Southwest Japan’s Challenges: Global Wave / Businesses Pop Up on Remote Islands in Support of Locals’ Dreams; State of Islands Provides Vision of Japan’s Future

By Yo Nakanishi and Ken Nakao / Yomiuri Shimbun Staff Writers

7:00 JST, March 16, 2025

This is the seventh and last installment in a series of articles looking at the country’s future from the perspective of the Kyushu region as well as Yamaguchi and Okinawa prefectures.

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On a remote island about 40 kilometers west of the mainland of Kyushu, a company is drawing nationwide attention. The island company, called “Higashishinakai no Chiisana Shima Brand” (small island brand in the East China Sea), is headquartered on the Koshiki Island chain in Satsumasendai, Kagoshima Prefecture.

“Instead of ‘moving to the big city to make your dreams come true,’ it’s ‘coming back to the islands to make your dreams come true,’” company head Kenta Yamashita, 39, a native of the island chain, said in late January on the Koshiki Ohashi bridge, which connects the islets. “I started the business because I wanted to reverse the current situation.”

The company is involved in 17 businesses. In addition to running stores, restaurants and lodging facilities on the island chain, the company also helps businesses develop their products. Its sales for the current fiscal year are projected to exceed ¥100 million. The company currently has more than 10 employees and plans to add several young people to its ranks. Cooperating with 28 islands in the prefecture, the firm set up a community called “Kagoshima Rito Bunka Keizai-ken” (Kagoshima remote islands culture and economy zone) to promote the islands’ development.

Yamashita’s affection for the islands grew stronger when he was a second-year high school student. He attended a school outside the island chain and returned home to find that an area around a fishing port had been paved and turned into a road.

He saw a pile of stones where there had once been large trees and benches. Fishers had mended their nets and dried their fish in the sun in the area during the daytime while neighbors had gathered there in the evening to cool down.

He said the shock he experienced at the loss of the island’s former scenery and activity is the driving force for his current work. The island chain had about 24,000 residents at its peak, but now that number has fallen below 4,000.

“It’s necessary to create a people-oriented community, without being bound by economic thinking alone,” Yamashita said.

After studying regional design at a university in Kyoto, Yamashita started working outside the island chain. When he returned home, he ran unmanned stores selling farm produce before starting his own business in 2012.

Making use of connections

Yamashita started a new initiative to help people on remote islands achieve their dreams. The initiative, called “Kagoshima Tosho Fund” (Kagoshima islands fund), is designed to facilitate cooperation between 28 islands in order to support people in overcoming the challenges they face. The initiative is expected to be launched as early as summer, and funds will be widely collected from companies and individuals both on and off the islands.

Yamashita has been working to deepen cooperation among remote islands, and another new business has been formed as a result of such ties.

Established on Yakushima Island in 2021, Sanroku Inc. develops processed products combining remote island specialties. The company’s products include fruit butter made from fruits grown on the Tokara Islands and Yakushima Island. The company managed to make its business profitable in its third year.

“With the islands joining forces, it has become possible to create added value and establish sales routes,” said Masataka Araki, the company’s president.

Yamashita said he hopes to “create a mechanism for funds to circulate within the islands and to provide an opportunity for people to establish their footing” through the planned fund. In addition to funding businesses, there are also plans to utilize the fund for supporting in the provision of medical care and education.

As an initial step, Yamashita hopes to provide ¥30 million over two years. If a virtuous cycle of business establishment and funding is formed, it is expected to bring about a change on the islands.

Companies that aim to combine social contributions with business activity are known as zebras. In contrast to profit-seeking companies, called unicorns, zebras are expected to play a leading role in resolving problems in depopulated regions and on remote islands. Last year, the Small and Medium Enterprise Agency established a new framework to support zebras and selected businesses from 20 groups, including Higashishinakai no Chiisana Shima Brand, for the framework.

Crisis of decline

Japan has about 300 inhabited remote islands that are not connected to the mainland by bridge, with a total of nearly 600,000 residents. These islands have served as gateways for people and cultures coming from Mainland China since ancient times.

Of those 300 islands, 71 are designated by the government as “Specified Populated Remote Territorial Island Areas,” or islands that are important in terms of national security. More than 80% of the islands are concentrated in the Kyushu region and Yamaguchi Prefecture.

However, the populations of these 300 islands have declined by more than 30% over the last four decades. Amid this difficult situation, people on the islands have been thinking about how to protect their way of life.

On Naru Island in Goto City, Nagasaki Prefecture, about 90 kilometers west of Nagasaki City, six islanders were in the middle of preparing a meal using local fish at a cafeteria in “Machikyo Moyaiba Narushima Doganne” community exchange center in mid-January.

“I hope this will be a memorable place for people visiting the island,” said Setsuzo Fujiwara, 72.

Naru Island has about 1,800 residents today. The population has decreased by 7,000 over the past 70 years. Supermarkets and stores have gradually disappeared, and bus routes were discontinued in 2023.

Under these circumstances, a council engaged in community building took the lead in raising about ¥3.5 million through crowdfunding and other means to open the community exchange center in 2022. More than 4,000 people have visited the center, which is designed to attract tourists and provide a place for islanders to relax.

“There was a sense of crisis that the decline of the island would not stop,” said Masanori Sakonaka, 67, chair of the council. “We want to rejuvenate the island.”

Utilization of technology

The use of technology is also expected to help protect remote islands.

Toyota Tsusho Corp., a major trading company in Nagoya City, established a base of its subsidiaries on the Goto Islands and started delivering medicine, food and other daily necessities with drones three years ago.

The Land, Infrastructure, Transport, and Tourism Ministry is also promoting demonstration experiments to solve social challenges on the islands using information and communications technology (ICT). About 40 experiments, including those of telemedicine and smart agriculture, have been conducted, and some of them have been commercialized.

“If ICT can be introduced to the islands and expanded to other regions, it will help improve quality of life throughout the country,” said Tsuyoshi Miki, secretary general of the Center for Research and Promotion of Japanese Islands in Tokyo.

Social challenges become apparent quickly on remote islands, and they are therefore described as “a microcosm of Japan.” The challenges faced by remote islands will serve as a touchstone for the future of the country.