Re:Public, the "bookstore you can stay at," receives the 2024 Good Design Award

Last One Mile Inc. (Representative Director Naobumi Tanaka), together with Maruya Shoten LLC, has received the 2024 Good Design Award (Award No. 24G181482) for Re:Public, the shared bookstore and lodging facility the two companies co-created.

Re:Public was born under the concept of "reviving a landscape with books" in Hakuba Village, Nagano Prefecture, which had no bookstores after the last one closed in 2014. Centered on books, it combines a bookstore, lodging, and a rental kitchen (cafe), rebuilding the site as a "cultural facility" where flows of people and the related population circulate.

With no dedicated budget, the project was carried out through self-renovation involving more than 100 volunteers from in and outside the village. Over 50 people took part as shelf owners, together creating new infrastructure for knowledge and culture. Since opening, guests from around the world have kept the facility fully booked in its first year, establishing a sustainable bookstore operation model. In March 2024, a partnership with the Nagano Prefectural Library also began.