Tomohiro Suzuki of REIVER LLC. manages the Tagore Harbor Hostel and conducts community development activities in Heda, located south of Numazu City in Shizuoka Prefecture. The town is rich in nature, surrounded by the clearest ocean in Japan and pristine mountains. We asked him why he moved to Heda from Tokyo, how he came to run the hostel, and how he got involved in community development activities.
My name is Tomohiro Suzuki, and I am the president of Reiver, LLC. Reiver is an architectural design firm whose main business is planning and proposal of "community building," design of space, and architectural design. Utilizing our skills and knowledge, we are currently engaged in our own company's town development activities in the Heda district of Numazu City, Shizuoka Prefecture.
I moved to Heda rather than Numazu because I saw the potential in the area. People in Heda live densely on a small piece of land located in the mountains. The beach is wonderful, and the mountain side has its own lifestyle and culture. Their closeness and the way they coexist are fascinating. When I saw this sleepy town in disrepair, I wondered if there was any way to make it thrive. I felt strongly about its potential, so I decided to move here about a year later and opened a hostel.
Heda has little public transportation, and you need a car to access the town. The last bus service is around 6 p.m., so it is not an easy place to visit. We thought that if there were accessible accommodations, it would make it easier for people from outside to visit, which would in turn create interaction with the locals and help generate new ideas and initiatives. So, we started with the reverse engineering idea that we needed an accommodation facility for visiting/staying and a café for socializing.
We faced problems on many fronts, but we had a choice to move to the area to start a business. We thought that the fact that we had moved here to build trust with the local people would send a very strong message. However, the town was originally a fishing town and had a more or less welcoming mood for outsiders. So, many people were immediately interested in my skills. That was helpful.
We are happy that people visit our hostel now, but tourism was not a major industry in this town before. So, even if the town was not crowded with tourists, the locals would find a way to make a living. It was a strange situation where people were somehow content even though the town was out of business (laugh). Normally, the locals would be more desperate to attract visitors and new businesses, but there was no sign of desperation. And the town seemed fine, even when no one was coming. I wondered what this was all about, and it turned out that the fishermen were making a lot of money. Even so, we invited people and sent out information via social media and other means so that people in Heda would become aware of the good qualities of their town. When the locals come to the hostel and look out at the beach and say, "The beach in this town is very nice," that is a moment when I feel glad that we did this. I often hear feedback that they have realized or rediscovered the charm of the town they live in, and it is moments like these that make me feel rewarded.
Yes, I think the hostel is changing the people’s impression. When I first came to this town from Tokyo, I immediately felt that this town was wonderful. However, for those who were born and raised here, that greatness is taken for granted, and many people leave the town to work or study. So, I had the impression that people who had no choice but to stay behind were living here, but I feel that I am gradually getting rid of that impression. Through this hostel, the locals have realized that there are many people who want to come all the way to Heda, and as a result, the atmosphere seems to have improved somewhat.
First, I was temporarily transferred to Jakarta, Indonesia from a company in Tokyo just before I left for Heda. But Jakarta’s city was so dirty that I didn’t enjoy hanging out there. So, I often went to Bali or an island in Malaysia on weekends. It was a popular way for city workers to relax on weekends to go to the beach. So, when I came back to Tokyo, I was looking for a place where hard-working people in the city could easily go and relax. I was also a bit interested in the possibility of boosting the city and its marginalized communities. So, I started a new business and was looking for a place, where that business could help the community, and went on location hunting in different places. Out of all these places, the Nishi-Izu region was the one that hit me the most. Heda is far from Tokyo in a sense that its distinctive local culture remains but is closest to Tokyo among all the places where such a culture remains.
We did not set specific business goals regarding how many people we could bring or how much impact we could make. But fortunately or unfortunately, the Covid hit right after we opened, and we were restricted from moving around. So, things were very difficult for about six months. We had no choice but to ask all our staff to quit at that time. We have worked hard for the past three years, aiming to survive. During that time, we voluntarily conducted a survey, and about 2,000 to 3,000 people a year answered that they came to this town because of this hostel. The question about how much money they spent outside of the hostel revealed that they generated an economic impact of approximately 24 million yen per year to the town. We disclosed these data to the local community to show that we are not competing for customers against them (laugh). I think the numbers will be about the same this year as well; we are generating enough sales for five or six people to live on, which is not bad.
About 70% to 80% of our customers are from Tokyo. The main customers are mainly friends and couples without children in their 20s to early 40s. Of course, there are people with children, but not as many as businessmen or working couples.
When we decided to revitalize Heda, we thought it was very important to make it a town that people would want to walk around. So, I am hoping that building those facilities lead people to build a kind of walking street. We try to look at the structure of the town slightly with a bird's-eye view.
Once we started up, I found that the customers of the hostel and the roastery café don't overlap at all, as far as the locals are concerned. It is quite interesting that people living on the mountain side and those living on the seaside have different personalities. Even a small town like this is divided into zones. And if you go to one seaside section, you will find one person, and if you go to the mountains, you will find someone different. So, they coexist with a good sense of distance from each other.
It may be important to start your project with small steps. Probably everyone starts with a dream. But if you try to create something big and close to your dream from the beginning, the risk of failure can be great. So, I think it is very important to start small, little by little, and assess the situation. If it doesn't work, just fix it. This is called Proof of Concept. This concept can be seen often in overseas venture companies, but in Japan, I hear that there are cases where companies fail by starting out with a nearly ideal size. Therefore, rural businesses are recommended. The initial investment is almost none. In Tokyo, the startup of this scale would require 200 to 300 million yen. It may be very good to start from a rural area in a sense that it is relatively easy.
Tagore : https://www.tagorehostel.jp/
REIVER LLC. : https://reiver.co.jp/
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