Last One Mile Community Spaces & Event Management for Regional Revitalization

Connecting people and communities through event-making

Tohoku Fudo Marathon & Festival

Tome City, Miyagi Prefecture

Event operations, volunteer management, and event website operation

2014 to 2021

Held in Tome City, Miyagi Prefecture, under the theme "connecting Tohoku with the world through marathon running," in a wish for recovery from the Great East Japan Earthquake. Last One Mile has been commissioned by the event office (Tohoku Fudo Marathon & Festival General Incorporated Association) to handle event operations and volunteer management since the first event in 2014.

Our primary mission is aid station operations along the marathon course, providing regional Tohoku delicacies as runner refreshments. The full marathon, half marathon, and fun run drew a total of 6,800 runners (2019 event figures). We handle the planning, procurement, on-site preparation and service, and volunteer coordination for 18 rounds of refreshments provided across 9 aid stations spaced every 2 kilometers. The event has received the Good Design Award's 4th Sports Promotion Award and the Commissioner's Award from the Japan Tourism Agency.

Connecting the world through snow mountain events

Freeride World Tour Hakuba Japan

Hakuba Village, Kitaazumi District, Nagano Prefecture

Volunteer management

2016 to 2017

Freeride is a competition in which athletes ski down a mountain from summit to base, judged on technique and style. In 2016, the first year the World Tour was held in Hakuba, and again the following year, Last One Mile organized and managed the volunteer team for event operations. Volunteers played roles in event reception, guiding, venue setup, live broadcast support, and equipment checks and transport.

Bringing people together around books to build community

Re:Public, "the bookstore you can stay at"

Hakuba Village, Nagano Prefecture

Joint planning and operation, space production

2023 to present

A shared bookstore and lodging facility born under the concept of "reviving a landscape with books," in Hakuba Village, which had no bookstores after the last one closed in 2014. A 5-minute walk from JR Hakuba Station, on the former bookstore site, it combines a shared bookstore where each shelf has its own owner, lodging, and a rental kitchen (cafe), rebuilding it as a "cultural facility" where flows of people and the related population circulate.

More than 100 volunteers from in and outside the village took part in self-renovation, with over 50 people participating as shelf owners. Since opening, the facility has stayed fully booked with guests from around the world, establishing a sustainable bookstore operation model. In March 2024, a partnership with the Nagano Prefectural Library also began.

Building community where connections are born

Yahoo! Volunteer Community Building

Volunteer community building

2020 to 2022

As one of 104 people selected out of 4,500 applicants for Yahoo Japan Corporation's side-job "gig partner" program, we contributed to community building and program planning for Yahoo! Volunteer. For "3.11" in 2021, marking 10 years since the Great East Japan Earthquake, we built connections on social media around the message "Remember the volunteering of that time / Share the gratitude of that time" and the hashtag "#TohokuVolunteer," alongside introducing disaster-area volunteer activities, working alongside Yahoo team members from planning through execution.

Building community where challengers gather

Manager of Sport x Tech Shared Office Operated by Dai Tamesue

Shibuya, Tokyo

Manager of coworking space / shared office (contracted operation)

2018 to 2020

At the launch of "Deportare Complex," a shared office run by Dai Tamesue — Japan's national record holder in the 400m hurdles and an Olympian at the Sydney and Athens Games — we served as manager, primarily overseeing the community of coworking space users.

Reviving memory, building community

"New Folktales" Project in Ono Town, Fukushima Prefecture

Ono Town, Tamura District, Fukushima Prefecture

Project planning and facilitation

2018

Last One Mile facilitated a unique and experimental initiative in Ono Town, Tamura District, Fukushima Prefecture, creating "new folktales" and physically recreating a scene from them within the surrounding satoyama landscape (Reconstruction Agency's "Fw: Tohoku" program).

Connecting through food, sharing regional appeal

Ranmeshi! Tohoku Fudo

Project planning and operation

2017 to 2018

An initiative to spread Tohoku's regional specialty foods, served at the Tohoku Fudo Marathon & Festival's aid stations, nationwide under the name "Ranmeshi" as refreshments for runners. Realized through selection for the Reconstruction Agency's "New Tohoku" information dissemination program.

A circle of support behind every challenge

Social Funding for Athlete Support

Building and operating the social funding site "Gacchaback"

2012

We supported American football player Tomotsuna Inoue's funding for his challenge in the U.S., and deaf athlete Yusuke Okabe's competitive activities, through the construction and operation of the social funding site "Gacchaback" (this service has since ended).