A "New Nation-Building" That Started from a Closed School: Talking to a KIBOTCHA DAO Architect about Cryptocurrency, Disaster Prevention, and the Neo-Jomon Era

One day, I made this post on X.

"I wish closed local schools could become disaster prevention facilities."

The trigger was a novel I love called "Hyakusho Revolution" (Peasant Revolution). The setting is a town in Tochigi Prefecture. It's a story about "new nation-building" starting from a closed school after civilization collapses following major earthquakes in Tokyo and the US. Because the Great East Japan Earthquake occurred the year after its publication, some people even call it a book of prophecy. I live in the same town, and since the scenery and the story overlapped, I posted it with a fair amount of passion.

Then, a stranger got involved.
His name is Sawa-san. His title is "DAO Architect".

Sawa-san said this.

"There is actually a place in Miyagi Prefecture that is already doing that!"

The name of that place is "KIBOTCHA".
Using 6 hectares of land washed away by the tsunami and an entire closed elementary school, they are in the middle of building a shelter that can accept and help 10,000 people in an emergency, he said.

I just had to hear more about it.

So, I interviewed Sawa-san, who is in charge of operations.
As the conversation progressed, it became clear that this wasn't just a disaster prevention project, but a story of new nation-building that one might call the Neo-Jomon era.

Closed school, tsunami-stricken land, and the 10,000-person shelter "KIBOTCHA"

To put it simply, what KIBOTCHA is aiming for is straightforward.

"Create a place where 10,000 people can live even in an emergency beforehand."

That's it.

However, the method is quite unique, based on the idea of making it a smart eco-village where 10,000 people can live normally so that it functions as a shelter as a result.

I'll borrow Sawa-san's words.

"Even if there is a major earthquake and most infrastructure stops, a rich life will be born because this place properly self-sustains energy. I think the very concept of disaster prevention itself will disappear."

Eliminate the boundary between emergencies and normal times. Don't make shelters special places. Because there is food, energy, and water every day, nothing changes even if a disaster strikes. This is KIBOTCHA's philosophy.

The trigger was the Noto Peninsula Earthquake

KIBOTCHA was originally a disaster prevention experience-based accommodation facility that the representative, entrepreneur Kiyoko Mitsui, created by utilizing the land of the former Nobiru Elementary School, which was damaged in the Great East Japan Earthquake, and leasing it for free. It was the 2024 Noto Peninsula Earthquake that caused it to leap into a 10,000-person smart eco-village concept.
It seems Mitsui-san felt a strong sense of crisis after going to provide local support.

Sawa-san speaks for her:

"The evacuation environment was, after all, a shelter in a gymnasium filled with anxiety. I felt uncomfortable with an environment where government officials were also disaster victims, and everyone was mentally and physically exhausted."

Thirteen years after the Great East Japan Earthquake, disaster prevention has not evolved.
If so, let's build the real thing ourselves! That seems to be the beginning of this concept.

KIBOTCHA utilizes 6 hectares of land that was designated as a "tsunami disaster prevention evacuation zone" after being washed away by the tsunami, making new construction impossible. Despite having tourism resources that once bustled as a beach, it was a place that had not been utilized for a long time while remaining almost untouched.

General shelters have many problems. Not enough toilets, no privacy, not enough food and water, cannot receive medical care, cannot bring pets.

KIBOTCHA is trying to solve this not by responding after the shelter opens, but by making it function normally. The design is such that people just increase during a disaster in an eco-village that already has the necessary functions from the start.

What is needed to accept 10,000 people

"Accepting 10,000 people" is easy to say. But to actually make it happen, you must be able to self-sustain everything necessary for life.
KIBOTCHA is running this by dividing the elements necessary for life, such as energy, food, water, and housing, into 12 projects that run simultaneously.

"Electricity doesn't work," "water doesn't come out," "there's no food," "there's no house to live in"—they solve the problems that occur during disasters. Sawa-san compares operating these 12 projects to the various ministries of a country.

"I'm doing it every day feeling like, 'Was the founding of America like this?'"

Currently, there are about 10 people living there permanently, and about 20 people who live in two locations or are involved daily. They are advancing 12 projects simultaneously at this scale. Each member is driving each one. The goal seems to be to bring it to a 10,000-person scale in three years.
KIBOTCHA has diverse members, including those knowledgeable about the latest technology and those in charge of permaculture, etc.

""Many interesting people gather, such as those who can read the flow of wind and water and find water veins in the land."

Latest technology (biomass power generation, solar power, EV, token economy) and ancient wisdom (water vein reading, soil improvement, hunting, tanning). KIBOTCHA is doing both at the same time. This is also where it differs from ordinary eco-villages.

Sawa-san, the person, and the job of a DAO Architect

Sawa-san's appearance is a bearded face with long hair. He looks a bit suspicious, but his way of speaking was smart and conclusion-based.

I will introduce a little of his background and the job of a DAO Architect. Sawa-san experienced school non-attendance in junior high and high school. From there, he studied for a year from a deviation score of 18 and entered Waseda University, and during his student days, he was involved in counseling activities for the gifted and education. After graduating, he worked at a branding company, but after encountering "DAO," he turned to the side of running this mechanism in the region. What Sawa-san is doing now is the design of KIBOTCHA's point economy.

Within KIBOTCHA, a unique 'point' system is in circulation, and it seems some residents live almost entirely on these points. Sawa-san's profession, 'DAO Architect', is precisely the job of designing the rules for this point-based economy.
DAO stands for 'Decentralized Autonomous Organization.' It refers to an organization that functions solely through the design of rules and incentives, without a top-down chain of command. Two years ago, a mechanism called a Limited Liability Company (LLC) DAO became legally possible in Japan, allowing it to be used as a tool for circulating local value.

'I call myself a DAO Architect. I think I might be the only person in the world making a living from this. A DAO is a tool that allows for a kind of self-governance like a new nation while circulating things like local points. It's not just about creating currency; creating currency means creating the political functions to control it, so my job is to design how to build these decision-making bodies, or even things like what the constitution of this nation should be in the first place.'

In short, it is the job of simultaneously creating the constitution and currency rules for a small nation. Building the facility for a 10,000-person shelter and creating the rules for the economy and self-governance that run within it are a single, integrated task.

The rules for KIBOTCHA's unique 'points'.

'Points can only be exchanged for things that have no monetary value.'

This is the most important rule. There are two reasons for this. One is the tax treatment. If you issue tokens that can be exchanged for Japanese yen, they are treated as cryptocurrency or assets, which leads to tax issues. This design is to avoid that. The other reason is to create a mechanism where
'things that have no monetary value but are still valuable' circulate. There are many things in the world that have no market price but are essential to life. For example, vegetables before they are discarded, or someone's help and kindness. KIBOTCHA points serve as a circuit to circulate these things.As a concrete example, restaurants and breweries partnered with KIBOTCHA sell


items scheduled to be thrown away to KIBOTCHA in exchange for points.For example...

• Local ramen and set-meal restaurant: Soup and rice that are always left over from cooking extra every day
  → Residents eat them as staff meals using points

• Local craft beer brewery: Cloudy beer with yeast that always settles in the bottom fifth of the barrel (tastes good but cannot be sold as a product)
  → Residents can drink it using points

• Nearby poultry farmer: Retired hens whose egg value has dropped below the cost of feed (normally, you pay a disposal fee to have them culled)
  → KIBOTCHA takes them in, and the children take care of them to produce eggs

Things that were supposed to be thrown away become food or clothing for the residents. And what's more, without using a single yen of Japanese currency.

According to Sawa-san,

'I believe that utilizing the surplus of that land creates the culture of the land. What is left over in that region determines the uniqueness of that region, I think.'

For example, in a fishing town, oyster shells are left over. In a farming village, malt or vegetables are left over. If hunting is popular, deer hides are left over. The image is that the unique food, clothing, and housing of that land naturally emerge from there.

DX and the regions happening as a byproduct

There is also a somewhat interesting byproduct.
Among the people coming and going at KIBOTCHA, there are those who can do SNS management, web production, and design. Residents who have saved up points pay them as compensation to commission work.

'Many people who live in two locations, including urban areas, are highly skilled. They can do SNS, they can build web pages, and so on. By paying them points and asking them to handle SNS, etc., the region is undergoing digital transformation, and things like that are happening.'

This place is undergoing DX without involving a single Japanese yen. Amazing!

Foreign currency (Japanese yen) is earned through tourism and lodging

Of course, it's not like things run entirely without Japanese yen.
When buying solar panels or paying construction costs, Japanese yen is necessary.

KIBOTCHA earns foreign capital (Japanese yen) for this through tourist accommodation fees, experience programs, and consulting for other regions. Think of it as a hybrid of Japanese yen and local currency.

"For daily tasks like cleaning, we pay in points, so we don't let go of our Japanese yen, which actually increases our Japanese yen profit margin, creating a trade surplus-like relationship."

Earn foreign currency from the outside, and run internal affairs with points. It is a structure that successfully avoids the typical pattern where local regions end up in the red (even if they earn foreign currency, it flows out of the region).

A unique culture is beginning to emerge,
the landscape of the Neo-Jomon era

The KIBOTCHA Smart Eco-Village concept has only just begun. However, with the point economy starting to circulate, the seeds of a culture unique to that place have already started to sprout. Sawa-san introduced three of them.

1. Deerskin clothing

Deer hides from local game processing are usually discarded because they don't have monetary value. However, KIBOTCHA buys them with points, and other residents do the tanning work to earn those points.

"We are running a project where we create products like game leather goods without spending any Japanese yen at all. When you do this, deerskin becomes lower in cost than procuring fabric, so it would be interesting if it became a culture where people naturally wear deerskin clothes in their daily lives."

Eventually, deerskin might become the standard attire for the KIBOTCHA people. It sounds like a joke, but it makes perfect sense in a point economy.

2. Retired chickens cared for by children

KIBOTCHA apparently has a free school with virtually zero tuition. The children have a system where they earn points themselves and pay for themselves for accommodation and meals.
One of the jobs on the earning side is taking care of retired chickens. They use leftover malt from the brewery as feed to raise retired chickens that cost almost nothing in points.

"Because a certain amount of retired chickens always come into the region, it becomes a normal sight for children to butcher and grill chickens in their daily lives."

It might look wild, but food self-sufficiency with 0 yen for stock, 0 yen for feed, and 0 yen for labor costs is operating in tandem with children's education.

3. Houses made of earth (Earthbag houses)

What they are trying to build on the 6-hectare site is an "earthbag house," a house made by stacking bags filled with earth. It has high insulation properties, and the material is the soil from the site. Moreover, it seems to be in a gray zone under current Japanese building standards.

"We are conducting empirical research on this with people from the University of Tokyo, and we are working on a project to obtain what is called individual ministerial certification, which is essentially permission that says 'it's okay to build this'."

Log houses also have a history of being legalized through the same process long ago. KIBOTCHA is trying to make that happen with earthbags. It is a scale of talk about rewriting the building system itself for the sake of a 10,000-person shelter.

"I think that if earth houses are just popping up here and there, and people are wearing deerskin clothes and catching and grilling chickens nearby, a very different culture will manifest in this place."

Earth houses, deerskin clothes, children butchering and grilling retired chickens. And behind the scenes, points are moving via smartphone apps, EVs are running on biomass power, and the DAO blueprint is being updated.

I think this is a landscape that can only be called the "Neo-Jomon era." It's not about returning to the Jomon lifestyle, but rather intentionally re-choosing a Jomon-like way of life using the latest technology. KIBOTCHA's unique culture is heading in this direction.

Combining technologies to make it profitable

To support 10,000 people through self-sufficiency, the costs don't add up with just one technology at a time. KIBOTCHA is trying to solve this through ingenuity in combinations.
Here is one symbolic example.
The nearby area is active in oyster farming, and in the process of farming, large amounts of bamboo waste are produced. It's something that people currently pay money to throw away.
KIBOTCHA does this with it

1. Buy it with points (0 Japanese yen)

2. Use it as fuel for biomass power generation

3. Use the waste heat from power generation to warm greenhouses

4. Cultivate shiitake mushrooms in the greenhouses

5. Run EVs (electric vehicles) with the generated electricity

is planning a chain of events.
"Eco-technologiesaren't profitable on their own, but they become profitable when combined, so we are trying to demonstrate that." Biomass power generation alone doesn't turn a profit. However, if a chain is created where "we collect waste materials for free," "we use waste heat for other purposes," and "we use electricity in our own EVs," it becomes profitable in total. If it's profitable,
it can be imitated in other regions. This is the most important part of KIBOTCHA's strategy. "

It might not be shiitake mushrooms depending on the location, but the model itself of using waste heat to grow things in greenhouses should be fixed. I want to increase our repertoire of these technical patterns, accumulate this knowledge, and then, in a form that suits the region, say, 'Let's combine this technology with that technology and place it here.'" Once one KIBOTCHA is completed,

it will be possible to create a 10,000-person shelter anywhere in the country by combining what is left over in that land with the available technology. This is the next move that KIBOTCHA is envisioning.

Connections with the local community and relationships with local governments

KIBOTCHA didn't just suddenly barge into the countryside of Miyagi saying, "We're going to build a 10,000-person shelter."
At the beginning of the launch, there was apparently some wariness from the locals. What changed that was the accumulation of efforts by the representative, Mr. Mitsui.

"At first, it was like writing letters to every single house in the area, pressing the intercom, and saying hello, and we've been doing this for several years, so I think it works because there is a foundation of trust where people accept it by saying, 'KIBOTCHA, you're doing something interesting again!'"

Neither earthbags nor eco-villages can start without this. What built the foundation was letters and intercoms.

There is also cooperation with local governments. KIBOTCHA has teamed up with the city and has been selected as a national "Decarbonization Leading Area." This increases the subsidy for solar panels from 1/2 to 2/3. They are building a 10,000-person scale infrastructure while properly utilizing existing systems.
Even though they are doing something new, it's properly realistic!

About happiness

I asked Mr. Sawa about "happiness."
The examples I gave were countries like Fiji and Bhutan. There is a story that countries that were once among the happiest in the world have seen their happiness levels drop recently due to the waves of economic development and the spread of social media.

Since what KIBOTCHA is doing is a project to enrich the region, I wanted to hear Mr. Sawa's opinion.

Mr. Sawa's answer was...

"Including DAOs, I think it's a technology to return humans to being 'living creatures' once again. Having a purpose or solving problems is something only humans think about. For example, bees collect nectar from flowers to make honey, and bears eat that honey. That's just because it's efficient for them to get food. As a result, each one is in a state of harmony with nature as a result of following their own biological instincts and desires. I believe this is what an ecosystem is. I think what we are creating is a state where, if DAOs or eco-village mechanisms are just pursued by each person as being reasonable for themselves, the rewards come back as a result, and the global environment also improves. If humans could also live like living creatures in that way, wouldn't that be happy?"

The reason for the decline in happiness in Fiji and Bhutan is often cited as "purposes brought in from the outside" that say "you should be able to go higher." What KIBOTCHA is trying to do is purposes brought in from the outside. What KIBOTCHA is trying to do is " I have extra, so I'll give it to you," " it's fun, so I'll build an earth house," returning to a life where humans can live like living creatures.

Moreover, they are implementing this with Web3 ideas, avoiding tax law issues, rewriting building standards, and using subsidies.
Using technology and mechanisms to return people to being 'living creatures'. And that also overlaps with the way of life in the Jomon period somewhere. Eating in rhythm with nature, sharing the surplus, and sitting around a bonfire with people nearby.

It is said that the Jomon people lived without war for thousands of years. KIBOTCHA does not restore Jomon life as it was, but seems to be a prototype of a Neo-Jomon era reinforced with DAOs, Web3, and renewable energy.

Going to visit soon

At the end of the interview, Mr. Sawa said this.

" I'll give you points as a thank you for the article, so please use them on-site!"

Staying at the inn with points, dressing a culled chicken, eating leftover ramen, and sitting around a bonfire with the residents. I will probably go to Miyagi soon to spend that kind of time.
People who want to do something about a closed school, people interested in local currency, people who want to think seriously about disaster prevention. No matter which one applies to you, I think KIBOTCHA will be an interesting place.

• KIBOTCHA Official Website: https://kibotcha.com/

• Sawa-san's note: note.com/ks_dao

At Kibi to Tsuki no Hatake, I write on note about our daily life with our children and how we provide for our family in the countryside. If you enjoyed this article, please take a look at my note as well.

▶️ The complete record of a family of four building a 'farming lifestyle x multiple income streams' over 6 years in the foothills of Tochigi: https://note.com/kibi_tsuki/n/n0ddd2fa0cd50?sub_rt=share_sb

▶️ The story of how an amateur improved the soil environment of an old folk house over 5 years, causing termites, vipers, and mosquitoes to disappear https://note.com/kibi_tsuki/n/nf73f7da7bebf?sub_rt=share_sb

▶️ [Complete Guide] From growing soybeans and wheat to making soy sauce: https://note.com/kibi_tsuki/n/n3bdfd096bef7?sub_rt=share_sb

Interview and text: Kibi to Tsuki no Hatake / Interview date: April 2026