If you have ever wondered what it would be like to relocate and live in rural Japan, this webinar is for you! Japan’s rural areas are full of opportunities to live more sustainably and create new projects and businesses for a fraction of the price it would cost to do the same in the cities. The low land prices mean the dream of growing your own food, renovating a traditional Japanese house, living in sync with nature is well within reach.
With its diverse landscape, favorable climate, and growing grassroots movement of innovators and entrepreneurs, Hiroshima is the perfect place to realize your dreams and potential.
The speakers on this webinar are all international residents living in Japan who chose to create a life for themselves in Hiroshima’s mountains and islands. They will share their stories of moving to Hiroshima and the challenges and successes they have experienced.
＜MC＞ Tom Coulton, relocated from Tokyo to Mitarai on the island of Osaki Shimojima, Kure City in 2015. He is a professional photographer, writer and translator who co-founded the popular food website The Setouchi Cookbook. He also runs an English tea shop called The Tea Cosy on weekends. He has renovated two old Japanese houses and runs the volunteer group Tobishima Life assisting people who want to relocate to the Tobishima Kaido islands.
Paul Alexander Gibbs
＜Guest speaker＞ Paul moved a lot in his life. Although his mother tongue is Spanish, he lived in the UK from the age of 7 until his late 20’s, so he is very English. He worked as an English language teacher for 26 years and 22 of those years were spent here in Japan. He became a little burnt out from teaching and left Japan in 2019 with the idea of going back home to look after his parents. He has been interested in farming and living in the countryside for many years. His maternal grandfather was a cattle farmer and his paternal great grandfather was a grape farmer. Prior to returning to Japan, Paul and his wife were in Paraguay and although his wife enjoyed living there, she was open to the idea of returning to live in Japan and get into farming. Paul returned to Japan in September last year.
Daniel Morgan
＜Guest speaker＞ Daniel is from England and he has been in Japan for 13 years and works as an English teacher. He has three kids, three cats and some chickens. Daniel moved to the Japanese countryside because he likes nature, and he tries to live a natural life growing vegetables and using wood for fuel. He likes traveling and experiencing different cultures. He enjoys mountain hiking, religion and leading a quiet, simple, traditional family life.
Organizer: Hiroshima prefecture, Hiroshima prefecture interaction and settlement of people promotion council Co-organizer: NPO Furusato Kaiki Shien Center ※The submitted personal information will be managed by the secretariat and will not be used for any purpose other than the activity and notification of various events held by Hiroshima Prefecture.
