Why I Threw Away My 'University of Tokyo Graduate' Card to Work at a Rural Startup

I graduated from the University of Tokyo's Faculty of Law at the end of March, and now I spend my days weeding and washing sheets at a startup in the middle of nowhere.

The place is Tsuno Town in Miyazaki Prefecture. It is a truly rural area with a population of 10,000, where the nearest Starbucks is 50km away.

People always ask me, 'Why did you come here?' and sometimes they bluntly say, 'Isn't it a waste after graduating from UTokyo?'
One friend told me, 'That's a noble choice, but I couldn't sacrifice myself that much.'

But I didn't make this choice out of a sense of volunteerism.

I made this decision for the sake of my own dreams, and I chose this path because I had a 'calculated plan' that this held more potential.

Why did I decide to jump into a town I had no connection to as a new graduate?
Why, of all things, did I choose a fragile startup and end up spending my time washing sheets?

I will tell you the reasons and the background behind this career choice.

I entered UTokyo fired up, thinking, 'I'm going to change society!'

I originally entered the University of Tokyo's Faculty of Law with the goal of becoming a bureaucrat.

For some reason, ever since I was a child, I had a desire to 'make society better' and 'revitalize my hometown.'

My hometown is in Oita Prefecture. Depopulation progressed, my alma mater was closed down, and the shopping street that used to be my route to school became filled with shuttered storefronts.

When I became a high school student, I was fired up, thinking, 'Alright, I'm going to do something about this.' But I didn't know what kind of job would allow me to 'do something about it.'

So, I decided to aim for a career as a bureaucrat for the time being.Even though they face public backlash, I had an image of them struggling while facing reality head-on.

I spent two years as a ronin, but in March 2018, I managed to squeeze into the University of Tokyo's Humanities I (Faculty of Law).

After entering university, I engaged in various activities alongside my studies. I visited various sites for fieldwork and had bureaucrats and NPO members share their stories with me.

I spent a year studying social issues and even proposed solutions as 'policies' to government ministries. There was also a period when I commuted to Iitate Village in Fukushima Prefecture almost every week because I wanted to see the reality on the ground more.

Having spent two years like that, I had come to 'understand' quite a bit.

That society is far, far more complex than I had imagined, and that many conflicting interests are intertwined. That activities that work as volunteer efforts often fail the moment you consider self-sustainability and continuity.

Those were overwhelming realities.In that sense, for someone like me who entered university fired up to 'do something about society,' it was a smooth journey.

However, the only thing I didn't know at all was 'which career path I should choose.'

The more I learned about society, the less I understood which path was the right one and which was the wrong one.

I realized that people from various backgrounds, not just bureaucrats, but also those in private companies and NPOs, were involved in solving social issues. I was also struck by a sense of helplessness, wondering what I could possibly do about such massive social problems.

By the winter of my second year, when the word 'job hunting' began to loom large, I found that my feet had stopped moving.

It was then that a book was recommended to me. That encounter with a single book caused my life to start rolling in an unexpected direction.

Diving into the field and meeting many people

The book that changed my life is 'Mixing Cities and Rural Areas' (Kobunsha Shinsho, 2016) written by Hiroyuki Takahashi.

Takahashi-san, who was originally a member of the Iwate Prefectural Assembly, started a service that directly connects producers like farmers and fishermen with consumers in the wake of the Great East Japan Earthquake.

Takahashi-san is also the proponent of the 'related population' concept, and he wrote about the relationship between cities and rural areas.

People only talk about the decline of rural areas, but cities are at a dead end too. We shouldn't think of cities and rural areas as separate things.From now on, we should create a society where cities and rural areas are mixed, and producers and consumers are loosely connected.That is what was written in the book.

Reading that book, I felt as if I had been struck by lightning.I can't explain it well, but it really resonated with me.

I was, of course, in resonance with the vision written there, butabove all, I intuitively felt that 'this person's words have blood in them'.Takahashi-san was a person who literally walked all over the country and threw himself into the field.

I wanted to learn directly from Takahashi-san,so I checked to see if his company was hiring interns. However, it seemed they hadn't been hiring since 2017.

Still, I couldn't give up, so I sent him a DM, clutching at straws.

Takahashi-san accepted me, even though I was so intense and presumptuous.

Thus, in April 2020, my one-year long-term internship began. It was the spring of my third year, just when the COVID-19 pandemic was starting to show explosive growth.

From here on, I will call him 'Hiroyuki-san' as usual.

Even after a month of working, I was still agonizing over my career path. Seeing me like that, Hiroyuki-san said these words to me.

And so, I tossed my textbooks aside and began traveling to the field with Hiroyuki-san.

While taking university classes online, I traveled all over the country. I spent my days visiting producers in each prefecture and my nights talking late into the night at discussion groups.

It was like a dream.I was constantly inspired by passionate adults from all over the country, and above all, I was able to work alongside Hiroyuki-san, whom I had admired and wanted to learn from up close.

I did everything myself, from driving in the field to making appointments, arranging venues for lectures, and handling logistics. It was insanely busy and I made plenty of mistakes, but it was a fulfilling year.

However, behind that dream-like time, my worries grew deeper and deeper.Especially in the autumn of 2020, as my internship was entering its second half, I faced my 'first real question' and began to sink into a depression.

Struggling with a mess of worries, I decided to take a leave of absence.

The people I met in various places were simply radiant.I can't put it into words well, but they looked so sparkling. At the same time, for some reason, I felt a sense of guilt and began to lose my confidence.

Those people weren't necessarily successful economically; some were even in debt. They weren't stable at all.

Yet, they were shining. Everyone was excited about their own life.

While meeting so many people like that,I began to wonder how I wanted to live my own life.

I had never thought about such things in my life before. That was probably because I could sort of see the 'correct answer' ahead.

I studied hard because I knew that 'studying never hurts,' and I feel like I actively chose to join sports clubs because there was an atmosphere that 'excelling in both academics and athletics is wonderful.'

I was good at choosing 'options that seemed like the right answer' and adapting. I was the type who felt like a 'model student.'

Having lived a life like that, I suddenly encountered a large number of 'adults who live their own way.'That encounter was nothing short of shocking.

My heart was strongly moved, and for some reason, I felt restless.

Why do I want to be involved in regional revitalization? Why do I want to make society better? I couldn't answer those questions well at all.

'No, forget the difficult stuff, Kira-kun. What do you like yourself? What do you want to cherish?' When asked that, I couldn't say a word.

While I was in confusion, the deadline for choosing my career path was steadily approaching.

January 2021, just before my fourth year. This period coincided with the second state of emergency, and both in terms of the social situation and my own state of mind, I suddenly stopped meeting people.

Days spent without stepping a single foot outside my apartment on the outskirts of Shimokitazawa.

Due to the state of emergency, only Hiroyuki-san visited the site in January and February, but I continued to handle the administrative work.

Around this time, the notification sounds of Slack and Messenger terrified me, and I didn't even want to see Hiroyuki-san's face. Even when I occasionally went to the office, I became afraid to look up and meet the eyes of the other employees.

I had final exams, and job hunting was starting in earnest. But I couldn't move.

Days passed where I couldn't fall asleep, and I just kept playing YouTube videos I didn't even want to watch. I would finally fall asleep around 5:00 AM and wake up when the sun was starting to set.

My day would start with self-loathing, and I would think, 'I have to do it today,' but my body wouldn't listen. While thinking I had to do it, the day would pass in bed, and when the sun went down, I would think, 'I have to eat something,' and force myself out of bed. But even going out of my room to a convenience store felt like a chore, and I started relying on Uber Eats more and more.

It was in the middle of February that I decided to take a leave of absence.

Now, I think it was good that I took the leave, and I can even come up with plausible reasons for it.But the truth is, it was because I thought, 'Oh no, if I keep going like this, my heart will break.'There was also an aspect of running away from job hunting.

Confused by the first question of 'how do I want to live' and wanting to escape the deadline for deciding my career path, I asked for a leave of absence and decided to stop time for just one year.

What I did during my leave of absence

At the end of March, I quit the company where I had been working for a year under Hiroyuki-san, andmy life on leave began with a clean slate.That's because I wanted to see society carefully with my own eyes, not through the filter of 'Hiroyuki Takahashi'.

When we were traveling around the country together, Hiroyuki-san often said things like this.

Hearing these words, I thought, 'I feel like I understand, but I don't really get it.'

But since I had taken the leave, I decided to do exactly as he said for this one year, and I tried many things.

I rented a light car and traveled around the country by myself, and I also lived in the smallest village in Hokkaido for a month.

I stayed in Yakushima for two months. While working part-time at a guesthouse, I played with the local elementary school students almost every day and talked with many different guests.

While spending those days, I found myself changing, slowly but surely.

It’s not clear enough to say, 'I realized this because of such-and-such,' but I had a feeling that something was gradually maturing.

For example, I started challenging myself without fearing failure.

My biggest trauma is that I 'can't swim.'I’ve been afraid of water since I was little, and I hated even putting my face in a washbasin. Because I’m someone who worries about what others think, I also hated 'being seen as someone who can't swim.' That’s why I’ve avoided swimming classes my whole life.

But when I decided to go to Yakushima, I made up my mind that 'if I’m going to change, it has to be now.'On my first day there, I took the plunge, confessed my trauma, and asked, 'Please teach me how to swim.'

From then on, I went to the sea almost every day with a kickboard and learned to swim from elementary school kids and my colleagues at the guesthouse.

In the end, I became able to swim quite well, and I also started to think, 'Being bad at something isn't that embarrassing after all.'

The year I spent with Hiroyuki-san was slowly, gradually digested and became part of who I am.

Finally deciding on a career path

After finishing my one-year leave of absence, I became a fourth-year student in April 2022. I finally decided on my career path around the autumn.

In the end,I have been working at a startup in Tsuno Town, Miyazaki Prefecture, since April.It’s that company that hangs out sheets (laughs).

They also run a hostel, but it’s a private company that works with the town on 'community development' projects, such as revitalizing shopping streets, utilizing closed schools, and providing career education for elementary and junior high school students (Itsunoma Inc.).

From here on,I would like to talk a bit more specifically about why I chose that path.

Because I longed for a way of life where I 'create the right answer' rather than 'choosing the right answer'

By taking a leave of absence and having a year of grace, I was able to organize my emotions little by little.

Right before I took my leave of absence, I was worried becauseI didn't know which path to choose, and I didn't know which way of life was the 'right' one.On the other hand, the adults I met in various places all looked brilliant, and to my eyes, they seemed to be living the 'right' way of life. That’s exactly why I was worried and felt like a mess.

That’s how I ended up taking a leave of absence, but Idecided to stop worrying about it.In reality, I still worried and fretted, but I tried toconsciously surrender myself to the coincidences right in front of me.To put it in Hiroyuki-san’s style, I 'stopped thinking with my head and left it to my heart.'

Then, before I knew it, the opportunities to think about 'what is right and what is wrong' decreased.I could choose from the options in front of me, or I could create my own options. It’s fine to choose again as many times as I want, and I can just do as I please.

It’s very simple and obvious when you put it into words. But by having that time and talking thoroughly with people from various backgrounds, that 'obvious thing' really sank in.

In the end, I admired people who steer their own life’s rudder, and I thought those people were cool.I

Because I admired people who get into the field and work in the trenches

There is one more thing: I became aware of the moments when my emotions are stirred.

People who are on the front lines, fighting against the unreasonable every day. People who, even if they cannot change things all at once, are working in the trenches to move things forward, even if just by a millimeter. It seems that I am helplessly moved by such people.

To make society better, various roles are needed, and my seniors and peers from the University of Tokyo are struggling in various positions. We need people who can analyze issues and summarize the direction of solutions, and we also need people who can organize systems so that human resources and funds can circulate effectively.

But I am drawn to people who enter the field and do the gritty work, and I have an intuition that an increase in such people will be a major step toward changing society for the better.

That is why I came to think that I want to start my career from the front lines.

I chose Tsuno because there were so many adults like that there.

It is not my hometown or anything, but I chose Tsuno because I felt it had the most 'adults who are excited about their own lives.'

They do what they want to do and carve out their own versions of the right answer. They attack what they think is necessary as many times as it takes, and they get their peers involved to see it through.

There are so many such passionate adults in Tsuno. I lived in Tsuno Town for the last four months of my leave of absence, and I became increasingly absorbed in Tsuno.

For example, there are people like this.

There are tons of adults like this in Tsuno. I cannot write about them all, so please come visit Tsuno Town! I'll have the sheets washed and be waiting for you (laughs) (Community Development Hostel ALA)

The reason I am obsessed with solving social problems

For some reason, I have been interested in solving social problems since I was young.

Since I was a high school student, I was enthusiastic about 'I'm going to change society,' and although I struggled after entering university, the core of 'I want to do work that makes society better' has remained consistent.

Why do I want to solve social problems so much? I was troubled because I couldn't find the answer myself, but I feel like I was finally able to put it into words recently.

It seems my essence is something like 'meddlesome & narcissistic.'

When there is 'something that someone has to do,' I cannot help but say, 'Well, I'll do it.' It's not like anyone asked me to, but I want to do it voluntarily, and I like myself for taking the initiative to work on it like that.

Social issues are a classic example of this.

They are things that someone should tackle, but that nobody really wants to do. Even if you work hard at them, they don't seem to pay very well.

I find myself irresistibly drawn to such things, and above all, I like myself when I am taking the initiative to tackle them. If I can create positive change in society as a result of my actions, it truly is the best feeling in the world.

I think I have a troublesome personality.But by realizing I have this personality,I have, in a sense, come to terms with myself. That is whyI was able to take the plunge and steer my life in a new directionwith determination.

About the future

I entered the University of Tokyo thinking, 'I want to do work that makes society better,' and after meeting Hiroyuki-san, I threw myself headfirst into the field. During the latter half of my university life, I was very lost and even took a year off.

And the place I ended up was a job at a startup in the middle of nowhere.

I know I am being an unfilial son.They sent me to cram school since I was a child, let me spend two years as a ronin, and paid for both my tuition and my rent while I lived away from home.

They never said it directly, but I think they also had a desire for me to get a job at a more stable, higher-paying company, especially since I had gone all the way to Todai. Even so, my parents said nothing and pushed me forward, telling me, 'If this is the answer you reached after struggling with it yourself, then you should do it.'

I truly cannot thank them enough.

I may not be able to repay them financially for a while, butthere is actually one thing I have set my heart on.

---

I was born and raised in Beppu City, Oita Prefecture. Beppu, the town of hot springs, has onsens everywhere, and my family home had one too. It was an apartment building, but the first floor was a communal bath, and I used to bathe with the other residents.

By the time I was in junior high, I hit my rebellious phase, and the number of times I talked to my father and mother decreased.Even so, every day, I would at least bathe with my father.

Around 8:00 PM, he would say, 'Rin, let's go to the bath,' and it became my daily routine to quickly head down to the first floor in the elevator and go to the communal bath.

So, although I had few opportunities to talk to my father directly, I listened to his small talk with the other men every day.It seems this bath time had a huge influence on my values.

Looking back,my father, mother, and younger sister are all meddlesome people.Both of my parents work at schools, andthey would always say like a mantra, 'Someone has to do it, so I will.'And even while grumbling and complaining, they would talk about how someone thanked them, looking very happy.

It seems that along with the hot spring minerals, that 'meddlesome spirit' soaked into my body as well.

I am proud to have been born into such a family.Getting a job at a startup in the middle of nowhere right out of college is, in reality, a decision with quite a lot of risk. But,I currently believe that this path is the best one for getting closer to my goal of 'making society better.'

I may not be able to directly repay my parents right away, butI want to live a life where I work hard for the sake of others. I want to cherish that meddlesome spirit for the rest of my life.That is what I think.

---

I struggled with this a lot, and even now, I haven't completely found the path I should take. I might find myself worrying again in a little while.

But there is one thing I can say: my life has become more enjoyable.

I have been blessed with many encounters and an environment that understands and supports me. That is precisely why I was able to realize my deepest feelings and make the decision to steer my life in a new direction.

It is unstable, the cost-performance is poor, and there are many risks, but right now, I feel very clear-headed. I feel that my 'win rate' in terms of 'living a life I am satisfied with' has risen dramatically.

I intend to continue facing the things in front of me with sincerity while being helped by many people. And, while being shaped by the passionate and slightly mischievous adults of Tsuno, I will carve out my own 'correct answer'.

---

I share my daily life in Tsuno Town and the realistic trial and error of regional revitalization and community development on Twitter. Please connect with me!