The Dream of Wadajima Town

It’s been a while since Sound House opened the office in Tokushima. I decided to expand our business in Tokushima without hesitation because we were convinced that we could create job opportunities and contribute to the local community even in an area with a declining population.

The world’s largest music retail company, Thomann in Germany, has expanded their business and built an automated warehouse in the middle of an open field near Central Germany. Sweetwater, the largest music company in the States, also built a huge company in the suburbs of Fort Wayne, Indiana. Both companies are enormous in scale and people even feel as if they are in a small music town. The company itself has the presence and feel of a small music town.

Is it too much to believe that we at Sound House also have the capability to do something similar in Japan after I saw these Big Bosses in person? Sound House was founded in Narita, and although our Narita headquarters has grown, we just didn’t have the space to expand. Then, we had the idea to start looking in Tokushima, and found our Tokushima base in an old, rundown ironworks building at the far end of Wadajima-cho which is on the coast of Komatsushima and South of Tokushima City. 5 years have already passed since I started talking about building Wadajima Town.

Let’s talk about the conclusion first. The Wadajima Town Project has not even reached the starting line, let alone have enough energy to jump the gun. There is only one reason for this: A lack of people to hire. If we could hire 50 more people and more staff members from outside the prefecture were willing to join us, we would build company housing to give them a good residential environment since there is enough land nearby, and we would have the means to create a worker-friendly town. People will want to move in to be where the jobs are. If the area is settled by company workers and the population increases in Wadajima-cho where there is no special industry, Wadajima Town will be born. Furthermore, if the number of residents does increase, convenience stores will be open in the town and restaurant chains will be lured to start businesses there. However, Wadajima Town still remains just a dream.

The “Onagawa, Town of Music” project in Onagawa, Miyagi, in the Tohoku region is set to launch February 2022, will probably show some good results first because as of now, we have many applicants who want to work with us in Onagawa. However, most of them wish to commute from Ishinomaki, the neighboring city, so they won’t be the driving force to help boost the creation of the community itself or increase the population of the town. Nevertheless, I will keep trying because I believe that we have only just begun and a path will surely open up for us. I have not given up on my dream of building Wadajima Town, and for now, I am dreaming of “Onagawa, Town of Music”. Nowadays, I am grateful to be able to have these dreams and my dreams make me believe that life is not so bad after all.

View from Hinomine Shrine with Wadajima-cho in the Distance