A kinder world, through ideas. Creative Unit "Yasakuri"

"What's the state of creativity these days?" — If you want the answer, take a peek behind the scenes of the creative world. Every day, all sorts of things happen on the creative front lines. One such occurrence is the formation of creative units and teams by like-minded individuals. Right now at Dentsu Inc., units and teams are springing up one after another, each clearly displaying their ambitions and creative skills. What concerns them, and what are they aiming for? Understanding this is also about contemplating the future of creativity.

This third installment features the creative unit "Yasakuri."
Now, let's listen closely to their voices.

【Unit Profile】

  Yasakuri
A creative unit launched by young volunteers from the First Creative Planning Bureau under the slogan "A kinder world, through ideas." Members gather regularly to share information, discuss, and plan around social issues. As professionals in creative work, they aim to collectively consider what they should be doing in society today, learn, generate ideas, and take action to bring them to life.

 

Social issues are like a chest of drawers that never closes

I'm Murata, a member of Yasakuri. Before launching Yasakuri, whenever I faced social issues in my work, I felt that whenever I considered a solution for one issue, another would surface. It was like closing one drawer of a dresser only to have another one pop open. For example, the COVID-19 pandemic started with the issue of human lives, then connected to countless other problems: the overwork of essential workers, the business struggles of restaurants, education issues, loneliness, and more. No matter which drawer you closed, something else would gently push open somewhere else. Facing this "chest of drawers problem," I realized we needed more than just one person tackling a single issue. We needed a space where people knowledgeable about each specific drawer could gather, share information, and think together. Fortunately, I had like-minded friends nearby who were already voluntarily engaged in social activities, so we decided to form a unit.

Our current activities center around regular information sharing, discussions, and brainstorming. Since each member specializes in different areas, we consistently gain diverse insights and inspiration from one another. When it comes to implementing ideas, we sometimes shape them as Yasa-Kuri, while other times members pursue them individually. We aim to remain flexible, adapting to each situation.

When Yasakuri members converse, insights like "There seems to be this underlying issue" or "Then maybe we should try this too?" naturally emerge from different perspectives. This keeps everyone motivated as we tackle our next projects. Since all members are creative professionals, we can have lively discussions from planning, production, and craft perspectives – a unique strength of this unit.

Six individuals with diverse interests and skills gathered

Here are the unit members and their representative work. We'd love for you to see that Dentsu Inc. has creators doing this kind of work.

Interests: Life, Diversity, Disaster Prevention
Workshop program for young people solving social issues: "Ideas Festival to Change Society"; newspaper campaign across 6 papers: "Life-Saving Manners Newspaper"; food loss countermeasure event: "The Grocer Who Wants to Heal Both the Earth and People"; Kumamoto Earthquake anniversary program: "Disaster Prevention Quiz"

" Listening Window " app: Allows visually impaired people to enjoy window shopping
Inspired by visually impaired individuals saying, "I want to try window shopping!", we responded, "Then let's make it happen!" and began development in 2022. Currently updating to make it an app everyone can enjoy for exploring cities, including adding a "Boyfriend Mode" to the voice navigation. ACC 2022 Creative Innovation Category Shortlist

" Listening Window " Introduction Movie (Click the image to watch the video on the official YouTube channel)

■Related articles about Listening Window

Satomi Kinoshita
Copywriter / CM Planner

Areas of Interest: Biodiversity, Environmental Conservation, Endangered Species
Serves as Representative of DENTSU Ecosystem LAB. Work includes the picture book "What Animals Know and Don't Know" (supervised by Kyoto University Wildlife Research Center), AR content "Endangered Origami," PR video production for Kyoto University Wildlife Research Center, and Nagoya City's "Higashiyama Zoo and Botanical Gardens 80th Anniversary Project."

Author of the book " The Phantom Snow Leopard: Twin Sisters' Adventure at 4000m " (Fusosha Publishing)
What do advertising professionals think and how do they act when they visit wildlife habitats alongside animal researchers? A record book compiling a decade of activities. Leveraging experiences and connections gained in the field, launched "DENTSU Ecosystem LAB" in 2020 and continues activities.

Book: "The Phantom Snow Leopard: Twin Sisters' 4000m Adventure" (Fusosha) Cover (left) and color pages

■Related articles on DENTSU Ecosystem LAB

Yui Takashima
Art Director

Areas of Interest: Healthcare, Welfare, and Design
Workshop design & art direction for Dentsu Solari Inc.'s "Number Calendar Created with Staff with Intellectual Disabilities," branding for Mebius Medical's "HANASOW - A Medical Consultation Center for Anything," planning & art direction for "HOSPITAL BINGO" - a child hospitalization orientation kit co-developed with medical professionals, etc.

Dentsu Solari Inc. "Hand-drawn Number Calendar Created with Staff with Intellectual Disabilities"
As a platform for sharing the self-expression of staff with intellectual disabilities, we focused on "numbers"—something everyone can understand—and created a calendar where all the numbers were hand-drawn by the staff. Their ability to concentrate on repetitive tasks was put to good use, resulting in approximately 1,000 unique numbers. This is a one-of-a-kind calendar promoting both Dentsu Solari Inc. and the vibrant staff working there.

Dentsu Solari Inc. "Hand-drawn Number Calendar Created with Staff Members with Intellectual Disabilities"

Dentsu Solari Inc. staff hand-drawing the calendar numbers

Art Director

Areas of Interest: Education, Art
Workshop programs for youth addressing social issues: "Ideas Festival to Change Society," "High School Student Ideas Festival"; Inclusive design workshop for elementary students: "Spinning Design Workshop"; Project raising awareness about disabilities and illnesses: "THINK UNIVERSAL"

Social Issue Resolution Workshop Program for Youth: "Ideas Festival to Change Society"
What if we could change the image of serious, seemingly rigid issues through design? This question sparked our commitment to problem-solving workshops for students. At the " Ideas Festival to Change Society," students from various universities and high schools deeply considered ideas to address the shortage of bone marrow donors.

National Marrow Donor Bank Promotion Conference in Hiroshima "Ideas Festival to Change Society" Poster

Group photo of all participants and judges at the National Marrow Donor Bank Promotion Convention in Hiroshima "Ideas Festival to Change Society"

National Bone Marrow Bank Promotion Conference in Hiroshima "Ideas Festival to Change Society" Introduction Movie (Click the image to watch the video on the official YouTube channel)

What struck me most about running the workshops was the sheer passion of the students. Inspired by their energy, the adults are now working tirelessly to bring these ideas to life.

For example, the "Peace Donor Seat" idea—a collaboration between "Sports Viewing × Donor Registration" conceived by a high school student who participated in the workshop—won the Judges' Special Award. Thanks to the cooperation of the V-League, which has long supported the Bone Marrow Bank, it was realized at Yoyogi Gymnasium on April 23, 2023.

Kyoko Kita
Copywriter / Communication Designer

Areas of Interest: Elderly Care, Gender
Notable work includes Netflix's Coming Out Day campaign with the tagline "#towards_an_era_where_we_can_speak_freely_about_the_obvious" and KANEBO's web movie promoting freedom in makeup choices under the theme "#comfort_for_the_future".

Her most recent work includes creating the statement, naming, and symbol mark for the End-of-Life Care Association. This organization, which offers workshops for everyone from professional caregivers to family members and elementary school students, believes the mindset cultivated in hospice and end-of-life settings—how to confront the "unsolvable suffering and anger" faced in life's final stages—is applicable to every phase of life. They named this approach "Universal Hospice Mindset" and created its symbol mark.

The symbol mark uses a heart motif. Caring for the heart is about caring for life itself. The heart's soft form evokes a state of mind that remains calm even in the face of death, while its shape, which can be seen as two colors or shadows, embodies the way people support each other in both bright and dark times.

"Universal Hospice Mind" Symbol Mark (left) and web content "Everyone's Speech 0100VOICES"

 

As an action embodying the organization, we created the web content " Everyone's Speech 0100VOICES," featuring statements read aloud by voices ranging from 0 to 101 years old. We articulated the significance of our activities with the copy: "Bringing professional mental health care to every stage of life."

Art Director / Visioning Director

Areas of Interest: SDGs, Regional Disparities
Responsible for creating the I LADY. notebook and workshop events for international cooperation NGO JOICFP, as well as developing the logo and visual identity for Dentsu Solari Inc.

To promote SRHR (Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights), I collaborated with international cooperation NGO JOICFP to host workshops where participants could choose and decide matters related to sexuality for themselves. I was delighted that design ingenuity made it possible to express difficult topics, allowing participation regardless of gender.

JOICFP Workshop Event "i SELECT SHOP"

If every creator tackled social issues within their 50-meter radius...

The six of us are members who each tackle issues close to home on a relatively small scale, doing what we enjoy. When you face solving social issues as a job, it often leads to discussions about economics or politics, and the scale can feel so vast that you lose sight of what you can personally do. While maintaining that broader perspective is important, I think the mindset of simply wanting to help the people struggling right in front of you is just right when brainstorming ideas. I sometimes think: if all creative professionals aimed to solve social issues within a 50-meter radius of their own neighborhoods—issues they could actually tackle—and if a million such people existed, it might create a better world. I hope we can become a team that makes people think, "I could probably do something like this." More than just increasing the number of Yasakuri members, the ideal is for everyone to form their own units and for more people to engage in similar activities.

◾️From the Editorial Team
I was struck by the insight that sparked Yasakuri's founding: "When you're thinking about solving one social issue, another one surfaces." The fact that one social issue is often closely intertwined with another. In today's world of increasing specialization and fragmentation of knowledge, the importance of "integrated knowledge" born from cross-disciplinary exchange is emphasized precisely because of the danger of viewing problems solely from a fixed perspective. In the statement "the ideal is for more people doing similar activities to emerge," I sensed the budding movement to advance knowledge exchange at the grassroots level and tackle social issues from every possible viewpoint.