This issue’s theme［Nurturing People and Places］meetsHometown!Bunji-ryo offers an environment that allows individuals to work freely on whatever they want to do, like opening a café, painting wall murals, or organizing bonfires. Accord-ing to Mr. Kageyama, the town of Kokubunji has an air of generosity. “It persuades you anything is possible, even if the result is failure. It fosters a climate where people are allowed to try out new ideas.”His words come as a reminder: This unique climate of Kokubunji helps explain how Rion can take on new chal-lenges, unconstrained by the fear of failure, and be suc-cessful in creating products, many the first of their kind in Japan and the world. (Yuki Okabe, RTJ staff)Kurumed Coffee is located in front of Nishikokubunji Station, a 15-minute walk from Rion. The owner, Mr. Kageyama, recalls his reasons for opening the café. “I wanted to create a place that would function as a crossroads in this town, where people could interact.” Before the café, he’d worked in management consulting and investment fund operations. Eventually, he says, he became convinced that the current state of capitalism, which has people chasing oppor-tunities with the only goal being to maximize profits, won’t create happiness. He began to question how our economy operates.“While the motive of a business is normally focused on maximizing profits, or taking, our reason for being is giving. Our café offers things for which people give a lot of time and effort. We want to create a place where people can spend quality time and have special experiences. I think our custom-ers are keenly aware of this.” Each day, Kurumed Coffee is visited by nearly 100 customers from diverse back-grounds, creating opportunities for unex-pected encounters. Inside the café, chance encounters are the rule.“Various businesses have sprouted from the seeds sown here. I wondered if we could encourage such things to happen more often in a place where people’s lives come togeth-er. So I became interested in creating a living environment.”His convictions led to the creation of another unique town spot. This involved the repurposing of a building previously rented by Rion as a dormitory for single male employees. In 2020, after its closure, it was transformed into an apartment building with rooms for lease. Mr. Kageyama visited the dormitory with several of his staff and decided to sign a contract right away. He was drawn by the hideaway-like atmosphere of the building. This place is the Bunji-ryo, which has now re-emerged as a town dor-mitory (shared housing) in which 21 people currently live together. They range in age and position, from families to singles. While the building has a custodian, it has no offi-cial rules. Everything is decided among the residents. To reduce the financial burden on residents, the rent is kept to about 30,000 yen, and all of the residents pitch in for their own necessities, working together to create their own unique lifestyles. The Bunji-ryo creates ways of interacting in which all resi-dents listen to each other in a quest to find common ground.A recent problem involved the rising cost of electricity. To cut utility costs, everyone agreed to implement a rule of not using the bathtub for a period of two months. But one resident, Ami, insisted on taking a tub bath. After some discussion, the residents settled on appointing her the Minister of Baths.“We all decided to take baths on a bath day set by Ami. The solution wasn’t to not take any baths at all or to take baths whenev-er you felt like it. Instead, we found common ground that wasn’t black or white. It made allowances for individual circumstances.”Mr. Kageyama, who attended the resi-dents’ meeting, was impressed by how the residents mutually agreed on a solution, with some humor added to the mix.The Bunji-ryo has served as a town porch, fostering open and amicable rela-tionships that create an environment that encourages unique projects with the local community. These include Bunji Shokudo, a restaurant, and Hazama, a morning café that sources locally grown produce.“Forming relationships unique to an environment is key to making interesting things happen. I envisioned Kurumed Coffee and Bunji-ryo as seedbeds or soil for nurtur-ing people. I hope to offer an environment where the people who venture in are free to grow, like trees, to mighty proportions.”After interviewRion staff members visit people and places active in Kokubunji and rediscover the charms of Kokubunji.This time we visited Kurumed Coffee, a café bursting with excitement.The owner, Tomoaki Kageyama, is a key figure in Kokubunji who’s launched numerous projects based on his connections.He’s also the central figure in the transformation of Rion’s employee dormitory into shared housing.OUR FAVORITE TOWN, KOKUBUNJI—RION STAFF SHOW YOU AROUNDPhoto courtesy of Bunji-ryoBunji-ryoThe Musashino Dormitory, which had been Rion’s dormitory for single male employees, was renovated in 2020. While private spaces for each person are valued, events and other activities are held in the common spaces to help encourage open, friendly ties to the community.Kurumed CoffeeA café space on the first floor of Merge Nishikokubunji, a mu lti gene rational group hou se created by Kageyama in 2008 by renovating his birth home. The store is filled with gadgets and menu items created or selected by Kageyama’s imagination and the thought ful minds of the staff since its opening.Tomoaki KageyamaOwner of Kurumed CoffeeBorn in Kokubunji City in 1973. Graduated from the Faculty of Law of the University of Tokyo. After working for a foreign management consulting firm, he cofounded a venture capital firm and established Festina Lente Inc. in 2008. Since then, from his base of Kurumed Coffee, which he opened in the same year, he’s pursued various business activities, including the creation of a local currency and a publishing business.17Rion’s employee dormitory transformed into shared housing?Creating a place where people grow and where ideas sprout and take shapeRionKOKUBUNJI
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