September 09, 2024
Fifth social event for satoyama practitioners
Hello, everyone. I am Keisuke Saito, the mayor of Yoichi.
It is a great honor for our town to host the fifth social event for satoyama practitioners.
When I participated in the third event in 2022, I joined a discussion on food-themed regional branding with other panelists including Soichiro Miyashita, who was the mayor of Mutsu and is now the governor of Aomori Prefecture. The experience gave me many ideas on how we might take advantage of regional resources. In Yoichi, we have been working to identify untapped resources and promote them.
Yoichi has long been known for a nearby herring fishing ground. Blessed with a relatively mild climate, it has also developed as a fruit-growing region since the Meiji Era (1868-1912), making it a standout among Hokkaido’s regions. In particular, Yoichi farmers were the first in Japan’s private sector to succeed in cultivating apples. Today, the town boasts the largest apple production in Hokkaido. Nikka Whisky Yoichi Distillery came to be widely known in Japan after the TV serial “Massan” aired on NHK. The company actually began as Dai Nippon Kaju, manufacturing processed apple products.
Today, wine is a rising industry in Yoichi. Cultivation of wine grapes began in earnest in the 1980s, and the town now boasts many European varieties of wine grape that were once thought to be difficult to grow in Japan. The number of wineries in Yoichi began to increase rapidly in the 2010s, and some of their wines are served at world-renowned restaurants.
A wine’s charm increases as one experiences the climate, soil and culture of the land that nurtured it. In the upcoming event, active satoyama practitioners fascinated by Yoichi’s land, culture and potential will participate, along with high school students representing our town. I am looking forward to having exchanges with experts, including Mayor Kenya Katayama of Niseko, the most advanced municipality in terms of inbound tourism in Hokkaido, and witnessing the chemistry they may touch off.
I understand that the past social events for satoyama practitioners have been successful in many ways. I have great expectations for this year’s event in Yoichi to stimulate active discussion on the theme of “Satoyama × inbound: Hokkaido’s potential” and inspire creative ideas. I also hope that the event will contribute to the development of Yoichi, Niseko and other municipalities of the Shiribeshi region, as well as Hokkaido as a whole.
It is my wish that the event in Yoichi will create an opportunity to bring together diverse people and inspire various ideas for taking advantage of local resources to revitalize the entire region.
I am looking forward to seeing you all in Yoichi!
余市町長の齊藤啓輔です。第５回Satoyama実践者交流会の開催を非常に光栄に存じます。
余市町はニシン漁で栄えた街としての歴史を有するだけでなく、比較的温暖な気候から北海道では珍しい果樹産地としても発展してきました。特にりんごは日本で初めて民間栽培に成功して以来、現在でも全道一の生産量を誇ります。そんな余市町で現在盛り上がりを見せているのがワイン産業です。1980年代から醸造用ぶどうの栽培が本格化し、2010年代からはワインの製造まで手掛けるワイナリーが急増しており、世界的なレストランでも取り扱われるようになっています。
今回は余市という土地や文化、その可能性に魅せられ、この地で里山実践者としてご活躍されている方々、そんな余市町で学び生活している高校生たちが本町の代表として登壇いたします。北海道のインバウンド最先進地であるニセコ町の片山町長をはじめとする有識者の皆様との交流と、そこから生まれる化学反応を私自身楽しみにしています。活発な議論が展開され、独創的なアイディアの創出や余市・ニセコをはじめとする後志管内、そして北海道全体の更なる発展に寄与するものになることを大いに期待しております。
余市町で多くの出会いが生まれ、地域の資源を活かした地域全体の活性化に向けた多様なアイディアが生まれる場になればうれしく思います。
