To pass on Dot Dohto to the next generation

Little Doto,” an exchange-type event held in Tokyo, Osaka, and other cities.

――Finally, please tell us about your vision for the future.

Nozawa：While I have a big vision of “making Doto a place where ideals can be realized,” I also feel that if I don't do what is right in front of me, I will lose my footing. If things were going well, we would have a few more people working with us, so I want to create an environment where people want to work with us. I want more and more people to get involved.

As an individual, I moved from Obihiro City to the town of Brimuro. As I met people all over Doto who were putting down roots in the community and creating their own lives, I realized that I was not able to live that kind of life in the big city of Obihiro. In Dot Doto, I nurtured relationships with the community, faced various issues, and received consultations from people who budgeted for my project. I didn't want to just scoop out the best of what they had to offer, even though I had never experienced such hardships. To do that, I needed to have the same kind of experience. So I would like to move to a smaller town and give myself the experience of dealing with the local people and budgeting for new things.

Nakanishi：My goal has always been to change the situation where people think that they cannot realize their ideals in Dot-Doto because of its rural location or lack of people. I call the human connections and regional brand that Dot Doto has created “Doto capital. The accumulation of such invisible assets has made the unit “Doto”, which was only a division, into a subject that can be used by local people. It is as if everyone has made the satoyama richer.

I hope that individuals will use these resources to achieve personal fulfillment and that new businesses will be born. The more people who are involved in this project, the more people who can benefit from it, so I would like to make Dot Doto more open and get closer to my vision of “making Dot Doto a place where people can realize their ideals.

A look at “Little Doughty

Nakanishi：Recently, I have been working on business succession for small and medium-sized companies and among family members, and doing so makes me think, “Life is so short. I am 36 years old now, and I will be 72 years old when I go around the world again. My experience and knowledge will have increased, but my active period will have passed, and there will be more things I can't do. When I think about it, I realize how little time I have left.

Therefore, I have come to feel the importance of passing on what we are doing to the next generation. To that end, we need to make our activities something that people will want to pass on to the next generation. It is important that our activities not end when we are no longer able to move, but continue after that, and we would like to create a cycle for that purpose.

――Are you thinking of passing Dot Doto on to someone else as well?

Nakanishi：I am very conscious of this. As our life stages change, there are some things we can be involved in and some things we cannot. There is a generation gap. In order to achieve our vision of “making Doto a place where ideals can be realized,” I think it will work better if young people take charge of the business. Without that kind of metabolism, it will be impossible to make appropriate choices and take appropriate actions.

We need a fresh sense of mind to function as a secretariat, and I would like to pass on Dot Doto to someone else. In order for the younger generation to want to take over, we need to improve both the content of our work and our income, and my personal theme is to make it an open place while we are still working hard ourselves.

――Mr. Nakanishi is a person for whom the issues he confronts become more and more his own business. Population decline, business succession, and so on.

Nakanishi：I sometimes feel that everyone is indifferent to local issues, even though everyone is really a stakeholder in them. If everyone were involved, even just a little, things would move in a big way. For example, if each person in East Hokkaido contributed 100 yen, we could collect nearly 100 million yen. If we collected that amount every month, it would amount to 1.2 billion yen in one year. If everyone were to pay 100 yen per month, the impact of the project would be nearly 20 times greater, simply calculated, and I am sure the region would change.

Nozawa：If we had that much, we could really do a lot of things!

Nakanishi西：Our challenge is to get close to that number, if not there, then to double it or even increase it by 10 times with “DOTO-NET.

There are things that should definitely be done, but no one does because it is too much trouble. We are aware that we are doing such things that we wish someone would do. We want everyone to be a party to what they should do, not to the detriment of those who take action. That is the kind of future I want to create for East Hokkaido.