Hi everyone!
I’m Kakazu, and I am in charge of PR for LEAP DAY.
Out of the many talk sessions of LEAP DAY, I would like to introduce the session on the unique, “Can’t Avoid Coming to Koza -Online Koza Drinking-.”
To begin with, what is Koza?
An essential part of this session is Koza, the central town of Okinawa City in Okinawa Prefecture.
Koza is an unusual town in a good way, so unusual that it’s unique in Okinawa, and when a person from out of the prefecture asks to be taken to the deep end of Okinawa, Koza is the first place that comes to mind.
In fact, Koza was originally the name of a city called Koza City, the only one in Japan with katakana characters. It was merged with the village of Misato in 1974 and changed to the present Okinawa City.
Here’s what Koza has to offer!
So next, let’s take a look at what attracts people to Koza, with a focus on what the city is like.
A town where the essence of Okinawa and America are condensed
Before anything else, anyone visiting Koza for the first time is sure to say, “What, this is Japan?” That’s how much the town of Koza is a mixture of Okinawan and American culture.
The reason why it has been called Koza is because the U.S. military read the Goya district, which is the center of Okinawa City, KOZA, and then the local people also started calling it Koza.
Also, Koza Gate Street is a main street that connects to the entrance of Kadena Air Base, so Koza is flooded with people from many different countries.
The City of Rock
Koza was the most bustling downtown area in Okinawa Prefecture from 1960 to 1980. There are many live music venues in Koza, and it is also the birthplace of various music and performing arts. Okinawan rock music was also born in Koza.
A town that shows different faces by day and night
Koza, with its exotic atmosphere, is home to many stylish cafes. Shinichi Miyajima, who will also be speaking at this session, runs a cafe-theater called Theater Donuts Okinawa, which is the first cafe-theater in the prefecture with a theater room and café attached. You should definitely check it out! 😊
Koza is a fashionable town during the day, but at night, it switches into a town full of loud club music.
Various music is played here and there, which adds to the exotic atmosphere. Looking around, you’ll find all sorts of people - foreigners, gals, locals and tourists - enjoying the night of Koza.
First-time visitors may be surprised, but as time passes, you’ll find yourself fascinated by Koza and want to visit again and again.
Break out of the shutdown streets! Bringing the charm of Koza to more people
We’ve talked enough about the appeal of Koza, but it’s actually a shutdown town when you go a little further down into the back streets, which in no way is bustling.
When the economy of the whole of Japan deteriorated due to the bursting of the bubble economy in the 90’s, Koza was effect was impacted as well.
The bustling shopping streets shut down one by one, and the number of people in the streets decreased. According to the census conducted in 2015, the unemployment rate of Okinawa City was 7.17%, which was much higher than the unemployment rate of 6.32% for Okinawa Prefecture as a whole at the time.
The speakers of this session are the ones who have stood up to rebuild Koza.
They are working on a variety of initiatives to bring the fascinating town of Koza out of its shutdown streets and to communicate its appeal to as many people as possible.
In particular, session speakers Kenichiro Toyosato and Hikaru Nonaka run the Startup Lab Lagoon, which aims to turn Koza into not only a shopping district and a bustling town, but also a place where people can work together to create an ecosystem that produces entrepreneurs who have a positive impact on the local community and the world.
Tokki has posted a lot of talks about the appeal of Koza on social networking sites with the hashtag #Can’t Avoid Coming to Koza.
Nowadays, many people use the hashtag # Can’t Avoid Coming to Koza when they post about Koza.
The following is an episode that Tokki gave us.
“I have been inviting people from all over the prefecture and beyond to come to Koza every night and taint them with its magical powers, or in other words, I turned them into repeat customers who have been touched by the charm of Koza. I have brought about 800 people from outside of the prefecture in 7 years so far.
As expected of a Koza evangelist who loves Koza and is tainted by the magic of Koza!
In this talk, we will have people with a deep love for Koza talk passionately about Koza, such as what measures they are taking to make Koza the best town in the world, what is the appeal of Koza, the meaning of nurturing a startup ecosystem in Koza, and more 😆.
Meet the speakers of Can’t Avoid Coming to Koza -Online Koza Drinking-!
Let me introduce the speakers of “ Can’t Avoid Coming to Koza -Online Koza Drinking-,” who were soakingly attracted to the fascinating town of Koza and pledged their love to Koza.
Shinichi Miyajima
Theater Donuts Okinawa, Representative
Vacant Stores Pictures, Representative
Theater Donuts Okinawa, Operator
Born in Okinawa City, Japan in 1973. After graduating from university, he managed a live music club, worked at a company, and after working as a film production staff, he is currently the main MC of the TV program “Koza's Back Side” and a radio DJ.
In April 2015, he opened “Theater Donuts,” a café theater in Okinawa City. This community-based approach has been featured on the national television program “Nihon no Chikara.” In addition, he has made it his life's work to communicate through presenting movies including activities of writing columns, guiding people around the town on location, giving vocational speeches and lectures, and delivering movies.
Ryuji Tokiwagi
Koza Evangelist
He is a parallel career evangelist (evangelist) working for EBILAB/QUANDO/LiLz/Lexues/UmuSun lab/PCA/Persol, etc. He is also a fellow of ISCO (Okinawa IT Innovation Strategy Center) and Startup Lab Lagoon. He has been involved in many No.1 market share software products.
He loves Koza, and he is active as a Koza evangelist more than his job. He is working hard to make Koza, one of the most magical towns in the world, by abducting… rather inviting people from all over the country and beyond.
Kenichiro Toyosato
Startup Lab Lagoon, Representative
Born in Koza, Okinawa. After studying abroad in high school and university and living abroad for 15 years as a major Japanese logistics company's overseas legal information officer, he established Link and Visible Inc. in 2017 in his hometown of Okinawa, and in addition to developing outsourced development and in-house services in cooperation with overseas teams, he also provides entrepreneurial support, PG learning, and runs the co-working space of Startup Lab Lagoon. He aims to create an ecosystem for Okinawa to become a startup hub for Asia, both domestically and internationally.
Hikari Nonaka
Hello World Inc., Representative Director/ Ryukyu Mirai, Representative Director
While studying at the Faculty of Education at the University of the Ryukyus, he studied abroad in eight Asian countries. He was exposed to the richness of nature and culture and the warmth of people in each country, and in 2016 he started Ryukyu Mirai. He has experienced many educational and industrial promotion projects for local governments in the prefecture. He also started “Hello World,” a homestay program with foreigners living in the community. He wants to contribute to world peace through international exchange services!
Now is the only time you can buy a LEAP DAY 4-day ticket at a discount!
LEAP Day will be held online this year for 4 Days from December 10 (Thursday) to December 13 (Sunday).
Amazingly, you can buy a ticket for all 4 days at a discount until the end of October 😲. The standard price of a 4-day ticket is 3,500 yen, but you can purchase a 4-day ticket for only 3,000 yen, which is 500 yen less if you buy it through crowdfunding.
LEAP Day will feature a number of interesting sessions, so don’t miss out on this great deal! 😆 Purchase tickets through cloud funding here!！
