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Kuni
“Reading Kuni makes me want to dive into rural Japan…this book reminds me that leaders emerge when and where you least expect it.”
— ALICE WATERS, founder of Chez Panisse restaurant, activist, and author
A guide to reviving and revitalizing forgotten places and communities through the Japanese principles of kuni
Kuni offers a unique model for the revitalization of rural and deindustrialized lands and communities–and shares lessons in citizen-led regeneration for all of us, regardless of where we live.
“Kuni” is both a reimagining of the Japanese word for nation and an approach to reviving communities. It shows what happens when dedicated people band together and invest their hearts, minds, and souls back into a community, modeling a new way of living that actually works. A kuni can be created anywhere–even a hamlet on the verge of extinction–and embodies 7 key principles:
Everyone is equal in a kuni
Kuni is equipped with a Regional Management Organization–a democratic organization that takes care of small public services
Kuni is a link between residents and repeat visitors
Life in a kuni is circular–consumption and production are in balance
Kuni embraces the whole person
Kuni can be a place for young people who seek interconnectedness
The time for kuni is now
Kuni offers a compelling vision of regenerative relationships that can take root in the United States–and anywhere. With spare and beautiful prose and useful principles for reviving rural places, this book addresses our longing for a hopeful revolution of everyday life.
— ALICE WATERS, founder of Chez Panisse restaurant, activist, and author
A guide to reviving and revitalizing forgotten places and communities through the Japanese principles of kuni
Kuni offers a unique model for the revitalization of rural and deindustrialized lands and communities–and shares lessons in citizen-led regeneration for all of us, regardless of where we live.
“Kuni” is both a reimagining of the Japanese word for nation and an approach to reviving communities. It shows what happens when dedicated people band together and invest their hearts, minds, and souls back into a community, modeling a new way of living that actually works. A kuni can be created anywhere–even a hamlet on the verge of extinction–and embodies 7 key principles:
Everyone is equal in a kuni
Kuni is equipped with a Regional Management Organization–a democratic organization that takes care of small public services
Kuni is a link between residents and repeat visitors
Life in a kuni is circular–consumption and production are in balance
Kuni embraces the whole person
Kuni can be a place for young people who seek interconnectedness
The time for kuni is now
Kuni offers a compelling vision of regenerative relationships that can take root in the United States–and anywhere. With spare and beautiful prose and useful principles for reviving rural places, this book addresses our longing for a hopeful revolution of everyday life.
176 pages, Paperback
Published October 18, 2022
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November 17, 2022This book is a blueprint for healing the divide between city and country and an account of one visionary Japanese man’s fight to bring back a neglected area of Niigata Prefecture.
Tsuyoshi Sekihara returned to the countryside after a company he co-owned in Tokyo went bankrupt. He felt like a complete failure in life. Returning to the countryside close to, but not exactly where he had been reared, he stumbled upon a village that seemed to be frozen in time, Joetsu City in Niigata Prefecture. He admired its quiet beauty, and as he got to know this area, he was charmed by its self-sufficiency and functional beauty: people here made do with what they had, and did not covet what they did not need.
In Japan, as in many parts of the U.S., rural areas are languishing, hollowed out by the flight of young people to the big city to pursue a more exciting life. In the U.S. such ghost towns are often victims of the consolidation of farms and farmlands that have left little room for the small family farmer; the wealth of these communities has been siphoned off by the globalized food system.
Sekihara went on to become a guru of rural revitalization with his philosophy of kuni, or community, and his search for the “right-sized” community. Kuni are not about scaling up when something is working, but about finding the optimal size that will allow for economic independence, humane scale, environmental sustainability, a protection of traditional crafts and folkways, and a revived sense of the Japanese reverence for nature.
The book is co-written with Richard McCarthy (Think Like Pirates), who in many ways is Sekihara’s western counterpart. The former executive director of Slow Food USA has devoted his life to the issues of bridging the urban-rural divide and organizing public markets and regional and local food systems. I saw the duo speak at the Japan Society in New York a while back, and knew I wanted to read this book when it came out. The interplay of their voices, approaches and experiences makes for a valuable read for anyone who feels their life is out of balance and is searching for that “right-sized” community.
Tsuyoshi Sekihara returned to the countryside after a company he co-owned in Tokyo went bankrupt. He felt like a complete failure in life. Returning to the countryside close to, but not exactly where he had been reared, he stumbled upon a village that seemed to be frozen in time, Joetsu City in Niigata Prefecture. He admired its quiet beauty, and as he got to know this area, he was charmed by its self-sufficiency and functional beauty: people here made do with what they had, and did not covet what they did not need.
In Japan, as in many parts of the U.S., rural areas are languishing, hollowed out by the flight of young people to the big city to pursue a more exciting life. In the U.S. such ghost towns are often victims of the consolidation of farms and farmlands that have left little room for the small family farmer; the wealth of these communities has been siphoned off by the globalized food system.
Sekihara went on to become a guru of rural revitalization with his philosophy of kuni, or community, and his search for the “right-sized” community. Kuni are not about scaling up when something is working, but about finding the optimal size that will allow for economic independence, humane scale, environmental sustainability, a protection of traditional crafts and folkways, and a revived sense of the Japanese reverence for nature.
The book is co-written with Richard McCarthy (Think Like Pirates), who in many ways is Sekihara’s western counterpart. The former executive director of Slow Food USA has devoted his life to the issues of bridging the urban-rural divide and organizing public markets and regional and local food systems. I saw the duo speak at the Japan Society in New York a while back, and knew I wanted to read this book when it came out. The interplay of their voices, approaches and experiences makes for a valuable read for anyone who feels their life is out of balance and is searching for that “right-sized” community.
November 3, 2022
Over the weekend, I cracked open the eagerly awaited/just published “Kuni: A Japanese Vision and Practice for Urban-Rural Connection” authored by Tsuyoshi Sekihara and Richard McCarthy.
Sekihara is the founder and leader of the RMO (Regional Management Organization) Kamiechigo Yamagata Fan Club. This entity is tasked with creating kuni (community) in an estimated 25 villages in rural Japan and its home is in Nakanomata Japan.
McCarthy is the founder of the regional organization Market Umbrella which is headquartered in New Orleans LA, and (while he and I worked there) had set its region as “Gator Alley” or “Gumbo Nation” along the Gulf Coast. In true U.S. fashion, neither description were precise to the entire region where the organization worked (“light and loose” versus Sekihara’s “grounded” region as McCarthy describes it) but it came pretty close.
Mirror Images of Each Other
In its opening pages, McCarthy describes the opportune meeting with Sekihara that came via outside funders and leaders bringing he and others to Japan a few years back where the two recognized their shared vision. From that beginning, Kuni is now raised as a worldwide strategy for connecting independent places that share resources creating a social contract with residents and visitors alike.
The book is clear that Kuni is not just another term for local or revitalization but it is meant:
To create something new to “trade on assets adored by outsiders but curated by locals”
Be compact but contain all of the elements needed for human life
Have the right scale
Balance between bridging and bonding activities
Choose pluralism over tribalism
Be close to nature
The RMO is tasked with creating Kuni’s preconditions and is partially funded by overseeing government projects as well as creating products that can be exported (although the raw materials must originate from within the RMO.) There are other RMOs in Japan, but none with the depth of the KYFC. (It may also be helpful to share that fan clubs are common in Japanese society for all types of organizations including corporations, many with their own mascots.)
By having McCarthy as the co-author, the application of Sekihara’s ideas can be illustrated in the hundreds of communities that McCarthy has worked or visited via his work with Market Umbrella, Slow Food US, Slow Food International, or his own current global Think Like Pirates firm.
You’ll find the steps that Sekihara took to his own “J-Turn” to KYFC with descriptions of the conditions he found as well as the opposition to their work which includes existing disrepair, “the Beast,” gatekeepers/dictators, and power hoarding — all of which any organizer should be able to recognize in their own communities and possibly even within their own organization.
The book is rich with lists of lessons and examples for any organizer including the brilliant Rice Covenant (which is more complex than you’d think), place polygamy, the concept of equilibrium, circularity, and spirals, the 2 Loops theory, Richard’s pirate ship metaphor, examples of Kuni-style organizing from around the world, and (a personal favorite of mine), explanations from both leaders as to why holding onto single proxies such as “local” or relying on national or global certifications can be entirely too limiting.
The book is available everywhere with a tour by McCarthy imminent (email him if you think you can create an event with him): get a copy, share its lessons, and invite these visionary idea into your work.
Sekihara is the founder and leader of the RMO (Regional Management Organization) Kamiechigo Yamagata Fan Club. This entity is tasked with creating kuni (community) in an estimated 25 villages in rural Japan and its home is in Nakanomata Japan.
McCarthy is the founder of the regional organization Market Umbrella which is headquartered in New Orleans LA, and (while he and I worked there) had set its region as “Gator Alley” or “Gumbo Nation” along the Gulf Coast. In true U.S. fashion, neither description were precise to the entire region where the organization worked (“light and loose” versus Sekihara’s “grounded” region as McCarthy describes it) but it came pretty close.
Mirror Images of Each Other
In its opening pages, McCarthy describes the opportune meeting with Sekihara that came via outside funders and leaders bringing he and others to Japan a few years back where the two recognized their shared vision. From that beginning, Kuni is now raised as a worldwide strategy for connecting independent places that share resources creating a social contract with residents and visitors alike.
The book is clear that Kuni is not just another term for local or revitalization but it is meant:
To create something new to “trade on assets adored by outsiders but curated by locals”
Be compact but contain all of the elements needed for human life
Have the right scale
Balance between bridging and bonding activities
Choose pluralism over tribalism
Be close to nature
The RMO is tasked with creating Kuni’s preconditions and is partially funded by overseeing government projects as well as creating products that can be exported (although the raw materials must originate from within the RMO.) There are other RMOs in Japan, but none with the depth of the KYFC. (It may also be helpful to share that fan clubs are common in Japanese society for all types of organizations including corporations, many with their own mascots.)
By having McCarthy as the co-author, the application of Sekihara’s ideas can be illustrated in the hundreds of communities that McCarthy has worked or visited via his work with Market Umbrella, Slow Food US, Slow Food International, or his own current global Think Like Pirates firm.
You’ll find the steps that Sekihara took to his own “J-Turn” to KYFC with descriptions of the conditions he found as well as the opposition to their work which includes existing disrepair, “the Beast,” gatekeepers/dictators, and power hoarding — all of which any organizer should be able to recognize in their own communities and possibly even within their own organization.
The book is rich with lists of lessons and examples for any organizer including the brilliant Rice Covenant (which is more complex than you’d think), place polygamy, the concept of equilibrium, circularity, and spirals, the 2 Loops theory, Richard’s pirate ship metaphor, examples of Kuni-style organizing from around the world, and (a personal favorite of mine), explanations from both leaders as to why holding onto single proxies such as “local” or relying on national or global certifications can be entirely too limiting.
The book is available everywhere with a tour by McCarthy imminent (email him if you think you can create an event with him): get a copy, share its lessons, and invite these visionary idea into your work.
September 17, 2023
I mean, the idea’s ok, i guess, but the book was pretty boring.
April 20, 2025
An agrarian focus in this short exposition of ideas regarding rural communities in Japan and the USA. The American author Richard McCarthy seems to awkwardly weld his work with small-scale farming and fishing to Sekihara's efforts to revitalise rural villages in Japan.
With regards to McCarthy, his writting about small producers is vague and mostly just emotive. Earlier this year I read an 8-page magazine article about slaughterhouse consolidation in North America, which was far more informative, regarding both the human and economic issues, which McCarthy, unbelievably, just avoids.
Sekihara's work is better, his ideas of a community size influencing democratic behaviours was intriguing. But I was not convinced by the idea of rural villages beoming a 'subscription service' for urban dwellers, the tenuous link to McCarthy here being the local rice production and sales.
Written after the pandemic, I can see why this book exists to capture an audience, and that is probably the reason this feels like a hurried amalgam.
With regards to McCarthy, his writting about small producers is vague and mostly just emotive. Earlier this year I read an 8-page magazine article about slaughterhouse consolidation in North America, which was far more informative, regarding both the human and economic issues, which McCarthy, unbelievably, just avoids.
Sekihara's work is better, his ideas of a community size influencing democratic behaviours was intriguing. But I was not convinced by the idea of rural villages beoming a 'subscription service' for urban dwellers, the tenuous link to McCarthy here being the local rice production and sales.
Written after the pandemic, I can see why this book exists to capture an audience, and that is probably the reason this feels like a hurried amalgam.
June 6, 2023
The ideas seem like notes or an outline presented stream of consciousness style. The tone is casual and conversational, and thus approachable. Still the concept of "kuni" seemed disjointed and underdeveloped. The book read more like a series of rambling reflective essays or diary entries without much of a unifying concept. I think it might be due to translation issues. Kuni appears to make an obvious, common sense case for rural development and support for back-to-the-land ideals, with an emphasis on flexibility, adaptation to change, and pragmatism. I do not disagree with these suggestions, but they are not revelatory either. I think what the eco-ppreciation movement has enough of, are vague ideals and dire warnings. What the world needs most is a concrete, detailed plan for humanity's withdrawal from the monstrous, yet extremely fragile concrete and glass precipices it has imprisoned itself in.
April 5, 2023
Ein interessantes Manifest als Grundlage und grundlegend interessante Gedankengänge und Ideen zur ländlichen Revitalisierung. Auch wenn ich persönlich aus Erfahrung der Umsetzung wenig Chancen gebe (zu viele potentielle Problemquellen bleiben auch bei diesen Ideen bestehen), so sind die Überlegungen doch teils sehr lesenswert. Leider wirkt das Buch ziemlich chaotisch vom Aufbau her, daher nur 3 Sterne.
November 11, 2024
This book offers some important ideas that would make living in small towns more viable.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews