The “Bring Back Playing in the Park” project by Gainare Tottori has received the Media Award of the 2021 J.LEAGUE SHAREN! Awards. What kind of essential effect does this project provide to the kids? What kind of value does Gainare Tottori’s activity provide to the community? In order to dissect this project, we sat down with local government workers that works daily with the community and also the staff of the club and others who supported to make this happen.  

Speaker
Non-Profit Organization Yamatsumi Sports Club・General incorporated association Yonago Junior Chamber Akira Ohara　
Miraiz（EISHIN Group Co., Ltd.） Shinji Yamamoto
Yonago City Health Care and Public Aid Department Child Future Office Child Care Section Yukihiro Suetsugu
Gainare Tottori Masaki Tsukano・Yasumichi Uchima

Writer
Tottori prefectural office Chie Ishikawa
※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).

■ ”Bring Back Playing in the Park” project

“Bring Back Playing in the Park” is a project that players and staffs of Gainare Tottori interacts with kids who attends after-school childcare program without much use of a ball.  They play traditional games that involves a lot of body movement such as tag, “rokumushi”, red light green light, dodgeball, “menko”.

After their hard training in the morning, the players usually visit for about an hour during the workdays. Also on their off days, they visit schools within the prefecture. On days where they host parent child day and school events, staffs called the “play leader” attends and enjoys activities at the park with a ratio of one to hundred kids. Annually it is held around 100-150 times and occurs about every three or four days.

Some of the mottos are “Come and leave at any time” “Anyone is welcomed” “No preparation and clean up needed.” There are no barriers toward age or gender, so you will be able to see older and younger kids all have a good time and actively engaging with each other. Through the fun activities it’s a place where people have the opportunity to learn how to engage with others and to think about others’ feelings.  

©︎GAINARE TOTTORI

■ It’s filled with zest for living when playing in the park

This project has started when Gainare Tottori’s Mr. Tsukano was a senior managing director for non-profit organization Yamatsumi Sports Club in 2003.  It all started when Mr. Tsukano noticed there was no kids playing in the park in his hometown.

“Being a former J.Leaguer, I spent over ten years away from my hometown upon graduating high school and I returned back to Tottori a little before I turned 30 years old. It seemed like kids out of the prefecture did not engage in games like tag, hide-and-seek, and creating secret bases like how I used to do when younger. I always thought it was just about them being city boys and girls. However, it was the same with kids in Tottori. Park was available to them, but the kids in Tottori didn’t play outside. After seeing that, a question came up “What are the kids doing?”（ Mr. Tsukano）

He brought up that concern to Mr. Ohara. Even before Mr. Tsukano felt those issues, Mr. Ohara had the same thoughts and started the event “Bring Back Playing in the Park” to provide opportunities to the kids to play in the park.

“I always felt that park was the place where it raised me. Every important element in growing up such as improving athletic abilities and developing human relationship is involved in the culture of play. However, kids are playing more with programs that adults have created such as video games and playing on their own has widely increased.  Also, kids’ time has become precious as they are busy with cram school and lessons of all sorts. Due to many reasonings, playing in the park and communities that were built from that are decreasing. I wanted to bring back the culture of playing in the park and the communities that was born from it. That’s why I decided to host an event as an activity from the junior chamber.” (Mr.  Ohara)

©︎GAINARE TOTTORI

Games such as “rokumushi”, “menko”, marble were played and about 1000 kids per day came to enjoy.  Afterwards, a rulebook dedicated to the behaviors in the park was created and distributed to kindergarten and elementary schools within the city. Despite the strong desire of Mr. Ohara to continue this project it ended up being the only time to be conducted at the time.

Three years later, Mr. Tsukano approached Mr. Ohara about this event and mentioned that he wanted to bring back the project.  It led to working along with the players from SC Tottori（Currently Gainare Tottori）, Yamatsumi Sports Club and local government to start the project.

■ A power coming from aspiration

How does the people involved feel about the value of this “Play in the Park” project? Mr. Suetsugu, who is involved as a representative of after-school care for children at Yonago city hall mentions that “extraordinary” experiences can lead to development of the kids.

“As children’s life gets busier, opportunities to play with other kids and doing physical activities outside are decreasing. That may be why kids enjoy using their body with players and staffs and doing different type of activities compared to their usual days. We have heard feedbacks from parents that they were happy to hear from their kids that they enjoyed the activity. For the kids, it’s an extraordinary experience for professional football players to play with them that are filled with energy, and it has been exciting for them. After school care is a place that takes care of the children, but by providing a pile of great experiences, we can contribute to their growth.” (Mr. Suetsugu)

Also Mr. Ohara states that bringing back, ”Heroes of the Park” and reviving the communities that are born from the park is a significant value as well.

“When I used to play in the park as a little kid, the older guys who can run fast and the older girls who is good at playing house was the “Hero” and people you looked up to and aspire. With those hero type presence, a community in the park was born and it was a place to be educated. Now in this, “play in the park” activity players from Gainare is in that role of the heroes.” (Mr. Ohara)

If we bring back the heroes of the park, the number of kids that will mimic these heroes will increase and more kids would want to participate. Eventually, a park community where kids will be the center and focus will be back.

©︎GAINARE TOTTORI

Also, for the players the experience of being looked up to by the kids will bring back the memory of looking up to somebody when they were kids themselves.

“Football players may have been able to continue playing footballwith the presence of their coaches and teachers, but that may be a relatively weak motive in order to become a professional football player. Every player probably had a strong aspiration toward what kind of player they wanted to be and unless you have a presence like that it’s difficult to put in all the efforts to become a professional player. We wanted our players to remember those days. We wanted them to think about questions like, “Did somebody make you play tag? Were you forced to play football?” Professional athletes need to deal with a lot of pressure, but we wanted the players to realize they all didn’t start it that way.” (Mr. Tsukano)

©︎GAINARE TOTTORI

■ Activities in the Community is club’s meaning of existence

This activity is not just about football but building the relationship between the club and the citizens in the community. Players and the staffs occasionally had experience of hearing from people that they played with the players from Gainare when younger.

When the activities that have been long continued result in connecting the dots and then actually hearing these voices from people is the real pleasure of this project and the true meaning of a club’s existence. Mr. Tsukano also shared a symbolic episode about the great connection he was able to make the other day.

“The other day I had the opportunity to visit a local financial institution as they welcomed in a new loan teller. I talked about how Gainare Tottori is not just about football and what we do within the community. He listened to my story welcomingly and as I spoke about our project in the park, he took four “menko” from his pocket and mentioned, “I had the opportunity to play with the players when I was little too.”  Those “menkos” were the ones that were passed out to the kids who participated, and it was autographed by the players. It was probably from 2003. He remembered that he had it stored in his house and brought it over knowing he was going to see me. In that moment, I really got emotional and almost made me cry.

These stories are what J.LEAGUE club envisions in being a “Professional Football Club that develops their roots in the Community” and it becomes a real tail wind for us as well. I think our meaning of existence is for people to remember us when we are not even performing well on the field but us as good human beings.  For people to be able to communicate with us in a close relationship, it’s a valuable asset for the club.”  （Mr. Tsukano）

©︎GAINARE TOTTORI

©︎GAINARE TOTTORI

An activity like “Play in the Park” is considered by many as “Community Contribution Activity.” However, for Gainare Tottori we emphasize that it’s not a contribution, but the activity itself is a meaning of existence for the club.

“We are doing what we can in order to make people in our community happy. We feel that will eventually come back to Gainare in some way. That return may come in many shapes such as people’s feelings, hopes or even by money. Creating the community together and being rooted locally is the club’s meaning of existence.  In the first place, as we started to be involved with activities in the community, we wanted to be a club that’s able to solve the issues and that’s why we became a J. LEAGUE club. So, it wasn’t where a football club started to be involved with activities in the community, but it was the other way around where a J. LEAGUE club was born from participating in the activities.”（ Mr. Tsukano）

As an organization that works toward solving the issues in the community, Gainare Tottori was established with a strength in “Moving your body.”

Population is decreasing in Tottori prefecture and the ratio of the elderly in the Chusankan area is getting larger, and many people in the area struggle with the act of “moving their bodies.”  As Gainare has a strength in moving their body, their activities in the community will seek to be one of the possibilities in solving the issues.

©︎GAINARE TOTTORI

So how do local companies look at this activity and the presence of Gainare Tottori? Mr. Yamamoto who is the president of Miraiz (EISHIN Group, Co., Ltd.) and also sponsor of the club along with an advocate of the “Play in the Park” he mentions that the “Company sympathizes with the concept.”

“Our company sells mineral spring water from Yonago city of Tottori prefecture.  As we are receiving water from Tottori, we were thinking on how we can give back to the community and that’s when we met people from Gainare Tottori. We were fascinated by the power of “Yajin (Nickname of Gainare’s president/GM Masayuki Okano).  Also when we heard the theme of the play in the park is “Kid’s “Mirai (meaning future in Japanese)” it struck me significantly and we definitely had to do be involved as “Miraiz!”  Our company sends a message of “Be healthy by drinking water,” and have a mindset that our bodies of tomorrow will be made today. When you look at the kids, they don’t grow unless they play, get hurt and become really active. We felt that kids playing actively fits our message of being healthy by drinking water and hope that this project of kids playing at the park expands nationally. We definitely support that.” (Mr. Yamamoto)

■ What “Play in the Park” really wants to bring back. The movement toward making this a national project.

How does the project of “Bring Back Play in the Park” envision to proceed in the future? This project not only is aiming to bring back kids to the park, but there is the development of the kid’s independence.

“In rare cases, we receive feedbacks from parents to emphasize playing in the park and teach football as what a football club should. However, the act of playing in the park is an ideal activity to learn an “open skill” which will be useful in football too. Open skill is the ability to make instant decisions when your surroundings are rapidly changing. When there are constant changes, the skill you need are information gathering ability, being able to assess the situation and to make your own decisions. When you’re in a constantly changing environment there is no time to ask others on what you should do and would be asked to make your own decisions. Lastly, you need the ability to get things done. When you’re trying to get things done your ability to run, touch the ball, and take the ball away will be needed. In a football class, parents tend to focus on the skill of passing and kicking the ball. However, in order to utilize your skills, you need to gather the information and be able to make immediate decisions upon situations. We feel the joy in being able to teach the information gathering ability, and each to be able to assess the situation and make their own decisions.

Tag being played at the park is a prime example in an activity to improve your open skill.  Because there are always kids that doesn’t follow the rules and change to something selfishly. If there is a cycle of gathering information, assessing the situation, making the decision and putting that into action by everyone a community will be born. As Mr. Ohara said, it can lead to development of human power and sociability. If you are able to create the cycle on your own that is independence and having ownership. We would like to revive that. It’s not about being able to run faster, but we would like to bring back the ability of the kids that’s able to think through in this cycle.” (Mr. Tsukano)

©︎GAINARE TOTTORI

Mr. Ohara adds on.

“After hearing Mr. Tsukano’s comments, it made me emotional and let me add something too. I have the same thoughts and agree that skill is not what’s important. For instance, when you play tag the team that wins rock, paper and scissors usually picks who they want on their team first. This is like a draft, and you are creating a team with a manager-like perspective. Also, kids are asked to make their own decisions in things like creating your own rule. That’s what is important. Running, kicking, and throwing comes after that. When playing in the park being able to assess the situation and how you make the decision is what becomes important.  That’s the meaning behind bringing back the kid’s community which is created by the kids themselves.” （Mr. Ohara）

In order to spread this value, Mr. Uchima from Gainare Tottori who is in the center of the unit which actually plays in the park, talks about how he wants to extend this project in all parts of Tottori prefecture. 

“However, in order to broaden the activity and to increase the number of times in conducting the project there are limits to do it on your own.  We would like to add more young and energetic people that can act on behalf of the name of Gainare. A future where we have the “Bring Back Play in the Park” project around the whole prefecture may be possible as long as we are able to expand the project and coordinate with the local government.”（Mr. Uchima）

Expanding this activity to the entire prefecture seems realistic when you think about how Gainare Tottori is close to the community and the population of the prefecture is the least in the nation. What comes into play is how hard the local government can work to involve many people as possible in continue moving the good cooperation with the sports club.

Mr. Tsukano mentions that this project itself is not complicated and would like the local government to enjoy the comments provided by the parents such as “It’s been a while seeing my kid laugh this much” and “It was the first time in seeing steam coming out of my child’s head after running around.”

■ Hope toward hometown Tottori prefecture

Lastly, I asked each about what kind of future they envision in Tottori.

Mr. Suetsugu from Yonago City office talked about his thoughts toward after school care for children.

“I am working with the hope that kids who experience the after-school care comes back to Yonago in the future. We want them to remember their experiences playing in the parks when little and hopefully they bring their kids or recommend it to others when it is time for them to utilize after-school care. In order to make that happen we are thinking of numerous frameworks and will continue to act and ask to work together.” (Mr. Suetsugu)

Also Mr. Yamamoto from Miraiz mentions that continuing to support Gainare Tottori will eventually lead to supporting the prefecture of Tottori.

“Mr. Tsukano really thinks about the community. I haven’t seen anybody like him as he always talks about wanting to do something about the abandoned fields and rice paddies, and making the sand area into green fields, so they will be able to grow products.  The attitude of “Gainare Tottori will do whatever it needs” in order to spread the activities within the community is great.  We would like to continue supporting Tottori Gainare and give back to the prefecture of Tottori.” (Mr. Yamamoto)

Mr. Uchima talks about his thoughts toward the kids.

“Hoping this will be a prefecture where many energized kids come out of. The effect of playing in the park may not be proved medically or scientifically, but we would like to create a future if people start asking “What’s the reason behind all the extreme talents coming out of Tottori?” we can answer by saying “the act of playing in the park was the base to all this.” There are still a lot of issues, but we would like to be a community where the kids that took part in the play in the park grows up and be proud to say this is their home.” (Mr. Uchima)

Mr. Ohara mentions that even if the prefecture may be small, they aim to become a strong prefecture.

”I feel that the biggest value and advantage that Tottori prefecture has is the prodigality of nature. I would like to seek ways in utilizing this value fully and how we can increase our quality of life. Hopefully our prefecture can spread these types of finding and the community activities that Gainare is involved with to a broader population more smoothly. If we have the media power, our desire will reach nationally. We would like to aim to become a “Small, but strong prefecture” with media power. “（Mr. Ohara）

Lastly Mr. Tsukano mentioned that he wants to “Aim to become a diverse Tottori prefecture.”

“Gainare hasn’t been able to win too many games in football matches but is a club that’s able to receive an award with the contribution to the community. In other words, it’s a club that is competing outside of the normal win and losses. You can say the same about Tottori prefecture’s approach and we would like to compete in different ways. Because if we’re just looking at the population, we are in last place. When you just look at it that way, it can be submissive and negative. We have been negatively labeled in the past, and it’s like we are continuing to label it the same way. I feel that putting a label on something is not a good thing, so I would like to present different ways of looking at things and for the club and the prefecture to aim in being able to enjoy the diversity.”（ Mr. Tsukano）

Interview Postscript

“Gainare Tottori is very powerful.” That’s my straightforward impression I had throughout the interview. Through the interview I was able to acknowledge how much they are trying to find ways to solve the issues in the community and make Tottori a better place, even more than us government employee who is called the “Server to everybody.” I feel this award was made possible from the powerful energy from Gainare which spreads down to the sponsors and all the people that are involved. It’s a swirl that gotten bigger with Gainare in the middle of it all.

I feel that the “Bring Back Play in the Park” project has been in the works for a long time, and it became into shape with this outcome due to the voices of the people in the community. It’s really Tottori-like and a wonderful project as those voices are directly reaching the players and staffs as well.

As they look to expand this activity on a national scale, there were talks about the lack of resources.  Besides from the Gainare players and staffs, there are supporters and local government workers within Tottori. I hope this activity reaches to more people and there could be a structure where people who supports this project can easily join in the future.

I feel the ability for local government workers and J.LEAGUE clubs to sweat together for the community is something possible because of the characteristics of “Little but strong” Tottori prefecture.

This may be a personal perspective, but many local government workers struggle to maintain motivation due to themselves or from their surroundings and their energy and intention gets swallowed up.

I am personally involved working with younger members of the Tottori prefectural office in interviewing local government workers and people within our prefecture that’s highly motivated.  Regarding to that activity, I also interview local government workers that are leaving as well, and they all tend to say the same message in “You should try to see the world outside from the prefectural office. Interviewing Gainare this time around is one of the activities to see the outside world and if it wasn’t for me looking elsewhere, I would not have been able to hear the powerful messages and the activities.

I was able to know for the first time that these types of activity exist by hearing the stories during the interview. These work to where I am able to see the outside world leads to an extra motivation and intention. Going outside and communicating with different people will lead to you to connect with different people and work and result in increasing your quality of life.