Скачать или смотреть The Great Power of a Small Sign | Akari Imai | TEDxHamamatsu

県境近くの山間、過疎化と高齢化に直面する町でのびのびと育った少女が始めた行動で、今この町はにわかに活気づいている。元気のなくなったこの地域を盛り上げようと奮闘する野球部の選手たちを地元の人に知ってもらう取り組みをしている。SNS全盛時代においてとてもアナログな看板という方法は、地域と野球部をしっかりと結び付け、多くの人が試合に足を運ぶようになったという。地域コミュニティ活性のヒントがそこにある。

In the mountains near the prefectural border, the actions of one young girl, who grew up freely in a town facing depopulation and aging have made this town into a lively community. This girl has tasked herself with making her baseball team players, who struggle to cheer up this tired region, well known among the local residents. Despite her method of using billboards being incredibly analog in this golden age of social networking, she has developed a strong connection between her team and the regional community, bringing flocks of local supporters to their baseball games. There is definitely something that can be learned here about revitalizing regional communities. Born in Hamamatsu City in 2001, lives in Hamamatsu City.
Ms. Imai lives in Tenryu Ward which is a mountainous area located at the northern end of Hamamatsu City. It takes 20 minutes’ drive to go to the nearest store from her house. Her hometown is surrounded by mountains and nature. She grew up playing in the river in summer.
Many young people leave this town to go to high schools. However, she chose to go to her local high school, Sakuma Branch. There are only 69 students in the whole Sakuma Branch, and they share one schoolhouse with a junior high school in the area.
She became a manager of the baseball team. When she joined the team, there were 17 members including her and there will be only 6 members left when the seniors retire in next March. While she thought she should do something to cheer up the team, their head coach said “Our baseball team exists to excite this area.” These words led her to come up with an amazing idea and her efforts eventually changed the local community… This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at https://www.ted.com/tedx