From Hamamoto at TIMEWELL
This is Hamamoto from TIMEWELL Corporation.
It All Started with Travel – Revitalizing Local Communities and Japanese Industry
It All Started with Travel – Revitalizing Local Communities and Japanese Industry Through IESAUNA – Vanwaves Co., Ltd.
I've loved traveling since I was a child. It all began when I was five years old and took a train to the next station with my cousin Kinoshita. From there, I kept going farther and farther—backpacking around Japan and eventually overseas. Among all the ways to travel, what I loved most was converting my car slightly and doing van-life style road trips.
What I loved about car travel was the freedom from time and place constraints—I could follow my curiosity wherever it led. I discovered new things I liked, and I could spend time being truly myself.
During my travels, eating delicious local food was great, but what I found most exciting was meeting and talking with people from the places I visited. I hadn't thought of myself as someone who particularly enjoyed socializing, but those experiences revealed a side of me I hadn't known.
Building a network of acquaintances and friends across Japan, and having the feeling of a "home base" in various places—I came to see this as an incredibly precious part of life that made it richer.
So, driven by the desire to eventually turn "a life lived like a journey" into my work, I started a camper van lease and rental business.
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Overcoming Great Hardships – A Mindset I Still Hold Dear
The hardest part when I first started the business was cash flow. Looking back, there may have been unnecessary costs, but honestly, in the beginning, there was so much I didn't know.
Manufacturing the sauna products required lot-based ordering (※), so we needed a certain amount of cash upfront. That's why my partner Kinoshita and I started helping out with an acquaintance's coating business.
At the time, we were right in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic, and antibacterial sprays were selling extremely well. So we sourced antibacterial agents and liquid bottles, made our own logos and ingredient labels, filled the bottles, applied stickers, and sold them as products.
We worked desperately, barely sleeping, and sometimes asked family members to help. It was genuinely hard, but by experiencing the struggle of creating a product yourself and generating value from scratch, I really felt in my bones how a business is built. Back then, I would deliberately shorten deadlines and develop new customers to put pressure on myself.
On the cash flow front—I actually placed the sauna product order before the loan was approved. I knew that if I waited for the loan, I wouldn't make the release date on "Sauna Day" (March 7th), so I moved ahead. When I thought through the business plan, I was convinced it would definitely work. The loan ultimately came through, but if it hadn't, I don't think we'd be where we are today.
Now That the Business Has Been Growing Gradually
Now that the business has been growing gradually, we face a daily cycle of choices and decisions. In pursuing the business, my conviction of "absolutely being able to make it"—which I hold until I've thought things through completely—hasn't changed since those early days.
Not Just a "Great Sauna Experience"—We Want to Energize Japanese Industry
Most of our IESAUNA customers are individual consumers, but over the past year or so, we've been expanding to corporate clients as well. This is because we recognized the need to involve others in order to provide customers with a truly great sauna experience.
The value of a sauna experience changes dramatically depending on the combination of sauna, cold bath, and outdoor relaxation, as well as the surrounding environmental design. When I thought about how many different elements contribute to what makes a sauna great, I realized that if we could partner with, say, a housing manufacturer that handles exterior spaces, we could also build a complete pre- and post-sauna experience. So I want to expand the range of what we can offer by collaborating with others in areas we can't cover ourselves.
The "IESAUNA IRORI"—which lets you safely enjoy an indoor sauna using electricity without an open flame—was also developed to meet customer needs, but that's not the only reason.
Through a personal connection to the Ota Ward area in Tokyo, where our director Kinoshita lives, we built relationships with the small factories in Ota Ward. There are approximately 3,500 small factories there, and many of the people running them are supportive of supporting ventures. At the same time, we felt the pressing issue of the declining number of manufacturing companies and factories in Japan. By creating a uniquely Japanese sauna product, we wanted to contribute, even in a small way, to solving the challenges these small factories face and to reviving Japanese manufacturing.
When I Was Stationed in Indonesia During My Corporate Days
When I was stationed in Indonesia during my corporate career, the local people there still trusted the quality and after-sales service of "Made In Japan" products.
When people would say "Japanese products are just different," it stayed with me—I always felt it was something to be proud of. The feelings I had back then, the sense that now is the time to shape them through our own business and energize Japanese industry, is what drove us to develop the product.
Now Is the Time – Challenging Regional Revitalization Through Sauna
Going forward, we want to not only develop products but also actually open facilities. In fact, in July 2023, we purchased approximately 3,000 square meters of land in Kimitsu City, Chiba Prefecture. We are currently working on developing a private sauna facility.
On the premises, we want to set up products like the IESAUNA IRORI in a showroom-style format, build a sauna using Kimitsu City's high-quality local timber, and spread that local production and consumption model nationwide. We also want to add an RV park so that people can stay in camper vans.
By expanding our strengths in sauna and camper vans to the people and places we've encountered through travel, we want to play a small part in regional revitalization. Now that working remotely from anywhere has become the norm, I believe now is the time to grow this into a business.
(※) The Minimum Unit of Production or Shipment Quantity for Products Manufactured Under the Same Conditions
(※) The minimum unit of production or shipment quantity for products manufactured under the same conditions.
This interview article was produced by the online assistant service "TIMEWELL."
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