Sequel to Future Project

I have been going to Hokkaido every week since this spring.

One reason is for North Energy in Sapporo City, an Oak Capital subsidiary;
The other one is for the Horokanai Town satellite office project which is designed and supervised by UNIVA Japan.

The story of North Energy's solar power business is a dream story that will lead to the future.
This time, I would like to introduce the future project of Horokanai Town, which I introduced a little earlier.

About an hour and a half drive northwest from Asahikawa Airport, there is a town that temperature is -41.2 degrees Celsius. That is Horokanai which is a frigid town that holds the lowest temperature record in Japan.
Last year, UNIVA Japan and Horokanai Town signed a comprehensive contract,
and now we are designing and supervising satellite offices there.
The population of Horokanai Town is 1,300. The town with the smallest population in Hokkaido.
The declining birthrate, aging population, and population decline continue unabated, and there are no convenience stores or izakayas in the town.
The old JR line was discontinued long ago.
Why a satellite office in such a town?
who uses it? ?
why? ? ?

Moreover, this project is worth 70 million yen as a digital garden city project.
It is a subsidized project of the Cabinet Office that has received grants.

What is there in this empty Horokanai town?
That is, this town "has the shape of the future of Japan."
Not in a good way.
The current declining birthrate and aging population in Japan will result this in 20 years:
11% of the population under the age of 15; 37% of the population over the age of 65.
In Horokanai Town, the population under the age of 15 is 11%, and the population over the age of 65 is over 40%.
45% of the productive workforce is less than half...
In the near future, Japan will become a town like Horokanai.

• Government services are limited
• Nursery school is difficult to accept (lack of nursery teachers...)
• Difficulty in nursing care (lack of caregivers)
• Difficulties in the service industry (shortage of workers)

It is truly a town where Japan's problems are condensed.
But there are business opportunities in the future.
If these difficulties can be resolved,
it will be a future business model that can be used throughout Japan and the world.

How can this futuristic city recover its functions?
We can capture these issues as a business.
Now the number of companies researching Horokanai Town has increased to one or two.
And as the future business research institute,
we are building a satellite office in a town of 1300 people.
First, a satellite office will open at the end of August on the second floor of the government office.
In November, a second satellite office will open in a renovated training facility in the town.

Horokanai, a town with nothing.
Just landed at Asahikawa Airport.

UNIVA Japan Limited President and CEO
Yoshiaki Ubatani