This is Hamamoto from TIMEWELL Inc.
Why Regional Revitalization Is Harder Than It Sounds
"Regional revitalization" and "community building" are phrases you hear constantly in Japan. But places that have actually achieved it remain scarce. Why, when so many people understand the importance of rural regeneration, do successful cases remain the exception?
Taro Hayashi — GM of TIMEWELL's Marketing Division, Co-creation Lead, and Head of the Noto Division — has visited all 47 of Japan's prefectures and makes multiple international trips per year. He's developed a clear answer to that question.
Title: GM, Marketing Division / Co-creation Lead / Head, Noto Division — TIMEWELL Inc. / Manager, Woven City Project — Woven by Toyota
Background: Originally from Aichi Prefecture. Joined a major materials manufacturer as a new graduate, led HR functions including recruitment and branding, and became the youngest employee to receive a company president's award for a company-wide project. Later joined the new business development division, working on international launches. Became the youngest person to be promoted to Manager, then joined the Woven City project — supporting participating companies' pilots and new business development, and leading project-wide branding and marketing. Joined TIMEWELL in January 2024. Grand Prix winner and accelerator for CHANGE by ONE JAPAN (the large-company challenger support program). Personal motto: "Work like play; play like work."
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The Traveling GM: Two Roles, One Career
— Let's start with an introduction.
I'm Taro Hayashi. At TIMEWELL, I lead the Marketing Division and handle co-creation projects. In parallel, I'm a manager on the Woven City project at Woven by Toyota. Traveling is my main hobby — I visited 10 countries this year and have now been to all 47 of Japan's prefectures. Going places I've never been is one of the consistent joys of my life.
— What drew you to travel in the first place?
Fundamentally, I love learning things I didn't know. Every new region or country brings food, landscapes, and people I've never encountered before. The discovery itself is what hooks me — the feeling of having a blank filled in.
I've also had a natural instinct since childhood for designing experiences and pulling people in. In middle school, I produced a serialized drama for our school festival — turned it into a months-long project. My mother taught me to go all-in on things, no matter how small. That showed up early. I used to take road trips with friends where we'd throw darts at a map and drive to wherever they landed.
— How did that early love of organizing events connect to your career?
In university, I chaired the campus festival committee — directing 150 members, taking the event further into the surrounding community. When job hunting, I chose a less obvious path: a mainstream materials manufacturer over advertising agencies, working as a minority type in a corporate environment.
My first role was HR. I led a fundamental overhaul of the company's recruitment process and got results early. I also kept organizing events on my own initiative — including events at the company dormitory. Then I encountered Toyota Group employees who had a fundamentally different vantage point on what was possible. Meeting people with higher ambitions pushed me to want to challenge things outside my company's walls. That experience connects directly to where I am now.
Local Japan: What Actually Works
— You have strong views on regional revitalization. What's your core thesis?
I grew up in rural Aichi — in a genuinely rural part, not the city. I have deep feelings about the countryside. My childhood dream, seriously, was "community development."
Having visited many regions, my conviction is this: the only way to revitalize a local area is to deeply understand its specific context, its particular constraints, its embedded assumptions. People from outside who come in with top-down solutions don't succeed. What works is finding the key players already embedded in the community and building alongside them.
There's also an information gap issue in rural areas that people in cities underestimate. People in the countryside who want change often don't know what paths are available to them. What I want to do — regardless of where someone lives — is show them that choices exist and that challenge is possible.
Okinawa has a special place in my thinking. I grew up listening to Okinawan traditional music and feel a real affinity for the culture. But alongside that affiration, I see clearly the structural issues — wage levels, industrial composition — that are specific to Okinawa. Understanding both sides of a region is the starting point for doing anything useful.
— What are you working on concretely right now?
The Noto project is the most significant one at the moment. After the 2024 earthquake, much was lost — but the region's leadership has a strong sense of purpose, and there are committed key players on the ground who refuse to let the narrative end with tragedy.
What I deeply agree with is their framing: they don't want Noto to become a place associated with sadness. They want it to become a place that generates energy and excitement. I'm helping support new challenge opportunities within that vision.
One thing I've found across regions is that learning from one place transfers to another. What worked in Okinawa gets adapted to Hachijo Island. The knowledge compounds. That cross-pollination is part of what makes engaging with multiple regions valuable — it's not just parallel projects, it's a connected learning system.
"Next Year Will Be Even Better": A Life Built on Full Commitment
— What do you want to pursue going forward?
The core of it: I want to show people — especially young people in rural areas — that more choices exist than they can see from where they're standing. Growing up in the countryside, options can feel predetermined. I was fortunate to encounter enough chances that my horizon expanded. I want to create those kinds of encounters for other people.
The work at TIMEWELL is oriented exactly toward this: building the infrastructure for challenge — so that anyone, wherever they live, can find a first step.
— Looking back on your career so far — what stands out?
I've been able to say, every year: "This has been the best year of my life." The year before was the best until this one surpassed it. Sustaining that feeling — that's the real accomplishment, and I'm aware of how rare it is.
Work and play, both full tilt. That's the motto and the practice. "That person always looks like they're having the most fun" — if that's what people say about me, I've succeeded. When you're genuinely excited about what you're doing, it spreads to the people around you. That's the positive cycle I want to keep building.
What comes through in Taro Hayashi's story is that the work on regional revitalization and the commitment to personal enjoyment aren't separate things. They reinforce each other. The person who goes all-in on play brings that same energy to community projects — and it's that combination, alongside genuine respect for local context, that tends to produce actual results rather than top-down initiatives that miss the mark.
Learn about Taro Hayashi's Noto Initiative on the TIMEWELL services page.