Experiential training "Boso Craft Tourism" launched, transforming regional challenges into hands-on learning and creation.

The Boso Craft Tourism Council will begin offering "Boso Craft Tourism," an experiential corporate training program set in the Minamiboso area of Chiba Prefecture, where participants engage with nature and local issues, work with their hands, move their bodies, and converse with colleagues.

The setting is the Minamiboso area, where the sea and satoyama (traditional Japanese里山) are close by.

There are "regional issues" such as neglected bamboo forests, wildlife damage, abandoned farmland, and unused resources. However, we see these not merely as problems, but as learning materials, entry points for creation, and seeds for new value.

Cutting bamboo, touching leather, walking on the beach, creating from satoyama materials.
During this time, participants not only intellectually grasp sustainability but also feel it physically, think as a team, and re-evaluate their connection to work and society.

Transforming regional issues into "interesting learning"

When you think of corporate training, you might imagine something confined to a meeting room.
However, companies today require learning that goes beyond mere formality, opportunities to encounter diverse values, and chances to re-weave team relationships.

On the other hand, the Minamiboso area faces real challenges unique to a land that coexists with nature.
Neglected bamboo forests, increasing wildlife damage, fruit trees that have become difficult to maintain, and underutilized local resources.

Boso Craft Tourism is a program that confronts these local realities and goes beyond merely "knowing the issues" to "experiencing, creating, and discussing" them as a single learning process.

Three experiences that deepen learning significantly

1｜Hands-on experience with local materials

Bamboo, wild animal leather, satoyama materials, driftwood.
Participants create original tools and artworks using local materials. Working with your hands surprisingly sparks conversation and deepens insights.

2｜Physical activity experience in nature

Bamboo forest maintenance, beach cleaning, satoyama walks, harvesting experiences.
By going to the site, sweating, and touching the materials, regional issues become less of a "distant topic" and more of a personal sensation.

3｜Lectures on regional issues and circulation

Through dialogue with artisans, producers, and local players, participants learn about the wisdom and circulation mechanisms of the land. This is a time when words catch up with what was felt on site.

Corporate retreats, training, and getaways. Customizable to your objectives.

Boso Craft Tourism offers three main program categories tailored to corporate objectives.

For example, these experiences await: cutting bamboo and making fans.

Participants create "Boshu Uchiwa," a traditional local craft, using bamboo they cut themselves and leather from wild animals culled as pests. The story of a single fan connects bamboo forests, wildlife damage, craftsmanship, and culture.

Program content that deepens understanding of the region through materials

Touching gibier leather and contemplating the cycle of life

Participants experience crafting keychains and small items using leather from deer and wild boars culled as pests. By transforming hides that would otherwise be discarded into new valuable items through careful work, this program offers a tangible sense of wildlife damage, resource utilization, and the possibilities of craftsmanship.

Walking the coast and transforming driftwood into materials

Through beachcombing and beach cleaning, participants engage with marine environmental issues while creating crafts from collected shells and sea glass. Discoveries and dialogues emerge on a coastline where beauty and problems coexist.

Transforming surplus fruits into something desirable

Harvesting neglected fruit trees and off-spec strawberries, then processing them into preserved foods like jam. This is an experience where materials that were "unsellable" transform into "valuable gifts."

This program is supported by local players.

The Boso Craft Tourism Council is a collaborative body that connects natural resources, artisans, creators, local businesses, and providers of accommodation, food, and experiences in the Boso area.

What we value is not just providing experiences.
It's about encountering the local materials, local wisdom, and the people who live in that land.
It's about delivering learning to companies and teams that can only emerge from such encounters.

Experiencing by moving between three bases: sea, satoyama, and town.

Boso Craft Tourism utilizes the following bases depending on the objective.

Town, satoyama, coast.
By moving between bases with different environments, you can experience the depth of the Minamiboso region in a three-dimensional way.

Learning outcomes are already emerging.

In a preliminary corporate monitor program, many participants cited "hands-on craft time," "physical activity experiences," and "dinner and interaction time" as particularly memorable.

The changes in a team that arise from moving, creating, eating, and conversing together are something that cannot be gained by simply listening to lectures.
That is the great appeal of this program.

The administration also has high expectations for this program as a sustainable workation model that simultaneously promotes tourism and regional revitalization.

Main roles of the Council

・Coordination of regional resources

・Designing collaborations with artisans and local players

・Creating opportunities for dialogue and learning through craftsmanship

Players who know the region will provide one-stop support from material selection to venue creation.

Click here for details

HP▸　https://boso-craft-tourism.com/

Contact for this matter

Boso Craft Tourism Council
Email: boso.crafttourism@gmail.com
Contact Person: Miku Osakatani