WEBVTT

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This is the front page
of yesterday's morning newspaper.

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According to the news,
the price of rice plunged this year

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and rice farmers are facing
great difficulties.

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Akita rice was sold at 8,400 yen,

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2,800 yen cheaper than last year,

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and rice farmers are crying out in pain.

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What do you think
when you hear about this news?

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You may think: "Oh, that's too bad.
It must be hard for the rice farmers."

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However, once you've finished
reading this newspaper

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you will probably forget about this news.

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These farmers who make
our daily rice are struggling.

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It can't be dismissed as irrelevant to us.

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But why don't we care enough?

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It's because we don't know
these farmers in person.

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If you have a farmer you know in person,

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this news probably wouldn't seem
as irrelevant anymore.

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The relationship with others
fosters empathy.

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Here in Japan, consumers and producers
are divided by a big distribution system.

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The information that we consumers
can get about the food we eat are

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its price, looks, taste, calories, etc.

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These are all information for consumers.

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Of course, these are important
in selecting food,

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but something essential is missing.

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It is the actual people who are working
behind the scenes of our food.

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How many producers do you know in person

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among the food you eat every day?

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Many of you may not know a single person.

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Now that we have lost empathy,

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Japan's primary industry
is in a dire situation.

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In 1970, just before I was born,
there were 10.25 million rice farmers.

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This has sharply declined to 2.6 million,

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and 75% of them are 60 years or older.

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There are only 170,000 young farmers
who are 40 years or younger.

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As for fishermen,
there were 570,000 in 1970.

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Now there are only 170,000.
The majority are 60 years or older.

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There are only 20,000
of those who are 40 years or younger.

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In 10 years, in 20 years,
who will be making our food?

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Now you must probably be thinking:

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"We must do something
about our primary industry."

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Still, right after you leave this venue,

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that feeling will probably fade away.

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What we crucially lack is empathy.

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We need to think of this issue
as directly linked to our lives.

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In order to rebuild our primary industry,

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we must get to know the people
who work behind the scenes of our food,

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connect with them,
and enhance our empathy.

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And so I came up with this,

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"Tohoku Taberu Magazine,"
a monthly magazine that comes with food.

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We feature producers
in the Tohoku region every month,

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and we enclose the food they produce
and send them to the readers.

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Usually in food delivery service,

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we receive boxes packed with vegetables,

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along with just a single piece of paper
introducing the producer.

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We do the opposite.

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That piece of paper that shows
the life of the producer,

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that is our main service.

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The food is just a supplement
to the magazine.

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One year has passed since we've started,
and now we have 1400 readers.

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First of all, by reading the pages,
the readers get to know the producers,

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and then they cook and eat the food.

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That's not the end.

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We connected the producers
and the readers through Facebook group.

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Then, they began to actively communicate.

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The readers found out for the first time
who was making the food they eat.

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Many readers posted pictures with recipes

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showing how they cooked the food
with their son, for example,

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and conveyed their gratitude,

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"Thank you." "I was impressed."
"I enjoyed it."

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They thanked the producers everyday.

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For the producers, until now,

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their last task
was to distribute the food.

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But once they saw
how happy the readers were everyday,

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they became even more motivated
to make something more delicious.

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Moreover,

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not only do we have
online interactions over SNS,

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but we are also hosting events
inviting the producers to Tokyo,

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or inviting readers to visit the farms,

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to experience the actual process
of delivering the food.

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So we are hosting
experience-oriented events as well,

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and offering these series of events
as a package every month.

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With these experiences,
the readers empathized more and more.

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Recently, there was a good example
where this empathy led to action.

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In our issue last October,

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we featured Mr. Kosei Kikuchi,
a rice farmer in Akita prefecture.

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By using a unique farming method
of not plowing the rice fields,

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he makes rice that is friendly
to both nature and human.

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But due to the prolonged rain this year,

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the rice field became muddy
in the harvesting season.

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and the combine harvester
didn't work in the mud.

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Even with the help of his wife
and two small children,

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not even 1/10 of the usual crop
could be harvested.

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He used Facebook
to post his painful situation

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and sent out an SOS call
to the reader's group of Taberu Magazine.

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Then, nearly 200 people,
including readers,

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came all the way to Akita prefecture,

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went into the rice fields by barefoot,
and harvested together by hand.

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This baseball field-sized rice field
of about one hectare,

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is to be reaped, all by human hand.

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The readers and the producers
are becoming like a family.

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By knowing who is behind
the scenes of our food,

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they felt that this farmer's suffering
was connected to themselves,

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and pushed themselves
ahead to visit the site.

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Today, as human relationships
grow weaker and weaker,

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I see future in a community that connects
those who eat and those who make.

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Throughout this whole year,
we have made this community.

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The fishermen and farmers are up front.

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The readers are at the back.
Look at these smiles.

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Not only the producers,

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but the consumers are also
becoming happier and happier.

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The readers that helped
the rice farmer in Akita

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came back to the cities looking refreshed.

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By learning about the food
that support our lives,

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where the food was made,
and how the producers made them,

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readers say their lives become richer.

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Through my work on Taberu Magazine,
I have connected consumers and producers.

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I have also realized something.

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In this world, where consumers
and producers are divided,

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it was not only the producers
who were lost.

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Consumers were not happy,
and their lives did not feel rich.

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By removing this barrier
between these two,

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and by interacting with each other,

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they can exchange their spirits
and their energy.

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That is what I learned from them.

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Now, we are living
in a fully developed consumer society.

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With this single smartphone,
you can huddle in your room,

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buy anything you want,
and lead your life.

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However, there are no ups and downs
nor hardship of life.

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The nature that grows food,

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or the producers
who devote their time and effort,

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they are lost out of our sight.

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In this complete consumer society,

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with prediction, control,
order, and justice,

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we may have lost the joy of life,
or what it feels like to live,

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without realizing we had lost them.

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I wanted to overturn that small,
narrow-minded world.

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I wanted to open a crack
in this consumer society.

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I realized how to do it
by Taberu Magazine.

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I'd like to share this method
with you today.

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You don't have to migrate
to rural areas and become a producer.

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You can still do it
while living in the city.

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That is to move away from the poor,
replaceable relation

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between money and food,

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and return to the rich,
irreplaceable relation

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between consumers and producers.

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The act of eating
can be revived as a circuit,

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allowing you to connect with others,

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or to the vast, unknown world.

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Through the circuit,
although it may be very small,

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I'd like to make a creative space
in this consumer society.

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From this space, we are going to regain

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the power to live, the joy of life,
the feeling of life, and imagination.

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We humans are now
locked inside a small world.

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We must unleash our intrinsic potential
and spirit to the future.

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What lies ahead of that is, I believe,

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a new frontier where we feel joy of life.

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In Japan, where we live now,

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our lives are not feeling joy,
but feeling uncomfortable.

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Why are we in this situation?

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This is what I think.

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It is because our mind
and body have lost balance.

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We all may have become big-headed.

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This consumer society
was created from our minds.

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In contrast,

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there is something we cannot create
no matter how hard we think.

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That is nature.

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We originally came from nature,

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so we feel comfortable
being in touch with nature.

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But the consumer society
has completely excluded nature.

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In a sense, our body
is originally nature itself,

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as this cannot be created by human hand.

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So when we feel comfortable,
or beautiful, or impressed,

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we feel those feelings
not by our mind but by our body.

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At times, even this nature
of our body and feelings

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are deprived of by this consumer society.

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The same is true of Japan.

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There must be some part
where we can balance our body and mind.

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Once we lose this balance,

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we feel uncomfortable.

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The relation between body and mind

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is similar to that of urban
and rural areas in Japan.

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Things are increasingly
concentrated in Tokyo,

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and rural areas are
on the verge of extinction.

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After the war, the eldest son
remained in the rural areas.

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The younger brothers migrated,
and made our large cities today.

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The urban and the rural areas
were connected by blood.

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That is why everyone returns
to their hometown on Bon holidays.

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However, in 20 to 30 years,

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the so-called holiday traffic congestion
is said to become vanished.

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It means that a large number of people
will be born and raised in cities

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and will not have a hometown.

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This will decisively separate
the urban and rural areas.

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A large number of people

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will be confined in the consumer society,

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not feeling the joy of life.

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Living creatures have evolved

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by adapting to the changing environment

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that threatened their survival.

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Japan has led the modernization
of our consumerist society,

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and our lives lost joy.

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We may be at the forefront
of human evolution.

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This evolution means

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balancing the mind and body,
urban and rural areas,

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and furthermore, to balance
developed and developing countries.

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This will be an extraordinary challenge.

00:15:31.528 --> 00:15:36.678
In the 1970s, we saw
the rise of personal computers.

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It was an era
when information was a luxury.

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People were uplifted in those days.

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You could access worldwide information
from wherever you were.

00:15:45.820 --> 00:15:49.281
Then, someone turned that big box
into something portable and convenient.

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That was Steve Jobs.

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The iPhone is an extension of that.

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However, we have already cultivated
this world of mind, inside this box,

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and information is no longer a luxury.

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Rather, in this world's most-advanced
consumer society,

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the relationship with others
and feeling of life

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are becoming our luxury.

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This relationship and feeling of life

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cannot be bought on your iPhone
while staying inside your room.

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It is something you create on your own,
with the producers, out in the nature.

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That is going to be the new frontier
where we feel joy of life.

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This frontier can no longer
be cultivated by any genius.

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It must be cultivated together
by those who eat and those who make.

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I'm sure a new hometown
will be awaiting us there.

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This "Apple" enriched
our mind and knowledge.

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On the other hand, if we connect to this,

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this apple, the real food
that supports our lives,

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this can enrich our heart,
and make our lives shine again.

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In order to realize that,
I'd like to wisely use this Apple as well.

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It's the fusion of the mind and body,

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the urban and rural.

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Please remember that each one of you
have the power to change the world

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from the simple action of eating.

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Know your food, change the world.

00:17:48.753 --> 00:17:50.486
Now everyone,

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why don't we enjoy
the forefront of evolution

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and embark on a journey
to change the world?

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Thank you.

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(Applause)