A former would-be astronaut helps a tiny town in Japan teach the world how to live lighter. Yuki Ohata returns with Satoshi Nonoyama, founder and CEO of Pangea, to unpack why Kamikatsu, Tokushima has become a magnet for sustainable tourism, study tours, and corporate learning trips. This conversation is recorded in Japanese with interpretation support, and it’s packed with practical lessons you can steal for your community, your team, or your next trip.

We start with Satoshi’s origin story: a childhood obsession sparked by Mobile Suit Gundam, a formative NASA Space Camp experience, and the long arc from human resources to building an educational travel business rooted in nature and community. Then we zoom in on what makes Kamikatsu so compelling. The Irodori leaf business proves that an aging society can still be innovative, profitable, and tech-enabled, with farmers around 70 using ICT tools and earning real income from a product that’s physically accessible and high value.

Next, we dig into Kamikatsu’s famous zero waste town system, where residents sort trash into 44 categories and bring it to a shared facility, turning waste reduction into a community habit and a working circular economy. From there, Satoshi explains what Pangea offers: experiential learning, outdoor programs, MICE travel for company teams, and “moonshot” education designed to build critical thinking, tacit knowledge, hands-on problem solving, and new value creation. We also explore the vision for ikigai retreats in Kamikatsu and potential collaboration with Shizuoka’s emerging leaf initiative.

If you care about sustainable tourism in Japan, community-led revitalization, or team retreats that actually change how people think, this one’s for you. Subscribe, share this with a friend who loves purposeful travel, and leave a review with the biggest idea you’re taking from Kamikatsu.

The fastest way to lose your edge is to confuse information with wisdom. We sit down with Tokyo-based Japanese calligrapher and author Naoko Omikami to talk about her new book, *Wisdom of the Shoguns: Valuable Life Lessons from Japan’s Greatest Warriors*, and why it’s designed to be read slowly, not binged.

We get practical about the history without turning it into a lecture, clearing up the roles of samurai, shogun, and daimyo, and even the marketing choices that shape a book’s title for global readers. From there, the conversation moves into Japanese aesthetics and meaning-making, including the cover’s kanji “Michi” (the way), and how disciplines like bushido and shodo point to lifelong learning. Naoko shares why calligraphy is not decoration here: each brushstroke is meant to help you feel the spirit of a quote before you analyze it.

Then we dig into leadership lessons that still sting in the best way. Tokugawa Ieyasu’s rare trifecta of patience, clarity, and self-discipline meets Oda Nobunaga’s bold standard: choose people by ability, not by seniority. We connect those ideas to modern work culture, attention overload, and the need to reflect rather than react, including Naoko’s insight that wisdom doesn’t change, but we do, and a line you ignore today might become exactly what you need later.

If you’re drawn to samurai wisdom, Japanese leadership principles, mindfulness, calligraphy, or simply better questions about how to live, this one’s for you. Subscribe, share this with a friend who needs a steadier “way,” and leave a review with the quote that hit you hardest.

The world is changing fast, and “just be strong” is not a plan. I’m joined by my good friend, clinical psychologist and author Professor Daiki Kato to share the thinking behind his new book Beyond Myself 8 and the BM8 framework: eight practical psychological powers that help us stay steady, connect deeply, and move forward with purpose when life feels uncertain.

We dig into why non-cognitive skills like resilience, self-efficacy, empathy, and tolerance matter as much as any technical ability, especially in an era shaped by rapid change and emerging AI. Daiki reframes resilience as flexible strength, like bamboo that bends and returns, and explains how self-efficacy grows through small wins that prove to your brain that progress is possible. From there we explore rolefulness, the sense that our presence and actions matter, and how that feeling can expand into genuine empathy and real tolerance, the “mental margin” that lets us welcome difference without feeling threatened.

We also get concrete with the “navigate society” powers: identifying better questions when there are no clear answers, learning from experience without getting stuck in the past, and using imagination for risk management without spiraling into fear. Daiki shares two hands-on tools you can try right away: question journaling (discomfort to question to wider view) and a resilience map that helps you name what you have, who you are, what you can do, and where you can go for support.

If you want a clear, usable map for mental strength, relationships, and meaningful contribution, hit play. Subscribe, share this with a friend who needs steadier footing, and leave a review with the one BM8 power you want to practice next.