A step toward increasing “population involvement” through food: “Takanawa Gateway Station Pocket Marché“ an initiative that connects producers and consumers

In this series of “note”, which provides an overview of the Shinagawa Development Project undertaken by the East Japan Railway Company (JR East) in the area surrounding Takanawa Gateway Station, we have introduced the concept of “collaborative project and experiment” for the new city, the initiatives toward regional cooperation, and the facilities that will be implemented.
>>https://note.com/tokyoyard

In this post, with a focus on “food”, we will introduce how JR East is addressing various challenges related to food through the next-generation marché* “Takanawa Gateway Pocket Marché'” held on December fifth and sixth. Toshihiko Matsuo of the JR East Shinagawa Development Project Team is here to tell you all about it.

*Marché is a french term for “market”. In Japan, the term refers to “farmers’ market”.

Toshihiko Matsuo (JR): East Japan Railway Company, Life-style Business-development Department, Shinagawa Business-development and Marketing Division, Deputy Manager. Toshihiko Matsuo has been involved in the Shinagawa Development Project since 2016. He has been in charge of product planning including projects in the business creation field.

Why JR East is addressing the challenges of “food”

The new city that JR East should aim for is, “a city where you can take on challenges”, a place of experimentation for creating enriched lifestyles with a focus on the next 100 years. We would like to address difficult social challenges through various experiments and implementations, and realize a city in which the people involved can grow together.

While urban development requires a multifaceted approach, the reason we consider “food” as one of the important themes is because we believe that food is a challenge that humanity has always faced and has remained unchanged for the past 100 years. It is difficult to predict the coming “challenges in the next 100 years’ time”, but we can’t afford to lose any one of these necessities for living: eating, sleeping, and playing. As a company that has been responsible for the social infrastructure of railroads, we should be addressing this universal challenge for the coming generation.

The distribution system based on mass production/consumption, food loss, climate change, natural disasters, and pandemic leading to major social transformation – these are some of the challenges that our society is facing right now. Amid these challenges, our goal is to build the following cycle. First, JR East's food initiatives will provide opportunities for consumers to learn more about producers and food, increasing the number of “people involved**” in the community. At the same time, the utilization of JR East's railroad network will activate exchanges and various forms of “transportation”, which in turn will foster local industry and culture.

** The phrase “population involvement” refers to involvement of people who are seeking regional experiences or interacting in a variety of ways with the community. It stands between “local population” and “visiting/nonresident population”.

As our first step in creating such a cycle and building a rich food environment for the new city, we have launched the “Takanawa Gateway Station Pocket Marché (hereinafter called PokeMarché)”.

Marché utilizing in-person, online, and Shinkansen (bullet train)

PokeMarché is a next-generation marché linked to the app “Pocket Marché (hereinafter called Pokemaru)”, which allows users to purchase seasonal foods directly from farmers and fishermen across the country.

After pre-ordering products through the app***, users can pick up products directly at the PokeMarché through face-to-face communication with local producers, engage in live commerce**** via the robotic avatar “OriHime”, and pre-order products for the next sale. We are trying to create purchase experiences based on in-person, e-commerce, and live commerce. The previous PokeMarchés have featured seasonal foods from producers in the Tohoku region.

*** Some products can be purchased on-site without reservation.

**** Live-commerce is a term used to describe the combination of streaming video and e-commerce. It is a growing trend in countries like China.

One of the major features of the PokeMarché is the use of the Shinkansen (bullet train) network, one of the major resources of JR East, to transport the agricultural products to Tokyo for sale at the marché.

Although we call PokeMarché the “next-generation of marché”, its goal is not only to make use of new technologies; it is about creating a sustainable community that intimately connects producers and consumers, helping people understand the entire picture behind the distribution process so that they can realize the quality of the vibrant food network that connects producers, consumers, and the earth. In order to achieve this, it is important to incorporate our output on various social challenges such as production/distribution systems and energy/environmental challenges into each of our products and initiatives.

In addition, “regional development” is positioned as an extremely important challenge for JR East. As a company that bears the name “East Japan“ in its name, we cannot turn our eyes away from the ingrained issues across Japan where JR East has its roots, along with the local challenges in the Takanawa Gateway Station area.

As we approach the 10th anniversary of the Great East Japan Earthquake, JR East’s idea behind PokeMarché is to revitalize Tohoku, one of the most important regions for JR East, and to apply the accumulated know-how and connections through this initiative to challenges in other parts of Japan.

The mission of “increasing local involvement through communication with the producers,” which Pokemaru aims to achieve in the wake of the Great East Japan Earthquake, overlapped with our ideal, and thus, we have decided to collaborate.

The goal of Pokemaru is “increasing population involvement”. Japan's domestic self-sufficiency rate is low, the population is aging, and both fisheries and agriculture are on the verge of collapse. In addition, panic buying of foodstuffs occurred as a result of state of emergency due to the pandemic. In the midst of this situation, many Pokemaru users living in Tokyo received messages from producers who heard the news, saying, “If you are in need of anything, please let us know so we can send you whatever you need”.

In today's world where loneliness is a social issue, it is important to be able to build human relationships that transcend distance and help each other in times of need. It makes you want to meet the producer, visit the place, and by going there again and again, it becomes your second home. The idea of Pokemaru, which aims to bring back the true form of relationship between food and people, came together with that of the Shinagawa Development Project and we have decided to hold the PokeMarché in cooperation.
(Hiroyuki Takahashi, CEO, Pocket Marché, Inc.)

Hiroyuki Takahashi, CEO, Pocket Marché, Inc.

Tackling the standardization of produce and pressure on producers

One of the challenges of local food that JR East is tackling is the standardization of produce in a distribution system based on mass production/consumption, and the difficulty smaller-scale producers have meeting this challenge.

In a typical marché, producers, products, and consumers gather at a marché venue. Because of the costs involved in logistics, transportation, and the venue fees, it is difficult to make a profit unless the event is held at a terminal station or location where a certain amount of sales can be expected. Hence, it is difficult to create a viable business unless the products are stocked in large quantities and sold at low prices.

In this way, it becomes difficult to stock exclusive crops that incorporate labor-intensive production methods that cannot be produced on a large scale. As a result, it is necessary to standardize products , and imperfect produce that falls outside of the distribution system will be rejected. This structure is difficult for small-scale producers to adapt to, and is also a major challenge in terms of ensuring food diversity and reducing food loss. This is also true for distribution channels such as large supermarkets/retail stores, where products of consistent quality can be purchased at low prices in any store.

Despite the fact that the taste of agricultural products changes every year depending on the weather, consumers demand a consistent product. Even if the weather is stable, the price of the product will fall as the production volume increases. In other words, even if the producers harvest a lot, the more they work, the less money they make. Mr. Takahashi of Pokemaru, who has been involved with primary producers for a long time, also pointed out these structural problems in Japanese agriculture.

To address these challenges, PokeMarché will take an approach to meet small needs with small supply, using “in-person, e-commerce, and live commerce” purchasing experiences.

In future years, Takanawa Gateway Station and its partner Pokemaru will play a role in matching small-scale producers with distribution systems that each suit their production methods and with consumers, while allowing them to sell products and manage inventory online. In this way, there will be no need to produce and transport more products than needed or have already been paid for. In other words, we are ultimately trying to prevent the “need to transport products that may or may not sell”.

In addition, live online commerce using robotic avatars such as “OriHime” will allow consumers to learn the story behind the producer without that person being on-site, thus experiencing the missing communication in real life.

By interweaving online and offline sales, the project aims to enable consumers to choose the foods and producers that best suit their needs, to learn more about them, and to implement a system in the city that reduces the burden on producers and the environmental burden caused by overproduction and transportation/travel costs. These initiatives will start with supporting producers in the Tohoku region, and will be expanded to other regions across Japan.

“OriHime” is an alter-ego robot that can be manipulated via remote control. By placing OriHime in “a place where people would want to go, had they not been restricted in their mobility”, they can communicate with others “as if they were there”, thus overcoming the limitations of mobility.

Why we utilize Shinkansen for load transport

In addition to conducting commerce online and offline, one of the biggest features of PokeMarche is the transportation using the Shinkansen, one of the hallmarks of JR East. We believe that the “speediness” and “reliability” of the Shinkansen, which only JR can provide, will be a major key to overcoming some challenges.

The “speediness” of the Shinkansen enables delivery of freshly harvested produce to Tokyo by noon with its original aroma and taste intact. It also enables transportation of products that can only be sold fresh, and for them to be sold directly and swiftly from the producer to the consumer.

In addition, the “reliability” of the Shinkansen, which is less affected by weather conditions and traffic congestion than other means of transportation, can reduce the risk of food distribution loss, i.e., the risk that producers will “not be able to distribute the products they have produced”.

The starting point of this attempt to apply “speediness” and “reliability” of the Shinkansen for the marché was our challenge to redefine the value of “transportation” and effectively utilize JR East’s resources including its railway network, in the midst of global challenges such as food loss, energy, natural disasters, and climate change, as well as the social turning point like the postponement of the Olympic Games following the pandemic.

Taking a longer time to sell simply means a shorter time for the food on the store shelf to spoil, which leads to an increase in food waste. It is said that food loss and the production of discarded food account for 38% of the energy consumption in the world's food system, and we believe that transportation using the Shinkansen could be one of the most effective ways to reduce food loss and food waste.

Seri (Japanese parsley) from Miyagi Prefecture sold at the PokeMarché. Due to its difficulty in mass production and maintenance of pristine quality, it’s difficult to distribute nationwide.

In addition, the Shinkansen and other rail networks emit less CO2 than other modes of transportation, and the energy needed to operate them is procured mainly from the JR East’s own power generation, a portion of which is clean energy from hydropower and other sources. Furthermore, by using the vacant space of the Shinkansen for transportation, the project aims to reduce the energy cost of transportation.

Although there is a challenge to figure out a way to expand the service to areas where the Shinkansen does not stop without compromising speediness and punctuality, we will continue to address the aforementioned challenges through experiments in various initiatives such as the PokeMarché.

JR's major advantage is its nationwide railroad network and the presence of a wide range of group companies. It is precisely because JR East has multifaceted and large-scale resources, that we believe we can establish a foothold for a healthier food system from a long-term perspective.

Cooperation with Toshihiko Matsuo from JR East
Interview and Edit by Takuya Wada
Photograph by Yutaro Yamaguchi
Translation by Keitaro Takama
Content Direction by blkswn publishers Inc.

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