Innovation: Irodori

Japan

AAI Domains:

• Employment

• Independent, healthy and secure living (financial security, physical activity)

• Capacity and enabling environment (use of ICT)

Older people can be disadvantaged in the labour market due to a combination of factors such as loss of physical endurance, mental capacity and age discrimination. However, in ageing societies it is important that the skills and wisdom that older people have accumulated over a working life time are not wasted for the benefit of individuals and wider society. The entrepreneurial spirit is not limited to young people and there are examples from around the world of older people starting new enterprises that provide income and health benefits.

Kamikatsu is a small rural town in the Tokushima prefecture with a population of around 2,000 people that has faced three main challenges in the last forty years: an ageing population, de-population as younger people moved away in search of economic opportunities and the devastating loss of the mandarin crop due to very harsh weather in 1981. In the midst of this decline, Tomoji Yokoishi came to the area in the mid-1980s to promote agricultural development and when dining in a restaurant noticed that the customers were taking home the decorative leaves used to garnish food. This sparked an idea to re-invigorate the local farming sector that he proposed after conducting some market research and finding that there was a gap in the market for these decorative leaves and flowers.

At the start of the Irodori enterprise, Yokoishi could only persuade a handful of local farmers to participate but over the years the number of participants increased as it became apparent that it could provide valuable source of income and in 1999 the Irodori social enterprise farmer’s cooperative was formed. The older women in the area became the key component of the success of Irodori that was based on the speed that an order could be delivered due to the use of computers first and now hand-held tablets.

Irodori now has around 200 farms participating in the enterprise and the older women who participate in the enterprise, the majority in their seventies and eighties, report a greater sense of purpose and satisfaction with their lives. It is also interesting to note that health care expenditure is significantly lower in Kamikatsu given that nearly half the population are aged 65 and over and it is plausible that this is due, at least in part, to the moderate physical activity involved in harvesting the leaves and flowers along with the sense of purpose that the work gives to older people.

More than a decade ago an internship programme was started to attract younger people back to the area to provide the next generation of farmers with inter-generational exchange of knowledge a key feature of the process. The Irodori venture in Kamikatsu has proven to be so successful that it attracts visitors from Japan and internationally to learn lessons from the success of this niche innovation.

In relation to active ageing, Irodori has clearly had a positive impact on the employment activity and financial security of older women in the locality. The nature of the work promotes physical activity and the truly innovative use of information technology has ensured that the business has developed a ‘just in time’ responsiveness that has enabled it to expand. The empowerment of co-workers and the resulting increase in competence and reported levels of self-confidence and subjective well-being are not to be under-estimated.

Websites

Irodori

Government of Japan

Innovation Forum 4 (2014) – Crisis, innovation and transition (PDF, 1MB)