What is Hibi Lab?

Hibi Lab is a field for exploration and practice where organizations, institutions, and companies that wish to spread “engaging as one human being to another” within their organizations and communities can come together to explore and practice beyond the boundaries of their own organizations and regions. As of April 2025, nine NPOs and non-profit organizations are participating, engaging in co-creative actions under three themes: “Learning,” “Creating,” and “Spreading.”

Background and History of Hibi Lab

Hibi Lab began its activities in January 2023 as the “CforC Consortium,” with the NPO PIECES serving as the founding organization.

“CforC (Citizenship for Children)” is a program developed by the NPO PIECES. As social changes have made “loneliness and isolation” more apparent, small changes in the way individual citizens exist and relate to others can gradually change someone’s daily life and the landscape of a town. The program, which shines a light on “citizenship” rather than “professionalism,” began with the desire to explore and practice citizenship together with more organizations and institutions as it spread to people working in various regions.

Members of various organizations and institutions that had connected through the CforC program gathered, and for the past two years, they have been engaging in dialogue, mutual learning, and collaborative programming. The structure of the consortium itself is a process of trial and error, as each member has different goals and backgrounds, and different assumptions, but we have been gradually building our foundation.

In 2025, we changed our name to “Hibi Lab” to better convey the underlying thoughts and values of the participating organizations, and to gradually increase the number of people involved in this field, marking a new beginning.

What Hibi Lab Values

What Hibi Lab values is currently expressed in three terms. However, to be honest, we have not yet had sufficient dialogue, so these are only provisional solutions at this point. We hope to continue our dialogue, share our context, and update them as needed.

I will provide a little more detail for each, along with a question.

Why (Reason for existence): “What kind of world will exist because we are here?”
⇒ What is the background behind why people become isolated? When we think about that, we want to cherish the realization of “being there” and “existing” itself, rather than someone being able to do something, acquiring something, giving something, or doing something for someone else. And while “care” often ends up being expressed as a verb—like focusing on people or empathizing together—we believe the reason for this field’s existence is to spread interactions rooted in “Being,” such as the wishes, feelings, and gazes that each individual possesses, starting from each person’s own hands.

What (Value delivered): “What specific value does society receive?”
⇒ Hibi Lab is a field where people engaged in diverse activities and practices in various regions gather. It is a place to notice when you are trying too hard for someone else’s sake and to relax a little. It is a place to broaden perspectives that tend to narrow within a single organization, team, or region, to raise our vantage point, and to learn from each other’s practices. We hope to be a field where such “relaxation” and “learning” coexist.

How (Attitude of activity): “What kind of attitude do we want to value in our activities?”
⇒ Because there is no single answer to “engaging as one human being to another,” we want to be together as flatly as possible, transcending titles and positions. And sometimes, we want to engage in thorough, serious, and deep dialogue. But being serious alone is exhausting and doesn’t spread. We want to continue our exploration and practice while maintaining the space and humor to think, at each process and each milestone, “Ah, that was an interesting time today.”

*These three questions are cited from the evolutionary organizational design program “DXO.”

Hibi Lab Activities

Hibi Lab engages in co-creative actions under three themes: “Learning,” “Creating,” and “Spreading,” with the secretariat performing functions such as community management and fundraising to “Support” these activities.

“Learning”
The “Learning Meeting,” which has been held regularly as a place for interaction and mutual learning among organizations, has previously been held as a closed space for participating organizations only.

• Themes covered so far

  • “How to listen to children’s voices?” (Participating organizations only)

  • “What is important to value in on-site reflection?” (Participating organizations only)

  • “From supporter to one human being: Re-encountering as ‘myself’ beyond roles” (Referral only)

  • “Gently touching the power to survive: Engaging as one human being, which cannot be fully described by ‘support’” (Referral only)

With the desire to share the knowledge gained here with more organizations, we have been challenging ourselves to create a semi-open space since the second half of fiscal year 2024 by inviting external guests and operating through a referral system from participating organizations.

“Create”
Through collaborations between participating organizations, we are conducting joint programs that deliver the essence of our work to staff and stakeholders within the organizations, as well as to local community members.

“Expand”
Moving forward, we plan to create activity reports and a website so that more people can learn about Hibi Lab's activities.

“Support”
The consortium holds a general meeting every two to three months, providing an opportunity to consult with participating organizations about activities and operational methods. Regarding operational policies and the nature of our activities, we are exploring better ways forward by incorporating the perspectives and voices of each organization.

How to participate in Hibi Lab?

Until now, Hibi Lab has operated on an invitation-only basis as a period for building our foundation, but we hope to expand the circle of cooperation and co-creation with more people by making it an open field in the future.

We are currently designing a system that will allow for two main ways of getting involved: becoming a member of a participating organization to engage in activities, or participating in individual learning sessions or events.

If you are interested, please start by following and registering for Hibi Lab's various social media accounts! We will announce future information as it becomes available.

[SNS List]

X: https://x.com/hibi_lab
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hibilab.official/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61576756940483

[List of Participating Organizations/Institutions] (9 organizations: as of May 2025)

• We are Buddies Inc. (Tokyo)

• Minna no Momoyama Children's Cafeteria Inc. (Okinawa Prefecture)

• Life is Inc. (Tokyo)

• NPO CoCoTELI (Osaka Prefecture)

• NPO PIECES (Tokyo)

• Saki-chan-chi Steering Committee (Tokyo)

• Takashima City Council of Social Welfare (Shiga Prefecture)

• NPO Second League Ibaraki (Ibaraki Prefecture)

• Japanese Consumers' Co-operative Union (Tokyo)

A forum to experience the world of Hibi Lab!

Hibi Lab will be holding the “Unnamed CARE Forum - 7 Days Exploring ‘Care Without a Name’” from Monday, June 23 to Sunday, June 29, 2025.

Throughout this week-long forum, we will explore “care without a name” together with people from all over the country who value “engaging as one human being to another” in diverse ways. Starting with an introduction to Hibi Lab at the Day 1 opening event, we will host talk events featuring a variety of guests every day from Day 2 to Day 5. On the Final Day, we will hold an exhibition and talk sessions at the Cybozu, Inc. Tokyo office, where you can experience and feel firsthand what it means to “engage as one human being to another” in a real-world setting.

What does it mean to engage with children and others as “the individual I am,” transcending roles and positions? This is an opportunity to broaden and deepen your perspective on the vague, unnamed care that is essential in those moments—such as “being together” and “listening/observing.”
It is a great chance to fully immerse yourself in the world of Hibi Lab, so please feel free to join us!