Demonstration Event for Students in Sannomiya: “Seedling Boxes” Connecting with Businesses Beyond Their Position

　En College,” a demonstration event for students, will be held at KOBE Co CREATION CENTER (1 Sannomiya-cho, Chuo-ku, Kobe City) on February 20. The event will be hosted by “Shin Energy.

Shin Energy’s Hinoko Sato (left) and Naotsugu Notsu (right), who planned the demonstration event.

　The event provides an opportunity for students to reconsider the concept of “work” by connecting and discussing with businesspeople working in Kobe on an equal footing. The company, which operates a renewable energy business, positions this event as an opportunity for students, the next generation of human resources, to find “energy” for their lives, in an attempt to promote local production for local consumption of energy and to promote regional development.

　The theme of the event is “Icubebako (seedling box) in Kobe. By taking in each other’s values and experiences as “nourishment” for themselves, the participants aim to create a place where they can become strong seedlings for their own “flowers” (dreams and goals) to bloom.

　On the day of the event, working people from local companies in Kobe participated, calling themselves “Mr. Inoue,” “Mr. Sato,” “Mr. Nozu,” “Mr. Morimoto,” and “Mr. Akahata. After dividing into groups, the participants will write down important experiences and milestones in their lives on cards and play the “Everybody’s Life Game,” in which one experience is connected to one square for everyone in the group, and the student participants, who are about to enter the workforce, will discuss the theme of connecting with each other.

　Ms. Hinoko Sato of the Human Resources & General Affairs Department of Shin Energy, who planned the event, said, “I thought it was unfortunate that the current job hunting system in Japan only allows companies and students to have contact with each other, and I wanted to create a place where people can get to know each other on a ‘people-to-people’ basis. I thought it would be a good idea to create a place where people could get to know each other on a person-to-person basis.” “I hope that by participating in the event, people will change their image of working adults and think, ‘Maybe being an adult is surprisingly fun,’ or ‘Maybe beautiful things are cool if you take them seriously.

　The event will be held from 13:00 to 16:00. Admission is free. Registration is available on the Peatix page.