Changes Felt from a Certain Remote Island

Last October, tane CREATIVE, a company headquartered in Sado City, Niigata Prefecture—famous for its gold mines—and which operates website production and security maintenance services, went public (IPO) on the Tokyo Pro Market. The company had previously received investment from Kamakura Investment Management's "Souhatsu no Tsubomi" (a private investment business partnership for specific investors, unlike mutual funds that can be purchased by the general public), which supports startups and other unlisted companies.
An IPO is a high hurdle and a narrow gate, said to be reachable by only a few out of every 1,000 startups that aim for it. On the day of the IPO, when I participated in the traditional ceremony and rang the bell, I felt that while large-scale listings known as unicorns tend to attract attention, the fact that a company rooted in a local region like tane CREATIVE went public would be a great source of hope for Sado and for local regions in general.

1. The Miracle of Sado

The tane CREATIVE IPO is the first for a company headquartered in Sado City. President Enoki of the company told me about his decision to pursue an IPO: amidst the need for highly skilled talent, including for cybersecurity management, he wanted to use the credibility of being a listed company to attract excellent talent and show the world that it is not a dream to go public even from a remote island in a local region like Sado.

I imagine some people felt it was a miracle that a small company like tane CREATIVE, with about 60 employees and headquartered in Sado, which has a population of less than 50,000, achieved a listing. It can truly be called a remarkable achievement.

2. The Connection Between Kamakura Investment Management and Sado

I visit Sado every January. This is to participate in the "Sado Business Contest," which Sado City hosts every year at this time to foster entrepreneurs.

Sado's tourist season is spring to summer when the sea is calm, so I always wish they would hold it during that season, but the winter season is blessed with island delicacies, and the sake made at local breweries is exceptional, so that is also one of the pleasures of visiting Sado.

Kamakura Investment Management became involved in the business contest hosted by Sado City at the suggestion of President Enoki.

About six years ago, people from Sado City visited Kamakura with President Enoki. They expressed their passion for wanting to solve various social issues and revitalize Sado by increasing the number of people moving to, settling in, and becoming related to Sado through entrepreneurship. They wanted to make Sado an "island of entrepreneurship." They said that for that to happen, they needed "outside power" and asked for our help, and I sympathized with that enthusiasm.

The business contest, which began during the COVID-19 pandemic, reached its sixth year this year. The level has increased with each iteration, and the companies that presented this year had business models that were already built, and I felt a high potential for success even in Sado. Furthermore, because they have the reproducibility to expand beyond Sado to other regions, business growth was also expected.

3. Changes Felt from Sado

In the six years I have been watching the Sado business contest, I have felt major changes stemming from this project.

• The first is that the quality of the businesses presented and the presentation skills of the managers are improving. This will likely lead to the power to create new businesses and jobs.

• Second, the perspective of companies that have won in the past has also risen, and their businesses are growing. For example, the first-place winner of the inaugural contest, the startup "SIIG" which develops the fishing app "FishRanker," overcame the difficult early stages of its founding, grew its business to the point where it could partner with fishing tackle manufacturer Shimano, and began providing data on fish production volumes that also contributes to environmental conservation to the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries. President Tanigawa of the company said that winning the contest and being able to obtain relatively generous subsidies during the seed stage, as well as participating in a network of managers and receiving advice from managers challenging various businesses, has been a great strength.

• Third, high school entrepreneurs have begun to appear. At the local Sado Sogo High School, a startup club was born in 2024, and they are taking on the challenge of human resource development with an eye on the future in collaboration with local entrepreneurs and NPOs. High school students from the startup club also took the stage for a pitch at the January contest and spoke about their goal of incorporating soon.

• Finally, because these initiatives have spread in a multi-layered way, the number of young people from outside trying to do something in Sado is gradually increasing, and the atmosphere of the island is becoming more vibrant.

There is something I feel while watching these regional initiatives. For regional revitalization, it is of course important for local people to seriously tackle regional issues, but there is also a "limit to solving regional problems within the region." That is precisely why I think it is important to cultivate soil for rediscovering regional value and co-creating new value by inviting different ideas, knowledge, and experiences that do not exist in that region from the outside.

Next, I feel that if there is a successful case in a region, it is important to have the perspective of applying it to expand horizontally to other regions and, by extension, contribute to Japan as a whole. On the other hand, unique small businesses like individual shops and zebra-type companies are also important, and I feel that regions that have both are interesting.

4. Shift to Mutual Aid Capitalism

Companies exist to accomplish things that cannot be achieved by oneself alone by gathering the power of many people. And for a company to grow, it is required to build things together with various business partners and customers that cannot be achieved by one company alone.

Is the administration, which plays a core role in regions and local communities, not the same? Given the significant changes in budgets and demographics, it is no longer possible for local governments alone to solve regional issues or sustain local autonomy. From Sado City, I feel the necessity and potential to explore new forms of self-governance by collaborating with entrepreneurs, including NPOs that possess a social perspective. I feel that the Sado Business Contest is precisely the point of convergence for this.

I feel that these movements serve as hints for the next stage of capitalism, which aims for more than just increasing money. Sado also appears to be taking on the challenge of creating a mutual-aid economy system where people help each other to form a society, while also utilizing the mechanisms of capitalism.

Looking at other regions, Hiroshi Tasaka, whom I respect, has proposed the 'Wise Government' concept in Yamanashi Prefecture as a new way of local governance, where social entrepreneurs and the administration collaborate. This is a part of the shift from market capitalism, which makes the sole common goal of simply increasing money, to a mutual-aid capitalism based on the perspective of co-creating a prosperous society.

In this way, I am learning many things from the Sado Business Contest myself. It is still just a ripple, but I look forward to it becoming a great swell.

Photo source: Sado City Photo Gallery

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