Making Items Together in Developing Countries, Living Together in One World
Have you ever heard the name of the fashion brand "MOTHERHOUSE"?
If you have heard of it, what image do you have of MOTHERHOUSE? If not, what kind of brand do you think it is?
I actually had never heard of it until I heard a lecture this time.
I hope that by reading this blog, you, like me, who have never heard of the brand before, will be happy when you see its store in town and that those of you who have already known about the brand, will feel more familiar with it.
Guest Speaker🗣️ : Hana Saito👚
She is a Store manager, Daimaru-Kyoto store, MOTHERHOUSE
She visited Nepal when she was five years old and was so shocked that she revisited the country for fieldwork while a student at Tsuda College. She also studied in London for a year.
What is "MOTHERHOUSE"❓
https://www.motherhouse.co.jp/blogs/shop-list
A fashion brand founded by Eriko Yamaguchi in 2006 with the philosophy of “Creating a global brand from developing countries”.
True to its philosophy, the company manufactures its products in six developing countries (Bangladesh, Nepal, India, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, and Myanmar) and has a total of 47 stores in Japan, Taiwan, and Singapore.
They make their products by hand using the original beautiful materials, traditions, and techniques of developing countries.
They sell not only clothes and bags, but also jewelry and even chocolates.
They are bringing the possibilities of developing countries to our customers around the world through "Monozukuri" (manufacturing).
Their goal is to eliminate people's prejudice against developing countries.
source: MOTHERHOUSE websitehttps://www.motherhouse.co.jp/blogs/shop-list
source: Presentation material by Ms.Sakai (28 June)
Why developing countries?
Ms.Yamaguchi, the CEO, was originally interested in poverty problem, so she worked for Inter-American Development Bank as an internship when she was a college student.
Inter-American Development Bank is the organization working to improve lives in Latin America and Caribbean through financial and technical support for the countries. They try to improve health, education and infrastructure.
She then contributed to poverty reduction through the work in the organization.
However, actually, she couldn't see if the aid and support from the organization really can help poor countries or not.
Therefore, after she graduated university, she decided to go to Bangladesh, which is one of the poorest countries in Asia to see the real condition in a developing country.
source: Presentation material by Ms.Sakai (28 June)
What she saw in Bangladesh was poor infrastructure, poverty, and corruption. It was much worse condition than she had expected.
She spent two years in Bangladesh and she found the gap between the activities of international organization and reality in the poor country. She was disappointed that the aid or support from developed countries, which she thought helpful weren’t used properly due to the corruption, etc.
By knowing such reality, she found it difficult to make the world better with only the aid or support from developed countries.
But she was believing that even people in a such poor country can do everything if they do have just an opportunity to try it.
She wanted to spotlight on possibilities or potentials of developing countries.
And then, she encountered "Jute", which is one of the special materials of Bangladesh and often used as bags for coffee beans called "Jute bag".
https://www.loonde.com/Product/reusable-cereals-jute-coffee-bean-bags/
Seeing it, she got the idea that she can make bags made with jute that customers think are cute or cool and can tell potentials of developing countries to the world.
This is how MOTHERHOUSE started.
"Because I feel sorry for developing countries." is not fair
Ms. Saito said, "Our company does not want customers to buy our products just because they feel sorry for people in developing countries."
She also said that "helping developing countries" is not MOTHERHOUSE's primary goal.
As noted earlier, their goal is to eliminate people's prejudice against developing countries while telling possibilities of them, and they give importance to working together rather than helping.
They believe that the world is better off by working together to make good products and creating equal connections between developing and developed countries.
Turning points of Ms.Saito's life
At 5 yo, Visting Nepal
At 20 yo, Field work in Nepal
At 21 yo, Studying in London
These three experiences gave a huge impact on her life and value.
She went to Nepal on a family vaction. For a five-year-old girl, the sight she saw in Nepal was too shocking.
She there met two girls begging her for something to eat or money. Then, she gave them all candies which she had and realized they were about her age.
She was surprised that some children have to do such things to just survive. At the time, She felt sad and very sorry for them, even though she was little.
This experience of sympathy made her want to help people and lead her to international cooperation study.
Therefore, She studied about it at Tsuda college.
The fieldwork in Nepal at the age of 20 for her graduation thesis changed her mind.
There she interviewed local people and visited various places for her research. Then, she found that Nepalese people have rich knowledge and strength.
Before the field work, she had a kind of negative way of thinking that she wanted to help people. But it was changed to a positive way that she wanted to make a better society together and equally with them.
She realized that individually believing in their possibility and beautiful culture and keeping on working together is the most important factor for making a good society.
Living in London at the age of 21 taught her a new way of life.
She went to university in London for a year to study development studies.
There she experienced student strikes, large-scale gender events, and other situations where people have their own opinion and say and express it without hesitation. Moreover, friends she met from different countries, religions, races, also had their opinions and chose their way of life so freely.
Before she met them, she only had an image for typical way of the future life, such as graduating from university, entering a famous company for money, getting married and having children.
But in London, she could broaden her perspective and decided to just follow her will without being biased by others or social image.
These experiences in Napal and London led her to work for MOTHERHOUSE which has the same beliefs as her.
Understand different environments, not to compromise
Listening to Ms.Saito's lecture, I came up with a question about MOTHERHOUSE.
The question was how to adapt to the needs of Japanese consumers while utilizing local techniques, despite the different quality requirements for products in developing countries and Japan.
When I asked her about this, she told me that in the past, there used to be a problem when items arrived at stores from the factory and were found not to be sewn properly, making it impossible to sell them to customers.
However, she said that after repeated improvements, such defects almost never happen now.
She also told me that their company employees passed on the advice of Japanese craftsmen to their factory employees in developing countries in order to produce higher quality products.
Understanding the local culture, materials, and technology, using them as they are, and trying to make better products without compromise, is what makes the good company.
It hits me…
It was eye-opening to learn the idea that when you want to help, you don't see the other person as equal to you.
I reflected that I was a little arrogant.
It was difficult for me to be in just the same position as the other person, and all I could think about was helping them.
I realized that by working together, we can make a long and good relationship with others. This is true for non-business relationships as well.
I believe that MOTHERHOUSE's philosophy makes the reliability of its products that much higher. It also made me want to contribute to society in this way.
How happy I will be to see stores of MOTHERHOUSE from now on.
I would be happy if I could share this feeling with you reading this blog.
Have a good day!
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