1300 Years of Hot Springs, 500 Years of Tea, 400 Years of Pottery. We Want to Change Japanese Travel with Ureshino's Regional Resources.

**This press release is a dream shared by businesses that resonate with the April Dream project, aiming to make April 1st a day overflowing with dreams, to be realized eventually.**

**Our company endorses April Dream, which aims to make April 1st a day to share dreams. This press release is the dream of "Wataya Bessou Co., Ltd."**

Wataya Bessou Co., Ltd. (Location: Ureshino City, Saga Prefecture; Representative Director: Yoshihiro Obara; hereinafter Wataya Bessou) is committed to working as one team towards the dream of delivering regional resources at their inherent value and changing Japanese travel, centered on Ureshino Onsen, which boasts a history of over 1300 years.

## We Want to Deliver Regional Resources at Their "Inherent Value"

Across Japan, "invisible regional capital" nurtured over long histories lies dormant. However, much of it is being lost due to population decline and the shrinking regional economy, without being properly evaluated.

Ureshino possesses unique regional resources: 1300 years of hot spring culture, 500 years of Ureshino tea, and 400 years of Hizen Yoshida-yaki pottery. Representative Yoshihiro Obara has organized this structure as a "three-layer structure." The first layer is the Regional OS (Ureshino Onsen, Ureshino Tea, Hizen Yoshida-yaki), the second layer is Wataya Bessou's 20,000 tsubo (approx. 16.3 acres) land, and the third layer is business. By creatively combining these three layers, we are creating unprecedented stay experiences.
"There is value in an unpretentious daily life." This is the fundamental philosophy of Wataya Bessou.

## Dream Experimentation Ground: Ureshino Living Lab

In 2020, triggered by the crisis of temporary closure due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Wataya Bessou decided to open its 20,000 tsubo premises as a "living field for empirical testing." Then in 2022, an incubation facility was established within the ryokan. The OIC (Onsen Incubation Center), opened with Innovation Partners Co., Ltd., currently hosts 18 companies. It is a completely new place where companies from different industries work together and soak in hot springs together in the extraordinary setting of a hot spring ryokan. The empirical project "Ureshino Living Lab" (URESHINO LIVING LAB), based on this OIC, will officially start in February 2026. New values are continuously emerging from cross-industry co-creation, using Wataya Bessou's daily life itself – accommodation, food, and hot springs – as its field.