Interview: "There's Such a Thing?!" Yon'nana Club / Part 1

The nationwide regional newspaper-curated online shopping site 47CLUB Inc. will relaunch on July 1st. I assisted with this project. I spoke with 47CLUB Inc. President Kenichiro Kurita about how the work actually progressed.

 

Yamada: Thanks for the meal the other day. But you're supposed to be on a low-carb diet, right? Yet there you were, having tantanmen noodles at midnight to finish off the meal?

Kurita: Was I?
 

 

Yamada: Your staff were scared stiff, saying you're always in a bad mood the day after you have late-night ramen (laughs). By the way, the new "Yon-nana Club" launches on July 1st. Congratulations on the new logo too.

Kurita: Not happy at all. Not happy in the slightest. Rather, the real challenge is whether customers will think, "Wow, they have this!" from now on. Nothing has even started yet.

Yamada: Well, that's true. But if you say that, our interview is over (laughs). Please cheer up with this boiled "turtle hand." It's like a cross between crab and shellfish—delicious.
 

 

 

 

Exotic delicacies available at Yonana Club
"Turtle's Hand" (Oita). Apparently it's a popular luxury ingredient in Spain.

 

 

 

Kurita: For the past six years, 47CLUB Inc. has operated as a "carefully curated online marketplace featuring products from regional newspapers across Japan." Because actual newspapers scoured every corner of Japan to gather these products, we've earned recognition from a certain customer base. Metrics like total sales volume and unique users have also been growing. But given the true potential of regional areas, this is just the beginning. We should be able to gather far more compelling products and attract many more customers. That's the starting point for this initiative.

Yamada: Whoa! This sake is delicious.

 

 

 

The renowned " Dassai" (Yamaguchi).
Among them, " Sonosaki e " is an ultra-premium product aimed at overseas expansion.

 

 

 

 

Kurita: I'm saying something pretty good right now, huh? (laughs).
So, we're thinking things through together with Mr. Yamada's team. We want to inspire people to say, "Wow, they have this!" We're figuring out what products the newspaper company should gather, what products vendors nationwide should create, and that 47CLUB Inc. can't just display products. We need to provide information that makes people think, "Wow, they have this!" We need to run the entire business with the mindset of creating a magazine. I hope that changes how each member acts.

Yamada: So it's not just about changing the logo, but changing the actions of everyone involved. Making it a movement, not just a slogan.

Kurita: For example, having all employees re-examine the products we already sell. As individual buyers, we should ask: Which products make us slap our knees and exclaim, "Wow, they have this!"? We could hold an internal grand prix to find the most "Wow, they have this!" product. Or launch research projects to discover how even existing products can be tweaked to spark that "Wow, they have this!" reaction.

Bringing locally hidden gems that haven't made the news yet to consumers' attention is a kind of journalism, or rather, a quintessentially local newspaper approach. Oh yes, we're also launching a weekly feature where newspapers nationwide bring their best local "Wow, this exists!" finds to compete.

Yamada: This "Two-Day Hijiki" is the product that became a hot topic in that internal grand prix, right? Just rehydrated in water, yet it's soft while still having a satisfying texture. The story behind it being a "phantom hijiki" harvested only two days a year is also fascinating.

 

 

This is the " Phantom Two-Day Hijiki " (Oita).

So fresh it feels like a waste to simmer it.

 

 

 

Kurita: That's a product from a dedicated seafood processor working hard on Himejima Island in Oita Prefecture. They also sell amazingly high-quality live-caught shrimp and that turtle hand stuff from earlier. But you know, there are literally tons of these kinds of compelling products with great stories all over Japan.

The problem is, they're often not good at explaining themselves, so they just end up looking like ordinary products. Saying "You'll understand it's not just dried hijiki once you try it" is a total fail for online sales. We need to seriously work together with everyone involved to figure out how to communicate the potential of these products so customers genuinely get excited and think, "Wow, this exists!"

(To be continued)