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Naruhiro Nagao works on regional revitalization through the operation of coworking spaces. Naruhiro Nagao works on regional revitalization through the operation of coworking spaces. Drawing from his experience in corporate management strategy and work style reform as the representative of DE-SIGN INC., a spatial design company, he established Omurawan Shoji in Omura City, Nagasaki Prefecture. Focusing on supporting small-scale, locally-rooted businesses known as "kogai" (small trades), the company serves as a hub connecting urban talent with local communities through multi-location work experience tours. Looking ahead, they envision developing the entire Omura Bay coastal region as a new economic zone. This article explores the possibilities of a new business model originating from regional Japan, breaking away from the Tokyo-centric development.
Could you tell us about your background and career history?
After graduating from university, I joined a manufacturer. To be honest, I wasn't very serious about work at first, but my seniors' influence greatly changed my approach to how I work. The president of a partner company I met during that time still serves as my role model today. While emulating his methods, I began creating projects to solve customer problems rather than simply selling products. The manufacturer provided an environment that allowed for such challenges. Later, I moved to *Link and Motivation Inc., an organizational consulting company.
As the company name suggests, they focused on strengthening organizations and improving employee motivation. There, I encountered a department that considered employee motivation from the perspective of "work environment," which became the starting point for my current work.
*Link and Motivation is an organizational consulting company, and one of its divisions (Link Place, which later became a subsidiary) was spun off as an independent company through an MBO, which led to the establishment of DE-SIGN INC
What kind of business does DE-SIGN currently operate?
DE-SIGN is a design firm specializing in work style planning and spatial design. However, our fundamental purpose is to strengthen organizations and energize employees through creating work environments. Therefore, we start off with a dialogue option like "what are your company's main challenges?" and in return we create offices as a solution. Or we utilize the office creation process itself. We enter with a problem-solving approach and build relocation or new office projects through workshops and events while involving the employees. This is the business model we developed after buying out from Link and Motivation with our current chairman, utilizing my previous experience.
We've also begun emphasizing community and relationship building through space creation. As we did this, we started receiving more calls from local communities. In fact, this led to the establishment of Omurawan Shoji in Omura City, Nagasaki.
Did you have any previous connection to Nagasaki?
I had absolutely no connection or ties. I was born in Amagasaki,Hyogo and raised in Tokushima. It all started when I was invited for work to help with local community building.
How did coto begin? Was it a government initiative?
Actually, it started with a private sector invitation. Initially, I was just visiting occasionally through Omurawan Shoji to help solve challenges for local government and businesses. As I became closer with local people, they knew about my work creating work environments in Tokyo. One day, I received a call: "Nagao-san, I bought a property in the shopping district. Would you like to run a coworking space?" It was from a local person I had become friends with.
The location was in the middle of the shopping district with its shutters down, but they offered to rent it at a low price. Although it would be self-funded, I felt motivated by the opportunity. Omurawan Shoji is a 100% private company, funded by acquaintances and partly by DE-SIGN.
co-working hub “coto” - Omura Nagasaki
How did you proceed with the launch?
First, since I couldn't be permanently stationed there, we needed a community manager. I reached out to a former young employee who had been a community manager in Yokohama. When I proposed moving to Nagasaki via Zoom, he agreed without even seeing the location. His decision to relocate helped us advance the project while cooperating with the local people.
We also connected with a professor from Kyushu Sangyo University's architecture department, and their seminar students helped us think about what functions would benefit the town. From the empty lot stage, we valued the process, such as publicly sharing plans based on the students' and community manager's ideas. We also set up a café alongside the coworking space, operated by local people. It's now run by the second generation of café operators - young local people from Kumamoto who wanted to open their second location here.
Could you tell us about your tenants?
Rather than focusing on attracting startups, Omurawan Shoji conducts "multi-location work experience tours" every three months. Omura is a town at the foot of the airport, with a bullet train station and highway interchange - it's a transportation hub. With good access from both Tokyo and Fukuoka, we believe it could serve as an additional base beyond one's main location.
This initiative, started two and a half years ago and based on the idea of "hopper" style working - moving between multiple locations - will increase within companies. We invite business people from Tokyo, Fukuoka, Osaka, and other cities to experience how this could be one of their multiple bases. Through this, we find tenants, coto members and people or companies to do business with in this region.
Among actual tenants, we have cases like a Yokohama company opening a branch after working in Nagasaki, and a Tokyo-based film director from Nagasaki registering a company for local video production. The basic pattern is people renting space or becoming members based on local connections or business relationships.
Rather than being their sole base, it's often used as one of multiple locations where they can work, or as a base to expand work in this region through the connections they've made..
What are the main types of businesses based in Omura?
They can be divided into roughly three categories. First are those who see potential in expanding their work nationally through connections made via Omurawan Shoji. Second are businesses using it as a foothold while considering entering the Nagasaki market. For example, some companies use it as a base for sales activities before potentially establishing a larger presence. We actually have cases where companies use our location while constructing their own facilities in Omura City.
The third category includes engineering companies based in Tokyo or Nagoya looking to expand throughout Nagasaki. Since Omura is geographically central to Nagasaki and convenient, they use it as a hub before establishing their main base. We also have a company jointly established by the city hall and private sector as a tenant. Some others utilize our location's proximity to the airport for international business activities.
Through our multi-location work tours, we aim to create business opportunities based on human relationships rather than purely business priorities, while building connections with urban areas. Rather than startup support, we focus on supporting "kogai" - small-scale local businesses. For example, right now we're helping someone who participated in our multi-location work tour to find a property in Omura so they can open an inn, acting as a hub connecting them with local people. In this way, we serve as a base for creating new local businesses.
Omura City has a population of 100,000. Rather than having major industries, it's primarily a town of commerce and primary industries. For larger businesses, there's already Sasebo or Nagasaki City.
It seems like networks are forming between users from other prefectures and local students.
We hold many events for various groups including students, mothers, and local photographers, gradually expanding our user base while ensuring local residents can use the space.
The community manager from Yokohama seems to be making a significant impact.
Yes, as he's built local relationships, he's been able to plan events together with the community, and he's increasingly being invited as a speaker at other local events.
Could you share your vision for the future?
We've built relationships with over 200 people through our multi-location work tours, and we're working to turn these connections into actual businesses one by one, with Omurawan Shoji actively involved. Rather than aiming for rapid growth like startups, we're focused on gradually increasing the number of people doing business while establishing roots in the town. I feel we're entering that phase now.
For example, we have the inn project I mentioned before, and café staff members starting their product development. They began with small-scale coffee roasting but are now planning to create a full-scale roastery. We're at the stage of adding small businesses one by one.
What are your plans for Omura City and the surrounding area?
There's a reason we named the company "Omurawan Shoji" (Omura Bay Trading). Omura Bay is a unique body of water with a 160-kilometer circumference that can be circled by car in half a day. We're thinking about creating an economic zone that transcends administrative boundaries by building relationships with the ten municipalities around Omura Bay.
We've established connections with coworking spaces and communities both around Omura Bay and elsewhere, and we're beginning to function as a bridge between these networks. Currently, we're at the stage of using Omura as a small hub to attract people from outside, but we hope to expand this further.
Finally, what do you see as the appeal of regional areas?
Connections between people can form anywhere. Interestingly, though, people often meet in regional areas rather than Tokyo. There are many cases where Tokyo residents meet and connect for the first time in regional areas.
Meeting in non-everyday places can create deeper relationships. I believe having such platforms across Japan is important not just for regions but for the country as a whole. Regions always have attractive food, drinks, and nature, which draws in interesting people. In regional areas, interesting people stand out more and are much easier to meet.
Startup people are beginning to visit regions, creating opportunities for intense encounters and stimulation in short periods. I think these aspects represent the current appeal of regional areas.
What stood out during the interview was Nagao's approach to nurturing "kogai" (small trades). Rather than pursuing rapid growth like startups, his attitude of carefully cultivating small, locally-rooted businesses one by one suggests a new model for regional revitalization.
Particularly noteworthy is his method of building networks with urban areas through multi-location work experience tours. His unique approach of cultivating business opportunities from a foundation of human connections and relationships deserves attention. This approach utilizing "related populations," distinct from conventional business attraction and startup support, suggests possibilities unique to regional cities of around 100,000 people.
Furthermore, his vision of creating a new economic zone transcending administrative boundaries by leveraging the geographical features of Omura Bay seems to contain important hints for considering the future of regional areas. In Japan, where the population decline continues, forming such sustainable regional economic zones will become increasingly important.
Nagao's words, "Interesting people stand out more and are much easier to meet in regional areas," left a lasting impression. The possibility of a new economic model originating from regional areas rather than concentrated in Tokyo - this challenge has only just begun.
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