Do you want to hear real stories of how ecovillage works?
Do you want to meet people who are leading the change and ask them about their learnings & experience?
Are you curious about how eco-community in urban setting can thrive?

As One Community - an urban ecovillage community in Suzuka, Japan will be sharing their ecovillage experience in the July Community Call of Global Ecovillage Network Oceania & Asia.

You will meet community builders and youth, you will hear their story of how the As One community came about, their famous method of conflict resolution "ScienZ" and meet young people who have found themselves going through transformational experience here.

This call will be held on Friday - July 22th 2022 @ 3-5PM UTC+9 (check local time here).

This session is a part of GENOA Community Call which is held every 2 month. Together with learning the stories of As One Community, you will get the latest updates from the ecovillage movement globally and in the region.

The session is open for anyone who is interested in the ecovillage & regenerative movement.

About As One Sukuza Community

Started in 2001 with the ambition to realize a happy society free of conflict and confrontation and in harmony with nature. A borderless community called AS-ONE Network Suzuka COMMUNITY, was born in Suzuka, a typical mid-sized city known as the city of Honda Motor Company. Nowadays, their ability to talk about everything in a safe manner has made it possible to build good relationships smoother, more lasting, less wasteful, and to live on just over half of Japan's current energy consumption, even in urban areas.

The name "AS-ONE" is taken from a line in John Lennon's masterpiece, "Imagine": "The world will be as one”. From 10 members at first, there are now more than 100 members, working together for "One Society, like a big family".

Grateful for the communication problems they faced in 2004. They had come to realize that neither amount of enthusiasm, eagerness nor special abilities, talents, or combined experiences, were enough in themselves to ensure daily smooth functioning of a healthy and thriving community.

Until then, there was little difference from other organizations. If we didn't take the step, discrepancies among members would continue to occur. A movement was born to examine the troubles one by one as a resource. They were keenly aware of the need to study people and society from scratch, and as a result, they established the non-profit organization, The ScienZ Institute; meaning Scientific Investigation of Essential Nature from Zero. The focus was to observe the reality of daily communication and decision-making processes, and to create a society for people, in which people can talk about anything from the heart and be with each other, and where anyone can live their lives as they are. A new social system has begun to be built and kept being tested and tried in the community.

In that society, there is no coercion or constraint of any kind, that is, there is no hierarchy or order. The close family-like relationships have also given rise to an economy that does not require money, that is, an economy that does not require exchange, reward, or distribution.

In order to allow people to learn what they find there by exploring, rather than being taught, they have established the ScienZ School in 2006, which is open to the public, and participants come from all over to learn. There, they are freed from individualism and are able to become free to talk freely with each other without pressure.

Since 2006, new community businesses have emerged and stabilized their economic base, such as a homemade LunchBox shop that sells and delivers more than 1,000 boxed lunches to Suzuka residents around the city, thus increasing local consumption of local products from Suzuka Farm Co: the community farming company. The Suzuka Culture Station, a cultural enterprise with some private schools established in 2010. Here is a platform and station where Suzuka residents and the community can exchange the latest information.

Since 2010, the activities with city dwellers have been increasing. It is developing the "Farmland Project," which restores and repurposes abandoned farmland and develops it so that local families can enjoy farming and harvesting. We are also helping to reforest traditional floristries which had been designated as the city's most important biodiversity project but had been neglected. Learning from the elderly in city how to make traditional Japanese charcoal kilns, these activities are trusted not only in Suzuka City but also in Japan.

Nowadays, there has been gradually increasing people who want to learn from them about community building and new ways of life. Such people come to visit or stay for monthly study tours. Since 2014 the learning programs with other organizations have been held. The College of Sustainable Society Building, GEN-Japan’s EDE has been held since 2017, and some others in order to learn from the life of the community.

And the Science Academy has started with long-term participants from Japan, Switzerland, Brazil, and South Korea who are learning about real community building.

Find out more:

https://ecovillage.org/japans-as-one-community/
http://as-one.main.jp/English/

Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ISw34Ud99Ek