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Hitachi
Research & Development

My Vegetables is an initiative designed to reconnect agriculture, people, and cities and make community living more enjoyable. Get your selected vegetables cooked at a restaurant of your choice while learning more about local farmers. A chance to take your own vegetables in your own hands.

Reconnecting Farms and People in Kokubunji

Suburban cities face a variety of challenges and Tokyo’s Kokubunji is no exception. The city prizes its luscious greenery and a long agricultural history, but the people who have lived there for generations have to build a rich society together with those who have been drawn by the city’s urban development.

Kokubunji boasts a 300-year-old agricultural industry and the vegetables and other agricultural products produced here are fondly known as Koku Vege. So, we considered ways in which Kokubunji residents could feel closer to Koku Vege and to make new connections with local famers and restaurants through Koku Vege. One of those projects is the My Vegetables initiative.

Creating Communities through Vegetables

My Vegetables is a system that enables citizens to carry fresh vegetables grown in Kokubunji to a restaurant of their choice for cooking and eating. A dedicated web app helps local people build new relationships between farmers, citizens, and restaurants through vegetables.

1Carry Your Own Vegetables. Deepen Understanding

Select your vegetables from the My Vegetables booth. Access the web app using the 2D code attached to the vegetable to learn more about it. The app also displays photos and messages from the farmers who grew the vegetables.

2 Search for the Right Restaurant to Cook Your Delicious Vegetables!

Now, it’s time to choose the restaurant you want to cook the vegetables. The app displays name and addresses of restaurants, as well as the dishes they cook. Find a dish you like and call the restaurant to make a reservation.

3Where’s the Restaurant? Let’s Take Our Vegetables there.

Put the vegetables into a special bag and bring them to the regional restaurant you have selected. The web app map will guide you to the restaurant, where you hand over the vegetables.

4Delicious! Let’s Tell People on Social Media

The restaurants will prepare a special menu for the vegetables you have selected. We are sure eating vegetables grown in a nearby farm and cooked in a local restaurant will be a delicious and fun experience. If you think so too, please share your impression and photos on social media using the code on the luncheon mat.

A New Koku Vege Experience

The Bring and Eat. My Vegetables event held in November and December 2018 at the cocobunji Plaza in a building adjacent to the JR Kokubunji station boasted an array of locally harvested carrots, Chinese cabbage, green papaya, and autumn poem vegetables. Hundreds of citizens, including young couples with children and older people, came to the event, and many of them commented that they were getting to know Koku Vege for the first time or that they bought their first Koku Vege.
The My Vegetables campaign seemed to help many people gain a new sense of Koku Vege They enjoyed carrying their chosen vegetables to a restaurant of their choice and posted messages on social media saying that the vegetables they had brought themselves were delicious. The local farmers said how happy they were to see citizens enjoy cooking the vegetables they had grown.
In the survey we conducted, 95% of participants responded that they were very satisfied or satisfied with the event, and farmers and restaurants said that they felt closer to their customers and that they wanted the initiative to continue.

Inspiring Innovation Together with Local People

The My Vegetables event is a great example of Future Living Lab thinking. When we launched our activities in the Kokubunji area, we had discussions with various local people who supported the Koku Vege effort, including people delivering Koku Vege from farmers to restaurants, the agricultural designer responsible for the promotional design of the vegetables, farmers, restaurants, people involved in community development through art in Kokubunji, and people involved in regional promotion at the Kokubunji city hall.
We challenged a new approach to community building by discussing and cooperating with local people and linking farms, people, and cities through the Koku Vege. It might only be a small development, but we believe this represents a solid first step towards creating innovation with the local community.
In October 2018, the Research & Development Group, Hitachi, Ltd, and Kokubunji City signed a comprehensive partnership agreement to invigorate the local community through innovation creation . The agreement provides a solid foundation for working together to create innovations designed to solve regional issues.
Today, people continue to rise to the challenge of revitalizing communities and creating new communities in areas across Japan, and we intend to continue our drive to build a brighter future from specific regions.

Civic Participation Event: Bring and Eat. My Vegetables
Building a participatory system for citizens to support the local production and consumption of local vegetables.

Local cooperators
Koku Vege, Kokubunji City, cocobunji Plaza, local farmers, local restaurants, D-Land
Participating citizens
Approx. 60 local citizens of Kokubunji City and environs.
Event dates
November 24, 25 and December 16, 2018