Dentsu Inc.'s maverick planners propose it! What is the "Quirk Economy Zone" that holds the key to regional revitalization?

Regional revitalization is a critical issue for Japan. Over the past decade, various community development players have tackled regional challenges.

While some individual initiatives have shown results, nationwide, regional revitalization remains far from sufficient. Three unconventional planners at Dentsu Inc. recognized the urgency of this situation.

Mr. Nobu Miyazaki, who has developed and implemented methods for branding "places" by flexibly defining regional units.

Toshiaki Morio, who has settled in regions to tackle "industrial promotion" and "tourism strategy," emphasizing the motivation management of stakeholders.

Takuya Kagata, who supports regional business development using experience design and marketing techniques, and also has research experience at the University of Tokyo's Graduate School of Urban Development and experience as a government official.

In this series, they discuss the challenges of regional revitalization that emerge from their distinct perspectives and the new concept of "Regional Quirks" to overcome them.

<Table of Contents>

▼Planners Tackling Regional Challenges with Three Distinct Approaches

▼What "Something" is Needed to Make Regional Revitalization Sustainable?

▼Bringing In, But Not Letting Out. "Habit Barriers" Protect the Regional Economy!

▼Summary of This Installment

Planners Tackling Regional Challenges with Three Distinct Approaches

Kagata: Since this is the first installment, I'd like to start by explaining why we decided to launch this series. All three of you have been involved in regional revitalization through distinct approaches. Shall we begin with introductions?

Miyazaki: I'll go first. I'm Miyazaki, representing dentsu abic project. abic project tackles regional challenges submitted by municipalities and companies using Dentsu Inc.'s expertise in branding methodologies. We also advocate for place branding—rethinking "place" at various scales, not just regional branding at the prefectural or municipal level.

Related Series:Place Branding: Making You Want to Create Places!

Learn more about Place Branding here

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Incidentally, I'm originally from Kawagoe City in Saitama Prefecture. I grew up in a place where the old townscape, often called "Little Edo," survived wars and earthquakes and remains largely unchanged. The sense of local pride nurtured there definitely connects to my work in regional branding.

Kagata: Ah, it's good to start with your own origin story rather than formalities (laughs). How about you, Morio-san?

Morio: I'm currently seconded to 47CLUB Inc., where I work on branding regional products and expanding their sales channels. I grew up in Sendai, and seeing my hometown transformed by the Great East Japan Earthquake filled me with a sense of urgency. I spent five years stationed in Sendai, helping rebuild the devastated fisheries industries in Miyagi and Iwate.

At that time, the Tohoku fisheries industry was primarily focused on primary processing—shipping products to food manufacturers. Most companies didn't have their own brands. To turn the fisheries, whose sales channels had been cut off, into a profitable industry, I believed branding was essential to enhance the value of the production area. I worked on branding for Miyagi Prefecture's local fish markets, developing strategies to expand local consumption, and branding for Iwate Prefecture's scallops.

Related Article:Recovery Never Ends: An Interview with the Mayor of Otsuchi Town, Iwate Prefecture, and the Head of the Otsuchi Bay Scallop Cultivation Association

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After that, in 2017, I was seconded to the Akan Lake Hot Springs Tourism Association in Hokkaido, where I worked to increase "long-stay repeat visitors." The reason was that even if we attracted transient tourists through mass tourism, the population would drastically decline going forward, and the baby boomer generation would enter an age where travel becomes difficult, leading to a steady decrease in tourists. Therefore, I focused on building a sustainable visitor base that wouldn't just be a one-time affair. As an extension of that, I also worked with Mr. Miyazaki and others to increase the "related population" (*).

※Related Population =
Neither the "resident population" nor the temporary "visitor population" from tourism, but cases where people outside the region maintain ongoing, sustainable connections with it. The goal is to increase touchpoints between the region and the outside world, fostering individuals who can become key players in regional development.
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Miyazaki: Tourism is certainly important, but over the past decade, it's become clear that approaches "beyond tourism" are crucial for making regional revitalization continuous and sustainable. "Sustainability" is a key keyword for this series.

Kagata: And finally, me. I'm Kagata from Dentsu Consulting Inc., primarily supporting private companies with business and product development. Currently, a significant portion of that work involves developing products and businesses together with local people.

My involvement with regions began through work with a major travel agency. After the earthquake, that agency launched an initiative to "create tourism products that are authentic to the region, not just off-the-shelf packages, by working together with local people." Dentsu Inc., which has methodologies for product and business development, joined the effort.

As I became deeply involved with various local stakeholders and government officials, I gradually became interested in how the entire region was managed. As Mr. Morio and Mr. Miyazaki mentioned earlier, regional revitalization cannot be sustained by "tourism" alone.

Morio: I started with industrial promotion and then moved into tourism, but you, Mr. Kagata, began with tourism first, right?

Kagata: Yes. Around that time, the government launched its Regional Revitalization initiative, dispatching central government personnel to local municipalities. Some municipalities specifically sought private-sector talent. As part of this, I was dispatched as a staff member to Kamiichi Town in Toyama Prefecture. This led me to become involved in the overall management of the municipality, including migration and settlement support.

For example, I worked with residents to establish and operate a guesthouse, and we launched various businesses together. Even after my assignment in Kamiichi Town ended, I continued working in the region. Currently, I also support collaborative business ventures created by local stakeholders who share a sense of urgency – key players like regional banks, newspapers, power companies, and businesses that have operated in the area for over a century.

Related Article:Promoting "Relocation" with Digital Know-How! What is Kamiichi Town's Approach?

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Morio: Mr. Kagata, you're originally from Chiba Prefecture, right?

Kagata: Yes! I grew up in a new town in Chiba City, nearly two hours from central Tokyo. I think a significant aspect of Japan's postwar economy was that 30 million people lived in the Tokyo metropolitan area, centered on the capital. Suburban-oriented marketing, symbolized by National Route 16, played a major role in supporting a society of mass production and mass consumption. As an adult, I realized, "I was truly raised as a product of that system" (laughs). At Dentsu Inc., I was involved in product development targeting that mass-production, mass-consumption society. Whether viewed positively or with reflection, that experience now frames how I think alongside local communities.

Now, getting to the main topic, let's start with the "sustainability" mentioned by both of you. Is it really enough to just celebrate increased tourist numbers from one-off initiatives? I think it's time to really sit down and think about this, to have serious discussions.

Morio: My personal view is that what regional revitalization needs most is to foster new industries. According to Japan Tourism Agency data, to match the economic impact of one permanent resident, you need 25 overnight tourists or 81 day-trip tourists.

■Reference: Trends in Tourism Administration
https://www.env.go.jp/content/000109790.pdf

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In other words, unless the resident population is properly maintained, no matter how many tourists you attract, the local economy won't become sustainable. And to maintain the resident population, you need jobs. And to create high-quality, attractive jobs, you need industrial promotion.

Kagata: We've also pursued initiatives to maintain the economic sphere by increasing repeat visitors and the "related population" to compensate for the decline in residents. That said, considering the economic impact, increasing the resident population is obviously preferable.

Related Article:Boosting the "Related Population" with IT! Civic Tech Examples from Gujo City

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Morio: Yes. Furthermore, revitalizing a region fundamentally requires "local production, external sales." That is, selling what is produced locally to outside markets. It's not just about money; we need a mindset that brings value in from outside while preventing value from flowing out.

What is the "something" needed to make regional revitalization sustainable?

Kagata: This "local production, external sales" concept—essentially "bringing in but not letting out"—is very closely tied to the concept we're proposing this time! I've worked in various regions to create interesting businesses and enable local people to participate in their operation. I used to think regional sustainability was simply the accumulation of such initiatives. But as I mentioned earlier, I gradually wanted to take a broader view and look at the region as a whole. That's why I re-enrolled in the urban planning graduate program at the University of Tokyo.

Morio: That's some serious initiative, huh? (laughs)

Kagata: Studying there helped me grasp regional challenges from a broader perspective. At the same time, I started noticing something: there's this so-called "community development scene" we're part of, right? The "regional revitalization" envisioned by players in that scene often surprisingly diverges from what local people actually want.

Morio: That idealized image of "how rural areas should be," seen from the city.

Kagata: Like smiling grandpas and grandmas. And what's considered good in the "community development scene" is things like local farmers' markets. Farmers bring in muddy, misshapen vegetables. Producers and consumers connect directly, and their passion gets conveyed. Don't get me wrong—those initiatives are wonderful, and we've done that kind of "community building" ourselves. But from the perspective of creating sustainable regions, there are challenges. Those measures alone won't sustain local employment or population.

Morio: Do you really think local people get motivated enough by that alone to feel like it's their own thing? I don't think so.

Kagata: So where do the real community needs lie? When I ask people in my assigned areas, "What do you want in this town?" the response I hear most often isn't a farmers' market, but "We want a family restaurant." Why? Because family restaurants have higher partitions between seats, offering privacy. This desire to chat without worrying about neighbors watching—while it might seem far removed from the "ideal image of the countryside" seen from the city—feels incredibly real to me.

Morio: It's a privacy issue that's guaranteed in the city but not in rural areas, right? I once talked to a hunter along the Sanriku coast who said, "I wish McDonald's would come to our town~."

Kagata: It's not that farmers' markets or muddy vegetables aren't authentic, but the three of us were discussing how regional revitalization efforts might be slightly lacking this perspective of "the locals' reality."

Morio: We're all the type who dive deep into the less visible aspects of a region, rather than planning based on some idealized "wouldn't it be nice if..." scenario (laughs).

Kagata: As we talked, the three of us—who've spent years at Dentsu Inc., grappling with questions like 'What do consumers really think?' and 'Will this truly move people?'—started wondering if we could formulate some hypotheses about regional sustainability.

Miyazaki: It's not just outsiders; even local people often don't connect regional revitalization with their own reality. For a while, it was trendy to make viral tourism PR videos for regions, right? The focus tended to shift to things like, "How many views can we get?" Sure, if it's impactful and goes viral, it creates excitement at the time. But what kind of relationship do outsiders who see that video want to have with the region? And how do locals, seeing that video, come to perceive their own region? I had my doubts about that.

Morio: Exactly. We'd get requests like, "We want to make a viral video like the one from the next town over." But again, without a logical consistency that leverages the inherent value of that place, isn't it unsustainable?

Miyazaki: It's not just about going viral. The video should contain an essence that makes outsiders think, "I want to get involved," and locals feel, "Wow, my hometown is this great." It's about an approach that helps people re-evaluate their region, thinking, "Ah, this is who we are." Of course, there are many well-made PR videos that do this, but I think there's a bit of a pitfall here.

Morio: It's not just about PR videos, but how crucial it is to uncover and build local residents' affection for their own culture and way of life – their "civic pride." PR videos need to function as tools for sharing that civic pride. And it must be something genuinely inherent to the region, not some image of the countryside viewed through an urban lens.

Kagata: That connects directly to what Miyazaki-san has been doing—regional branding. Using branding, marketing, and promotional techniques to shift the mindset of local people.

Miyazaki: The purpose of regional branding is to drive initiatives not as scattered, isolated efforts, but by unifying them under "one umbrella." To achieve this, we identify the shared "something" that local people have always held and build it into a single brand. Crucially, we don't present it raw; we design it so people feel, "I want to champion this!" That's where creativity comes in.

Morio: Branding, you could say, is creating a "password" for that region, or even more, sparking a movement that touches people's hearts – making them proud of "themselves nurtured in this region." And as Miyazaki-san said, it's about vectorizing words. Even with videos, they must be designed to show viewers the direction: "This region is growing in this direction!" In other words, building a brand also involves "setting the destination." Once you create that umbrella, all initiatives naturally head toward that destination.

Miyazaki: That's the realm of motivation management you've been tackling, Mr. Morio. Incidentally, when people hear "branding," they often think of something like "luxury brands," but that's not what we mean. I want people to understand it as the activity process of preparing various content and experiences to build a certain "image."

Kagata: When considering regional revitalization, I think there are broadly three approaches. One is the branding we just discussed, and another, related to that, is building an economic sphere that "takes in but doesn't let out." The third is experience design focused on people – how to move their hearts and actions to make such systems work.

Related Article:The Key to Regional Revitalization Lies in Local Information Media: The Challenge of "TOWN JOURNAL OMITAMA"

Morio: These approaches are interconnected, but from a sustainability perspective, the core theme is how to build a regionally accumulative economic cycle. This means effectively circulating money and actions within the region itself. It involves fully utilizing what comes from outside without letting anything leak out.

Bringing in, but not letting out. "Habit Barriers" protect the local economic sphere!
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Kagata: That's exactly what we've been trying to convey through our long-term work in regional revitalization. But when discussing this, if we start using jargon, it's game over! I mean, terms like "branding" or "framework" risk confining the conversation to a narrow space accessible only to specialists. We wanted to communicate the core concepts clearly using more accessible language, so a wider range of people could engage.

Morio: I also had a moment when I blurted out "What matters is civic pride" while having drinks with agricultural producers, and they just looked at me like "What are you talking about?" I realized then, "Ah, by using jargon, I've made it impossible for them to relate to it personally."

Kagata: Of course, frameworks are incredibly important, and I've seen firsthand how powerful they can be when they effectively convey what you want to communicate. But if you stick strictly to the framework, it becomes hard to get the message across, and it can narrow people's thinking.

Morio: Creating one framework and applying it broadly is what we've done, but in regional initiatives, one framework isn't universally applicable. Each region has such distinct characteristics that the framework itself needs significant customization to fit the local context. That's when the phrase "the quirks of that region" came up in our conversation.

Kagata: It doesn't have a super rigid definition. But when we came up with this term, we felt it captured the essence of the region better than "framework." Using a looser term like "quirks" makes it easier for local people to relate to it personally. It lets us jump straight into the real world, away from some abstract image of the countryside.

Morio: Exactly. By deliberately avoiding "frame" and instead asking "What's the quirk of this land?", we can see the essence that might have been missed with a rigid term like "frame."

Miyazaki: Realizing there were things we were missing is incredibly meaningful. When the three of us were discussing "things we can take in but not let out," we started talking about how regions have these invisible barriers that prevent value from escaping. We thought these unique local behavioral patterns function as barriers against value leakage.

Morio: So, instead of tariff barriers, maybe "habit barriers" are protecting the region? With local production for external sales, it's crucial to bring in foreign currency while minimizing the value and capital leaving the area. But trying to think about this within a rigid framework feels stifling. Approaches like "don't let money leave" just get exhausting. However, by viewing the region's behavioral patterns and culture as "quirks," we might be able to protect the economic sphere without strain. I call such strong economic spheres "Quirk Spheres."

Miyazaki: I think local people also feel that abstract, horizontal-script terms don't quite resonate. Using words that evoke images just by hearing them might be the breakthrough we need.

Kagata: Even when solving things with frameworks, shifting your perspective a bit can reveal all sorts of things. I want to explore the potential of the word "habit" as a concept that encompasses everything, including "frameworks."

So, in this series, we'll use the keyword "Kuse" to explore examples of sustainable community building across different regions. We hope readers will also take this opportunity to think, " "

<Summary of This Issue>

• Can traditional "community development" methods alone truly build a sustainable economic ecosystem?
• What matters is the region's appeal that makes stakeholders feel personally invested, and civic pride.
• Using the term "local quirks" instead of imposed jargon helps us grasp the essence.