t wait to read the magazine, it is also available as a free PDF.

And for those who live too far away to go to a physical distribution point but would still like to see the book in paper form, the team set up a system to issue 200 paper copies as soon as they are reserved, at the price of the costs of printing and postage.

The team is also planning to add more “IT’S OUR BUSINESS!” items to our range as they continue with the activities. Visitors are welcome to visit from time to time.

The “IT’S OUR BUSINESS!” newsletter comes out once a week and draws from the localities of its team members.

– IT’S OUR BUSINESS!”: Small pieces of the team members’ localities that they have recently discovered.
– “OUR THINGS!”: A report on the team’s activities, an introduction to the month’s recipients, the activities of our members, and an introduction to the shops and activities with a good approach that the team has recently discovered.

Locality is all around us, but it’s not always easy to notice. Through the different perspectives of the team members, the newsletter brings the reader the moments when locality is brought out in their lives.

*You can also register by downloading the PDF version of “IT’S OUR BUSINESS!”
Click here to register for the newsletter.

“IT’S OUR BUSINESS!” is a collaborative project by the following teams. In addition to sharing information, each team member works on projects that explore localities and transform them into a sustainable system. The results are then shared on social media and in the newsletter.

Creative Director, Loftwork / Representative, Design no Tobira / Graphic Recorder

Born in Kanazawa. After working as a designer for a general electronics manufacturer, she joined Loftwork. She is interested in creating places and things where people can show their strengths and highlights. She also works as a graphic recorder as she is extremely skilled in visualizing information. She planned and managed “Design no Tobira”, an activity to teach parents and children about the concept of design and how to look at things. For this project, she won the 2020 Kids Design Award from the Japan Institute of Design. She likes apples and sake.

Editor-in-Chief, PORTLA / President, Eat, Play, Sleep inc. / Creative Director, Loftwork

He started the web magazine ANTENNA in 2013 with the idea that “there should be a media format like this in Kansai”. In 2016, he left his job at a kimono wholesaler to join Loftwork. In 2020, he founded Eat, Play, Sleep inc., a culture production company, in response to the increasing number of requests for his personal work, and in 2021, he left the editor-in-chief position of ANTENNA to his successor and launched PORTLA, a media company focused on the theme of “travel and culture”, becoming its editor-in-chief. He has a strong ego, and his specialty is planning and editing. With the help of all the people involved, he is enjoying a life full of discoveries and mistakes.
https://antenna-mag.com/
https://portla-mag.com/

At the age of 21, she moved to the U.S. by herself, and since 2015 she has been the editor-in-chief of HEAPS MAGAZINE, a cultural magazine that observes the edges of the world and the glimpses that exist there, as well as interviews unique individuals from around the world to deliver original coverage of important events. Currently based in New York and Tokyo, she runs HEAPS Corporation, which manages the magazine and its projects and makes use of the worldwide network she has cultivated through the production of the magazine. Her favorite food is Norimaki.
https://heaps.co.jp/

Producer, LW / Representative, YATAI UNIT PROJECT / Representative, Gou ni Iruruzu / President, tameno

Born in Oita Prefecture. After graduating from an industrial high school and working at a huge factory, he planned and managed the mobile food stall project “YATAI UNIT”, which involved everyone around him. He also works in the regional editing unit of “Go Ni Iruru Zu” based in MAD City in Matsudo, Chiba Prefecture. In his hometown of Oita Prefecture, he runs the creative group “tameno,” which focuses on manufacturing, and plans to work with a wide variety of businesses to create things for others.

Born in Osaka. After graduating from graduate school and working at an apiary, he joined Loftwork Inc. As a project manager, he is involved in a wide range of projects and practices local project design.

If you have any such requests for this team or its members, please do not hesitate to contact us.