Aiming to Become a World-Class Foundation through Public Trusts × Long-Term Donations — From Iida City, Nagano Prefecture, Driven by a Local Long-Term Perspective
The Yume Investment Foundation, based in Iida City, Nagano Prefecture, announces its 100-year dream to become a world-class foundation by leveraging a new public trust system, long-term donations, and hands-on support, driven by a local long-term perspective.
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- 📰 Published: April 1, 2026 at 17:30
The Yume Investment Foundation endorses April Dream, an initiative to make April 1st a day for announcing dreams. This press release is the dream of the Yume Investment Foundation.
From Iida City, Nagano Prefecture, a town with a population of 95,000, we aim to create a world-class foundation.
We are a small foundation, established just one year ago.
The world's largest Novo Nordisk Foundation (Denmark) has approximately 27 trillion yen, and the Gates Foundation (USA) has approximately 12 trillion yen.
Their scale is incredibly distant.
Nevertheless, we articulate this dream.
Because putting it into words is the first step to climbing together.
## The Mornings in Iida are Quiet.
About 4.5 hours from Tokyo. Iida City, a town in a valley surrounded by the Southern and Central Alps.
In the morning, when you open the window, you can see the mountain ridges. Trains run once an hour. Driving to a convenience store is an everyday scene.
Who would imagine that the headquarters of a foundation that will change the world is in this town?
However, the same thing once happened in Omaha, Nebraska, USA.
In a landlocked regional city in the US with a population of less than 500,000, Warren Buffett built Berkshire Hathaway, one of the world's largest investment companies.
Omaha is 5 hours from New York. Being away from the hustle and bustle of Wall Street allowed him to think on a time scale of decades, undisturbed by short-term noise.
Being in a rural area was not a weakness.
It was the best environment for long-term thinking.
We feel the same way.
## We Want to Apply "Compound Interest" to Donations.
Buffett changed the world through "long-term investment" in for-profit businesses.
We aim to change society through "long-term donations" to non-profit businesses. This also includes the sustainable growth of individual businesses such as agriculture, forestry, and fisheries in rural areas.
In Japan's non-profit world, there is a serious structural issue called "single-year reset thinking."
Grants end in one year. Applications must be resubmitted from scratch every year. The seeds of promising projects wither due to lack of funding the following year.
No matter how excellent a social entrepreneur's vision, they are not allowed the time to nurture it.
In the investment world, the power of compound interest has long been proven, but in the donation world, it's "give and done."
What if compound interest could also apply to donations?
Instead of ending in one year, what if it accumulated over 5 or 10 years?
What if people grew, businesses grew, regions grew, and their achievements in turn attracted further donations?
We call this "compound thinking."
Interestingly, the essence of compound thinking is also expressed in pitcher Yusei Kikuchi's interview, where he says, "You suddenly get good at baseball." Daily accumulation leads to a sudden breakthrough at a critical point.
We believe the same can happen in the world of donations.
At the core of our compound thinking mechanism are hands-on support, long-term donations, and public trusts.
When businesses create systems and enhance their management capabilities through hands-on support, the value of their invisible treasures (intangible assets) increases, often followed by an increase in financial assets such as cash and deposits.
Ultimately, local communities become richer. In the US, "Community Wealth" is one of the keywords that wealthy individuals focus on.
As is widely known, with the concern of various regions disappearing, regional revitalization in Japan is urgent.
## Today, a Door Opened for the First Time in 100 Years.
Today, April 1, 2026, the public trust system will transition to a new framework after a major revision for the first time in approximately 100 years (Cabinet Office explanation).
Until now, the "trustee" receiving funds from philanthropists for public trusts was effectively limited to trust banks. Trusts primarily involved money. Business activities were typically grants and scholarships, and due to the extensive procedures required, only about 370 cases were utilized nationwide in Japan in recent years.
That changes today.
Public interest corporations, NPOs, and others can now become "trustees." Securities, real estate, and intellectual property can also be entrusted. Beyond just providing grants, a wider variety of public interest projects can now be undertaken. While strict procedures remain due to tax incentives, even ordinary corporations now have expanded options for public interest activities using the new public trust system.
After 100 years, a firmly closed door opens today.
Yume Investment Foundation, as a group of professionals, is preparing to step through this door together with those who share our aspirations.
We will accept the "aspirations" of philanthropists and aspiring companies as public trusts, creating a vessel for long-term social change.
"Image of the New Public Trust" (Source: Cabinet Office)
## From Iida, to Japan, and to the World.
After reading this far, you might have thought:
"It's a foundation in Iida, for the local community, right? Others aren't interested, are they?"
While based in Iida, we support social entrepreneurs nationwide, holding a unique positioning of "Global x Local."
Representative Director Tanabe has continuously participated in Harvard University's Social Enterprise Conference (SECON) for 24 years since 2003. In 2026, he was featured in the conference's official SNS video interview for the first time as a Japanese person and was praised by past co-chairs as the "longest participant" (March 17, 2026, PR TIMES).
Since 2017, he has been involved with ActKnowledge (Center for Theory of Change) in New York, USA.
From Iida City, Nagano Prefecture, a town with a population of 95,000, we aim to create a world-class foundation.
We are a small foundation, established just one year ago.
The world's largest Novo Nordisk Foundation (Denmark) has approximately 27 trillion yen, and the Gates Foundation (USA) has approximately 12 trillion yen.
Their scale is incredibly distant.
Nevertheless, we articulate this dream.
Because putting it into words is the first step to climbing together.
## The Mornings in Iida are Quiet.
About 4.5 hours from Tokyo. Iida City, a town in a valley surrounded by the Southern and Central Alps.
In the morning, when you open the window, you can see the mountain ridges. Trains run once an hour. Driving to a convenience store is an everyday scene.
Who would imagine that the headquarters of a foundation that will change the world is in this town?
However, the same thing once happened in Omaha, Nebraska, USA.
In a landlocked regional city in the US with a population of less than 500,000, Warren Buffett built Berkshire Hathaway, one of the world's largest investment companies.
Omaha is 5 hours from New York. Being away from the hustle and bustle of Wall Street allowed him to think on a time scale of decades, undisturbed by short-term noise.
Being in a rural area was not a weakness.
It was the best environment for long-term thinking.
We feel the same way.
## We Want to Apply "Compound Interest" to Donations.
Buffett changed the world through "long-term investment" in for-profit businesses.
We aim to change society through "long-term donations" to non-profit businesses. This also includes the sustainable growth of individual businesses such as agriculture, forestry, and fisheries in rural areas.
In Japan's non-profit world, there is a serious structural issue called "single-year reset thinking."
Grants end in one year. Applications must be resubmitted from scratch every year. The seeds of promising projects wither due to lack of funding the following year.
No matter how excellent a social entrepreneur's vision, they are not allowed the time to nurture it.
In the investment world, the power of compound interest has long been proven, but in the donation world, it's "give and done."
What if compound interest could also apply to donations?
Instead of ending in one year, what if it accumulated over 5 or 10 years?
What if people grew, businesses grew, regions grew, and their achievements in turn attracted further donations?
We call this "compound thinking."
Interestingly, the essence of compound thinking is also expressed in pitcher Yusei Kikuchi's interview, where he says, "You suddenly get good at baseball." Daily accumulation leads to a sudden breakthrough at a critical point.
We believe the same can happen in the world of donations.
At the core of our compound thinking mechanism are hands-on support, long-term donations, and public trusts.
When businesses create systems and enhance their management capabilities through hands-on support, the value of their invisible treasures (intangible assets) increases, often followed by an increase in financial assets such as cash and deposits.
Ultimately, local communities become richer. In the US, "Community Wealth" is one of the keywords that wealthy individuals focus on.
As is widely known, with the concern of various regions disappearing, regional revitalization in Japan is urgent.
## Today, a Door Opened for the First Time in 100 Years.
Today, April 1, 2026, the public trust system will transition to a new framework after a major revision for the first time in approximately 100 years (Cabinet Office explanation).
Until now, the "trustee" receiving funds from philanthropists for public trusts was effectively limited to trust banks. Trusts primarily involved money. Business activities were typically grants and scholarships, and due to the extensive procedures required, only about 370 cases were utilized nationwide in Japan in recent years.
That changes today.
Public interest corporations, NPOs, and others can now become "trustees." Securities, real estate, and intellectual property can also be entrusted. Beyond just providing grants, a wider variety of public interest projects can now be undertaken. While strict procedures remain due to tax incentives, even ordinary corporations now have expanded options for public interest activities using the new public trust system.
After 100 years, a firmly closed door opens today.
Yume Investment Foundation, as a group of professionals, is preparing to step through this door together with those who share our aspirations.
We will accept the "aspirations" of philanthropists and aspiring companies as public trusts, creating a vessel for long-term social change.
"Image of the New Public Trust" (Source: Cabinet Office)
## From Iida, to Japan, and to the World.
After reading this far, you might have thought:
"It's a foundation in Iida, for the local community, right? Others aren't interested, are they?"
While based in Iida, we support social entrepreneurs nationwide, holding a unique positioning of "Global x Local."
Representative Director Tanabe has continuously participated in Harvard University's Social Enterprise Conference (SECON) for 24 years since 2003. In 2026, he was featured in the conference's official SNS video interview for the first time as a Japanese person and was praised by past co-chairs as the "longest participant" (March 17, 2026, PR TIMES).
Since 2017, he has been involved with ActKnowledge (Center for Theory of Change) in New York, USA.
FAQ
What is the Yume Investment Foundation's goal?
Based in Iida City, Nagano Prefecture, the foundation aims to become a world-class foundation over 100 years by utilizing public trusts and long-term donations.
What exactly does "compound thinking" mean?
It's a concept where donations are not one-off but continuously accumulated over 5, 10 years, fostering people, businesses, and regions, creating a virtuous cycle where results attract further donations.
What changes with the new public trust system?
Public interest corporations and NPOs can now be trustees, and not just money but also securities and real estate can be entrusted. This allows for diverse public interest projects, significantly broadening the scope of utilization.