Kurashiki Shien LABO 〜 People Connecting Welfare and Society: Toward a Society Where Everyone Can Enjoy Life, Beyond Disability

Interview with Shoichi Sato, founder of Kurashiki Shien LABO

We spoke with Shoichi Sato, who founded Kurashiki Shien LABO, about the background to its activities and his thoughts on them.

We take a look behind the scenes of events that address divisions surrounding welfare.

How Kurashiki Shien LABO came to be

Could you tell us how you came to establish Kurashiki Shien LABO?

Sato (honorific omitted)

I have been involved in employment support for children with disabilities and have helped many of them enter society.

However, I realized that even after they found jobs and started working, the scope of their lives had not expanded.

Even after starting work, many of the children continued to live lives that consisted of going back and forth between home and work, no different from students who commute between home and school.

Their only way to spend the weekend was to go to a shopping mall. Their lives had not changed to include enjoyable activities such as going out for drinks with friends or attending concerts.

When I considered why their lives were not changing, I realized that they had almost no opportunities to take part in events held in society.

That made me think that we needed to provide people with disabilities opportunities to encounter things that enrich their lives, such as romance and entertainment.

How did you initially go about planning the project?

Sato

Around the beginning of 2021, I began discussing what we should specifically work to achieve with Ando, our other leader, and colleagues involved in welfare services.

We identified three concrete goals: “creating an environment where people with disabilities and their supporters can connect,” “creating points of contact between people involved in welfare and society,” and “developing a notebook to record support from childhood through adulthood.”

In addition, we clarified a fourth goal as the culmination of our activities: “holding a presentation to share our achievements with the local community.”

Around that time, I heard that a friend had started a matchmaking agency, so I asked whether we could hold matchmaking events for people with disabilities as well.

At the same time as preparing for the matchmaking event, we also began the application process for a grant from the Toyota Foundation.

Rather than simply applying for a grant, we began taking concrete action to achieve results in advance.

I imagine the COVID-19 pandemic had an impact in 2021. Were there many challenges to holding events?

Sato

The COVID-19 pandemic reduced opportunities to meet people, creating a particularly unsettling situation for those who needed support.

Precisely because opportunities to connect with others had decreased, we felt pressed to hold events as soon as possible.

However, public event spaces were closed across the board, and we struggled to find a venue.

Rather than giving up on events because of COVID-19, we pressed ahead, believing that it was precisely because circumstances were difficult that we needed to hold events for those who needed them.

The society Kurashiki Shien LABO aims for

How do you publicize your events?

Sato

Kurashiki Shien LABO has used social media to publicize its events.

People with disabilities also use social media in their daily lives, so they can gather information themselves.

I had the impression that at many events held in the past, participants with disabilities attended at the urging of their supporters.

However, if they continue to leave decisions to others, they will not develop a sense of agency as adults.

We continue to announce events on social media so that people can gather information themselves and decide for themselves whether to attend.

Is there anything you consider important when holding events?

Sato

Because we want people to experience the real thing, we invite professional performers and speakers.

Traditionally, events have been held across society with the aim of visiting and entertaining people with disabilities.

Some of these events have invited volunteer or amateur instructors.

I also feel that many were closed events held at specific facilities.

While these may certainly be one form of support, they were confined to the framework of welfare and distinguished people with disabilities.

Kurashiki Shien LABO does not hold special events exclusively for people with disabilities.

We hold events open to society that anyone can attend, featuring highly skilled professionals who are active in society.

How do you make these authentic events possible?

Sato

By holding events at dining bars where people can also drink alcohol, we offer authentic events that go beyond the realm of welfare.

Of course, everyone pays an admission fee, regardless of whether they have a disability.

It is our role to provide the ordinary opportunity to “enjoy an event of your own choosing with money you earned yourself.”

We believe the ideal is a society where events that everyone can enjoy, regardless of disability, are held as a matter of course.

Why did you choose Cafe & Bar KAG in Kurashiki City?

Sato

Our matchmaking seminars include not only classroom-style lessons but also matching events aimed at forming couples.

In other words, these events let participants put into practice what they learned in the lessons.

Holding a matching event in a conference room seemed rather uninspired, and we were having trouble finding a venue.

So, although I thought it might be difficult, I consulted Yuichi Akiba, president and CEO of Kurabiz Inc., which operates Cafe & Bar KAG.

Akiba understood the purpose of Kurashiki Shien LABO’s activities and readily agreed to let us use Cafe & Bar KAG.

He even came by the matching event.

He supported Kurashiki Shien LABO’s activities, saying, “Whether or not someone has a disability, everyone has feelings of wanting to fall in love or get married. I realized that they have feelings no different from ours.”

After that, he also began offering KAG as a venue not only for matchmaking events but for music and floral arrangement events as well.

The vision of Kurashiki Shien LABO

Is there anything you take care to keep in mind when holding events?

Sato

What we keep in mind when holding events is to avoid special accommodations as much as possible.

Whether the event is about matchmaking, music, or floral arrangements, we follow the same basic format as events held elsewhere.

The only slight difference is that some of the event staff have knowledge of how to support people with disabilities.

This helps make the venue somewhere people with disabilities can visit with confidence.

Rather than tailoring the event itself to people with disabilities, I think it is more important to make it easier for them to take part without feeling self-conscious.

By keeping support to a minimum, we aim to hold events that fall within the framework of welfare but do not look like welfare events.

What kind of activities would you like to pursue from here on?

Sato

Our next goal is to create more events that everyone can enjoy, regardless of disability, based on ideas from a wider range of people.

Most of the events we have planned so far have been led by Ando and me.

I’m sure some of the people who have helped run events with us have had wonderful ideas of their own.

We want to make it possible for many supporters to propose events by helping them develop their ideas and clarify the process of bringing an event to fruition.

Our goal is to create more opportunities for people with disabilities to connect with their local communities through a wide range of ideas.

Learning about new approaches to support

Since beginning local activities such as reporting and writing, I have had opportunities to interact with people with disabilities.

Before that, I had a closed-off job where I could make progress by meeting only a limited number of people, so I was at a loss when I first encountered people with disabilities.

There were times when I confused someone because I spoke to them inappropriately. Reflecting on that experience, I also studied the characteristics of people with disabilities.

It was an experience that made me keenly aware of the importance of knowledge about disabilities.

When I asked Sato how he makes events enjoyable for everyone, he gave the following answer:

“Some of the event staff have knowledge of how to support people with disabilities.”

Given my own experience, his answer really resonated with me.

If events are held without making any distinctions at all, perhaps not everyone will be able to enjoy them, regardless of whether they have a disability.

I realized that this is probably true not only of events but of society as a whole: for everyone to live happily, more people need to know how to support people with disabilities.

Rather than treating disability as a distinction, I too want to develop the knowledge needed to support others with empathy.

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