Investor Presentaiton

Japan 2020, uncharted territory Imagine, a trip that starts in a large, well-known & crowded city and that ends six hours later in unknown territory: a landscape that differs completely from the one you know, thinly populated and with hardly any gaijin. You have left the busy world by bullet train and changed for an outdated limited-express train running via Japan's jeans capital Kurashiki and then passing towns with names new for you such as Niimi, Neu and Shinji. Here you step into a single-car train and pass stations such as Hataya, Kisuki and you finally end up in Izumo-Yokota station. In these six hours you have travelled through empty space, over bridges, in and out of tunnels, in lush woods and across stunning landscapes, man-made hills, along old rice paddies, including that of San'nouji (which is ranked in the top 100 of terraced rice fields in Japan); you notice the effort it takes for the diesel train that serves the Kisuki-line to climb and descend the hills. And when you finally step off the train at your destination you see that the wooden station built in 1934 is modelled after Japan's oldest shrine, the Izumo Taisha with its famous shimenawa (sacred straw rope) where it is said that all the thousands of deities throughout Japan gather once every year to hold meetings. Oda 大田 Matsue Yonago Trumo 出要 Izumo-Yokota Station SU SHIMANE Shobare ER Hiroshima 広島 Kure HIROSHIMA Torooka Tottori Maizuru 鳥取 TOTTORI Kurayoshi Maniwa 高處 HYDGO OKAYAMA Kurashiti Fukuyama RALLI 音效 Takamatsu 高松。 Onomichi 尾道 Awaj Island Kobe 神戸 ⑦ KYOTO OOsaka Sakal 選 OSAKA Kyoto 京都 NARA A voyage to this area is 'visiting the past' and 'back to the future' at the same time, since what you will see at Yokota (it is part of the municipality Okuizumo, but let's name it here 'Yokota') - and for that matter in Shimane Prefecture (and other area's in Japan countryside) - will provide a glimpse of what Japan experiences now and what we in the Netherlands might experience in let's say 20 - 40 years: a rapidly declining population, overcrowded cities, a deserted countryside and unacclaimed- for lots and it all will make you question the existing socio-economic models. The reason why I went to Yokota was to watch a spectacular project Issho-ni / Tomo-ni by Dutch artist Jikke van Loon who decided to return the two Japanese temple guardians or Ni'Ozo that are on permanent display in the Amsterdam Rijksmuseum. For more than 700 years these two wooden sculptures were part of the extensive and important Iwayaji temple complex in Yokota in Shimane-prefecture and were sold 12 years ago to the Rijksmuseum. How Issho-ni / Tomo-ni developed is not the subject of this short text and is better to be understood by reading Jikke's website. Staying in an area in Japan as remote as Shimane was an eye-opener for me, a frequent Japan-visitor for decades, who hardly knows what is at stake outside Tokyo, Kyoto or the industrial area's such as Nagoya and Hamamatsu. In order to try understanding what is happening in 'the other part of Japan', you have to leave behind the familiar board rooms and your meeting places in Tokyo and Osaka and go to such a remote area in the country. So, let me take you on an unusual journey to a part of Japan where few of you have been, and let's try to link the past, present and future of an area that is exemplary for Japan's countryside. 1

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