Project by Yokohama F・Marinos「【Assist the Community】Hometown TAKEOUT Map」has received the 2021 J.LEAGUE SHAREN! Awards Social Challenger Award. What kind of value do this project and Yokohama F・Marinos activities provide to the community. In order to look closer, we have listened to the voices from the local government employees that works with the community daily, club personnel and the people that have worked together toward this project.

Speaker
 General Incorporated Association F.Marinos Sports Club　Takashi Makinouchi・Tetsuya Hattori
 yokohama hamatra non profit organization　Representative Director　Akinori Arakawa

Listener・Writer
Kohei Oyama（Yokohama City Council、NPO ）
※This interview article has been taken in charge by “Online Council” where the faithful local government workers gather (Operated by General incorporated association Yonnana Kai).

■Creation of a local takeout map with the club and supporters 
― Simple Structure with passionate people

「Hometown TAKEOUT Map」is a list of restaurants that offer takeout and delivery services in Yokohama city, Yokosuka City and Yamato City which are the hometown of Yokohama F・Marinos. You would be able to see the contact information and website of the restaurants on the google map.

At the beginning, around 100 places were listed, but now it’s up to 591 places  and the website have gotten over 700,000 hits (As of April 23,2021).

The list of places was created by cooperation with yokohama hamatra non profit organization, which is an organization that aims to create a community culture via sports, football and supporters. Along with reaching out to the possible candidate of restaurants, the number of places has been increased by adding the total of posts that have been using hashtag ”#fmarinos” ”#fmarinosテイクアウトマップ(TAKEOUT MAP)” on twitter.

The person in charge of this project from Yokohama F・Marinos is Takashi Makinouchi, who is the hometown activity representative of the club. He states, “Being the two members of this project from F・Marinos, our task is to gather information and solely input the information on to the Google Map. It’s a very simple activity.”

■ A COVID-19 era project that took 1 week into materialization
― Giving back to the restaurants that have assisted in the”Posu-Katsu”

This project has started to come to shape about a year ago on April 14, 2020. It was in the middle of a time when COVID-19 begun to spread and a state of emergency have been declared. Japan was in the midst of confusion. This TAKEOUT Map has become public just about a week after on April 21^st. It was made possible at a surprisingly quick speed due to the “Posu-katsu,”that we have been working on for more than ten years.

“Since 2007, we have been asking local restaurants to post game information posters at their places. This poster “katsudo” activity has been abbreviated by F・Marinos supporters and have been called, “Posu-katsu.” As everybody is aware, restaurants have been put into a difficult situation during the COVID-19 pandemic. We wanted to give back to the restaurants that have took part in our “Posu-katsu” activity. Our supporters voiced their opinions and we decided to introduce and support them.” (Mr. Arakawa).

But he also states that, “We feel apologetic in a way in saying we are trying to give back though this activity.”

“When we say we are trying to give back, it may sound good, but we haven’t been able to utilize the restaurants and the shopping district that have been participating in our “Posu-katsu.”Not all of us have been conscious enough in going to the restaurants as customers after games. Obviously, there are supporters that are consciously going to the restaurants, but we felt we needed to use these places more even before COVID-19 became part our life. That’s why we wanted to do something about it. We had this in mind for a while.」（Mr.Arakawa）

There were many TAKEOUT Map being written out in different communities at this time. When we shared this with Mr. Hattori from Yokohama F・Marinos, he mentioned that,“We wanted to make this a project not just from Hamatora, but wanted to work together as a club and increase the visibility even more. Let’s do this officially as a club.” The decision was quickly made. The key to this project being into shape was how quickly people reacted.

“Right now, we are in a situation where many people who have been operating restaurants are struggling. We felt what is important in this situation is not to plan this out perfectly and make something significant, but more so to quickly make this into shape and provide the information as fast as we can. Speed was a top priority in this project. We worked on our own in inputting data into Google Map and also getting permission from each of the parties.” (Mr. Hattori）

We were able to make this possible with limited time of preparation due to the relationship we have been able to build with the restaurants in the community all these years.

“We feel it had to do with the relationship we built through more than ten years of “Posu-katsu.” When we mentioned to the restaurants about our plan of creating a TAKEOUT Map and asked for permission to list their places, they welcomed the idea. If we were to ask with no previous relationship, I believe it would not have been gone this smoothly. In that means, the preparation process toward opening this went very smoothly.”(Mr.Arakawa）

※Restaurants that have our posters in their restaurants. Owner supporting F・Marinos as well.

As we continued to set goal on adding more restaurants to include in our map, Yokohama F・Marinos reached out to new shopping districts and asked whether we can add the restaurant information that are listed on their website to our TAKEOUT Map.” 

“The responses were really welcoming and in most cases we were appreciated. The shopping districts were counting on the club and supporter’s power in being able to reach out to more people to bring along customers to the area. It definitely encouraged me a lot.” (Mr. Makinouchi)

We not only made this an opportunity for the club to gather information, but we structured in a way to involve individual supporters by being able to gather possible candidates of restaurants through Twitter.

“For example, at the beginning we lacked information from the Yokosuka area, but a supporter mentioned that “I will gather the information!” and the individual acted on its own to assist us. The individual actually went to the restaurant and ordered a takeout and posted the pictures. Even ordered some food that looked intriguing such as sashimi and continued that multiple times for us.

“All the other supporters are seeing those acts too. Then it becomes a natural movement, and the circle spreads and others want to take part in it. People get connected and a great circulation system develops. Everybody has a supporter’s mentality in their blood. We have been supporters of a club, so wanting to support people is in our roots. Those points may have all resulted in a positive way as well.” (Mr.Arakawa)

■People gathers when aiming for one goal
―An indication for a new way to utilize Yokohama F・ Marinos

According to Mr. Makinouchi, creating this TAKEOUT Map ended up as an opportunity to reconsider the relationship with the community.

“When there is a restaurant that is struggling right in front of our eyes, we ran all over to quickly find the quickest way to approach. But when we look back on it, raising the flag is what is important, and we learned that from this.”

Raising a flag means, making the project visible for everybody to see. After making the information public, we heard from other shopping districts that they wanted their information listed too. A new relationship was born with communities we were not able to connect with previously. Obviously, we valued the opportunity to connect with communities as a club, but in these occasions, it was good that we were able to realize new thoughts.” (Mr. Makinouchi) 

We were able to get a different response compared from our previous hometown activities. This might be what “SHAREN!” is all about.

“It was great to have more and more people that wants to be involved come together. People started to gather that wanted to take part in aiming for the same goal and it was really SHAREN-like. After looking back on it, we were able to prove that we always didn’t have to neatly prepare and make it a big deal to have something work.” (Mr. Makinouchi)

Mr. Hattori also looks back on the previous year and states, “This project would not have been possible if we were to start from nothing. We were able to make this possible due to the relationship we already have built with the supporters and the communities.”

“I feel the value in this was making it possible in a timely fashion. We were able to directly get down to business because of the daily relationship we have been able to build. For us, it was the fact that we had supporters who cheer for us. Since we had the long and continued relationship, we were able to get together and create a momentum in developing the project. If it wasn’t for the supporters and the community, we were not able to make this work just within our club.” (Mr. Hattori)

Also Mr. Makinouchi states, “We would like to mention that Yokohama F・Marinos is hoping to work together in solving all sorts of social issues in the community not just limited to sports.”

“Being a football club, people directly relate to us with football, but we are not just about football. We aim to be a part of the community, so the issues that are within our community is something that’s part of us as well. It’s a matter of whether we want to take part it in or not. Even though some issues may be unrelated to a football club, we would be happy if you can consider thoughts like, “I wonder if we can do something with F・Marinos” or “I wonder what F・Marinos would think about this.

Our hometown is not just Yokohama city. Yokosuka and Yamato city are included as well, and their population and their regional characteristics are different too. The issues that each community faces are different, and we would like to encourage communities, local governments, organizations and shopping districts to utilize F・Marinos.

We hope people will not dismiss us because it has nothing to do with sports. We will continue to make effort in taking part in our community and wish that people will think about us as partners in making this community better and rely on us in anyway if there is a possibility we can contribute.” (Mr. Makinouchi)

From a supporter’s perspective, SHAREN! may be an opportunity to connect with people who previously had no interest in the supporter’s activity that was taking place.

“From the TAKEOUT Map project, we were able to work together with many supporters by utilizing the hashtag on Twitter. An activity that has been on-going for a long time such as“Posu-katsu” may have been somewhat difficult for new people to join. However, this TAKEOUT map has lowered the bar for new people wanting to join in the supporter’s activity and we hope that SHAREN! becomes a new entrance for people that wants to take part.” (Mr. Arakawa)

■ Creating with fellow members through Interaction

Networks being the trigger and doing what we can in acting toward solving the social issues. The TAKEOUT Map has allowed us to feel the possibilities of this approach and see what may be born from it.

“We would like to continue expanding our TAKEOUT Map and deepen our interaction with individual restaurants and shopping districts. To be honest, we would like to see the world get back to normal and the TAKEOUT Map is something that’s not needed, but with COVID-19 not going away we feel it is necessary to continue building and bring this project to the next stage.

For example, we are hoping to ask the newly connected restaurants to participate in posting our posters and be a supporter’s restaurant so it can be acknowledged within our fan community and expand their presence. 

Also from this project, we realized the importance of building something from ground. It’s important to work on a project that has already been decided but interacting with different people and building something that can be a part of solving issues are significant as well. Creating a goal that can be shared and aiming toward it together is what’s needed.

There are many things we realize from interaction. Activities that the Yokohama F・Marinos does in the community is still not known to many. When people are more aware of it, new opportunities of interaction will be born and even though it may not directly lead to immediate relationship, it can lead to something in the future by building that dialogue. We were able to fully understand that from this project.” (Mr. Makinouchi)

Interview Postscript

SHAREN! project of the J.LEAGUE was much closer to us than I thought and something that anybody can be involved with. After taking part in this interview, that’s the impression I got the most.

Referring, to Mr. Makinouchi’s word, the flag of SHAREN! has already been raised and Yokohama F・Marinos is always opened to taking part in solving any social issues. I felt the more people that are aware of this, more opportunities might grow from this. That can be said for city government officials as well.

I also have been thinking of approaching some of the social issues that have become complicated and really difficult to solve one dimensionally. In order to be a part of creating a better policy, I have started a non-profit organization with some people, and I really emphasize the value they possess. 

After finishing up the interview, I reached out to them in asking for an opportunity to speak again and they rightfully welcomed it. I am already looking forward to that next opportunity. This was an interview that allowed me to assure that acting toward an opportunity to interact will lead in creating a possibility for a better society. Congratulations on the award and thank you for a great opportunity.

Image Provided by：YOKOHAMA MARINOS LTD., yokohama hamatra non profit organization