Local Promotion Type Project Started! The first product is a capsule toy of earthenware with a face in the shape of an incense burner excavated in Katori City. Capsule Toys of Excavated Incense Burner-shaped Earthenware with Faces to be on Sale from March 20

On March 20, 2025, P&P (located in Kashiwa City, Chiba Prefecture; Representative Director: Yoko Okudake), a general incorporated association engaged in the para-business production business, will launch a regional development project that won the "Sawara no Asatte PROJECT*1 " business contest held in 2024. The first product is a fragrance made in Chiba Prefecture. As its first product, the company began selling a capsule toy of a handmade deformed figure of an earthenware vessel with an incense burner-shaped face excavated in Katori City, Chiba Prefecture.

This project aims to promote cultural assets and high culture by converting them into subcultures such as animation and capsule toys to make them more accessible. The corporation is in charge of planning and managing the capsule toy products, and will support the employment of people with disabilities by manufacturing them through welfare for the disabled.

Cultural property (earthenware with incense burner-shaped face) x capsule toy

1 About "Sawara no ashita PROJECT

Sawara no ashita PROJECT" is an idea contest to co-create ideas to energize the local community. Under the slogan "The future of the region starts with the first step," the entire region supports the first step of those who want to start something in Sawara. (Chuo-ku, Tokyo) and Sawara Shinkin Bank (Katori City, Chiba Prefecture).

■ Background

In fiscal 2024, a major revision of the law was made in the area of disability welfare, and between March and July 2024, 329 offices were closed and approximately 5,000 people were laid off (according to a Kyodo News survey). Welfare offices now place even greater importance on "welfare-produced goods (in-house products)" produced by people with disabilities than before. Since the beginning of this fiscal year, we have been receiving an increasing number of calls for consultation from welfare agencies that have been faced with the problems of increasing added value and developing sales channels, and that do not know what to do.

We therefore decided to challenge the "Sawara no Asatte PROJECT," which has a high affinity with the method we have thought of, in order to think of a way to simultaneously increase added value and develop sales channels, and to communicate this method to society at large. By winning the excellence award in the contest, we were able to widely disseminate the method of simultaneously increasing added value and developing sales channels.

■How to simultaneously increase added value and develop sales channels in welfare-produced products

In the "Sawara no Ashita PROJECT" plan, cultural assets are sold as capsule toys, but they do not have to be capsule toys. We will incorporate elements of local cultural assets into the welfare products we have always made. Currently, an increasing number of municipalities across the country are trying to revitalize their local communities through tourism, so "mysterious masks" or products depicting local guardian deities that are only available in the local area and are not known to have existed, rather than simple, trendy memo pads or eco-bags, are more likely to promote tourism and gain the cooperation of the local community. This will help to promote tourism and gain the cooperation of the local community. In addition to souvenir shops at roadside stations and tourist spots, it is more likely to be sold at commercial facilities rooted in the community. While local characters, etc., are subject to difficult procedures and money flow, such as trademark rights and licenses, most cultural assets can be commercialized simply by obtaining permission from the place where the cultural asset is preserved and other related parties, as both patent and trademark rights are no longer applicable to them.

In addition, by becoming a member of the tourism PR team, you will be able to build a new network in the community, which will result in a deeper understanding of local disabilities.

■Product Information

As a first step, we will sell handmade deformed figure products of "Koro-shaped Earthenware with Face Mask "*2, which is a cultural asset of Katori City.

Product Information

［Product name] Jyutsu face-masked earthenware

［Price］ 500 yen

［Kind] ∞(Individual pieces vary according to the maker.)

［Features]

This is a handmade deformed figure product of "Incense burner-shaped earthenware with a face mask," a valuable cultural asset that can only be seen once a year.

The figures are made of oven-made clay, which is more fragile than plastic products, but this fragility gives them a flavor closer to cultural assets.

The POP on the face of the machine features a two-dimensional code to access a song sung by the "Incense burner-shaped earthenware with a face" that leads customers who do not actually purchase the machine to the digital content.

The capsule comes with a "spell" associated with witchcraft and "information on incense burner-shaped earthenware with a face" as a free gift.

Product image (excerpt)

2 About Incense burner-shaped earthenware with a face

Excavated in 1929 from the Ryomun Shell Mound, a National Historic Site, the censer-shaped earthenware with a face was made in the middle of the Late Jomon Period, approximately 3,800 years ago. Incense burner-shaped earthenware was actively produced mainly in eastern Japan from the late Jomon Period to the late Jomon Period, and was so named because it resembles incense burners used today. Its use is unknown, and it is thought to have been used for magical purposes, rather than for daily use. (Excerpt from Chiba Prefecture website)

Machine Location Information

Sawara Machiya-kan (499-1, Sawara-i, Katori-shi, Chiba Prefecture): Sales start on March 20.

Inae sweet shop (511, Sawara-i, Katori-shi, Chiba) Started selling on March 20

Roadside Station Mizu-no-sato Sawara (3981-2, Sawara-i, Katori-shi, Chiba): Late April

Schedule is subject to change.

Future expansion

In addition to "earthenware with a censer-shaped face", Katori City also has "attractive but little-known high culture" among its citizens. We will continue to produce products that are loved by both local residents and tourists visiting Katori City. We will continue to produce products that are loved by local residents and tourists visiting Katori City, and we will increase the number of locations where Gacha machines are installed by sequentially developing a sustainable system so that the idea that won this award will not be just an idea.

About Orizuru Gacha(R)

*Issues of Disability Welfare

Regional and office disparities in income for people with disabilities are becoming apparent. In the disability welfare industry, even if subsidies and subsidies are granted by the prefecture or the government, many offices are forced to close due to the lack of profitable businesses, and many people with disabilities have no place to go.

*Corona Disaster, where employment support for people with disabilities was left behind.

The source of income for most of the establishments is "in-house work. Some establishments pay as little as 18 yen per hour. Furthermore, due to the lingering effects of the new coronavirus infection, the number of domestic workers, which had been a source of dependence, has also been drastically reduced.

In order to break out of this situation, we have drawn up the "Origami Crane Gacha Project" as a business model that enables the disabled and welfare offices to generate profits by themselves and together with the local community, taking a lesson from the new coronavirus infection, and launched the project in 2022. Currently, the project has developed into "ParaGacha(R)," which sells not only origami crane products but also a variety of welfare products as capsule toys.

Image of "Orizuru Gacha(R)

About the Sawara no Ashita PROJECT award-winning plan

Yoko Okudake, the president of our corporation, and Mizuki Inamura, an employee of NID Corporation, formed "Katori Subculture Tourism PR Section. This plan combines analog and digital contents to create a new tourist attraction by animating the Japanese version of the Romeo and Juliet story "Hungry Master" from Omigawa, Katori City, and by making a capsule toy of the Jomon pottery "Koro-shaped earthenware with face mask" excavated in a shell mound in Katori City.

Currently, four people, including Hiroko Miyamoto and Kenichi Miyamoto, creators living in Sakura City, are working on this project.

About NID Inc.

Location: 1-8-10 Harumi, Chuo-ku, Tokyo

　　　　　　　　 Harumi Island Triton Square Building X 29F

President and Representative Director: Shuntaro Komori

URL : https://www.nid.co.jp/

About The Sawara Shinkin Bank

Location: 525 I, Sawara, Katori-shi, Chiba

President: Satoshi Komori

URL : https://www.shinkin.co.jp/sawara/

About P&P, a general incorporated association of employment support network for people with disabilities

Producing welfare products as a "trading company of welfare for the disabled" aiming to improve wages for the disabled.

■Outline of the corporation

Corporate name: General Incorporated Association "P & P" (Employment Support Network for Persons with Disabilities)

Representative: Yoko Okudake, Representative Director

Location: 7-19-34 Masuo, Kashiwa-shi, Chiba 277-0033

Establishment : April 2020

Business description: Para-business production business

URL ： https://www.network-pp.com/

About Para-Business

We believe that if there are para-sports in which people with disabilities find fulfillment in sports, there should also be para-business in which people with disabilities find fulfillment in work, and we are advocating Japan's first "para-business.

*"Para-business" is a registered trademark of P&P, a general incorporated association of people with disabilities employment support network.

Both job satisfaction and economic growth" for people with disabilities