Greetings and best wishes to you for 2006. Please find our project update since October 2005 below:

- Lessons from Ms. Nishimizu and "Gross National Happiness" of Bhutan
- First Community Business Seminar held at Kobunaki
- Dialogue with Prof. Ezio Manzini
- Kobunaki featured in the "Organic Perspectives"

[Lessons from Ms. Nishimizu and "Gross National Happiness" of Bhutan]

On 14 November, 2005, the G-project members had chance to meet Ms. Mieko Nishimizu, the former vice president, South Asia Region, the World Bank, and currently the fellow of the Research Institute of Economy, Trade and Industry in Japan.. During her work at the World Bank, she had established the strong connection with Bhutan, a small Himalayan kingdom with the famous development policy, “Gross National Happiness (GNH)”. Though it is hard to go into detail of GNH because of diverse interpretation by various researchers and policy makers, I recognize it as "an antithesis to the current way to evaluate the value of nations by Gross National Product (GNP). With her interest in exploring the concept of GNH, Ms. Nishimizu has been in efforts not only to make Bhutan a rich country, but to make it a truly happy country, though the role of the World Bank is to alleviate poverty by financial and technical assistance.

Though she spoke very elegantly and smartly, she seemed to spent her life full of ups and downs before lucking out with Bhutan. We could imagine from our impression of her that she has been keeping sympathy to others even in case of trouble, and that she had been facing a lot of people earnestly. Though we had really short discussion with her, it became a very valuable and exciting experience that we could learn her vision, ideas and even sufferings that we could not feel without meeting face to face.

We further continue the relationship with Ms. Nishimizu. Some of g-project members plan to visit Bhutan this May with her help. We will stay with families in a poor rural village for two weeks. We look forward the trip to be useful enough to change our values of life and to show us the direction which the Kobunaki Ecovillage should move toward. It will be the first step to come close to accomplishments by Ms. Nishimizu.

Junichi Shiraishi

[First Community Business Seminar held at Kobunaki]

The G-project team hosted the first Community Business Seminar on December 10, 2005, seeking the ways to foster community-based enterprises in Kobunaki to provide sustainable goods and services to Kobunaki and surrounding communities.

We took up the theme,“community currency,” for this seminar as a tool to promote local interaction not only local trade and bartering but also mutual help among its residents. We invited Mr. Rui Izumi, who is teaching economics at Senshu University, Japan as the lecturer; learning the concept of community currency and case examples in Japan, trying the role playing game on how to exchange what one needs and what another can offer, and discussing how we can use local currency at Kobunaki to help realize local production for local consumption of safe and delicious food.

We are planning to hold more seminars on various topics to promote community-based enterprises at Kobunaki!

Tomomi Takada

[Dialogue with Prof. Ezio Manzini]

communities somewhere between communes and condominiums

The creative project designer, Prof. Ezio Manzini has visited Japan in January. the G-project team had a chance to have a dialogue session with him during his stay. Prof. Manzini is known as the designer of "Sustainable Everyday project" (http://www.sustainable-everyday.net/), "one of my challenges is to
renew the idea of 'community' " he says. In response to the short update from Kobunaki project, Prof. Manzini noted his idea of "community" with the background of changing social status of advanced countries, and introduced his latest co-housing project in Milano.
During whole session, Prof. Manzini made many specific questions and advices for Kobunaki project. The value or lifestyle of people vary from country to country, but his challenge to renew the idea of community gives us a lot of ideas for Kobunaki community.

Chie Saito

[Kobunaki featured in the "Organic Perspectives"]

My name is Sarah Smolkin, and since finishing the MSc. in holistic science at Schumacher College in August 2004, I have made the small rural island of
Sekizen in Ehime-ken, Japan my hom-away-from-(my true) home, which is near Ottawa in Canada. Since arriving in Japan, pursuing my passion for sustainability and my love of nature has been twofold: actively participating in the the local community and becoming involved in the Kobunaki Ecovillage project. My work with the Ecovillage has included leading a workshop exploring holistic science, a holistic worldview and their implications for the project, creating an on-line community exploring topics in sustainability, and working with the members of G-Project to communicate their work, interests and visions of the project in English.

During my time in Japan, I also initiated an on-line journal called Organic Perspectives at www.inspiredknowledge.org. The objective of OP is to support a positive and creative approach to environmentalism and sustainability and celebrate our relationships with nature by creating a space for individuals, initiatives and organizations to express their own unique, or organic, perspectives on these topics. The Winter Solstice ed. of Organic Perspectives includes an article written by Steven McGreevy, a Nagano-ken resident who is interested in initiating a new ecovillage project in Japan, and I entitled "Ecovillages in Japan: Possible Paths to a Sustainable Future." In this essay, we explore the role of ecovillages in creating a sustainable future, focusing on the differences and similarities between the Kobunaki Ecovillage and The Chiiori Project, a rural restoration project in the Iya Valley of Shikoku. I hope that you enjoy the article and the rest of Organic Perspectives.

I wish you all of the best of luck with the Kobunaki Ecovillage project!

Sarah Smolkin

Editor's note

When I was preparing for the first Community Business Seminar, I found an interesting networking website called “Social Edge” (www.socialedge.org) which is a platform by social entrepreneurs for social entrepreneurs. Recently those social networking system are getting popular, and we, G-project team, are also seeking the ways to create our own platforms to involve and interact with various stakeholders, including you, the readers of Live Impulse, to realize Kobunaki. If you have any ideas on this topic, please write to us!