An interview with our CEO, Tetsuro Kondo, has been published in the NewsPicks Topics series "The Future Drawn by Places and Communities." The interviewer is Takuya Tsurumoto, who runs the series.
- Article (in Japanese): Rules for running a self-organizing community without relying on money
- Published in: NewsPicks Topics, "The Future Drawn by Places and Communities"
- Date: August 20, 2026
What the interview covers
The interview was held online in July 2026. It centers on how ZUKAI has made its books and projects together with people outside the company.
- Making a book with a volunteer team: "Business Model 2.0 Visual Guide" was made by a production committee set up in 2018, with volunteer members split into teams
- Rewards other than money: we think of rewards for the people involved as four kinds: money, recognition, information and relationships
- Publishing the full text: how releasing the whole text of a book for free leads to trust and, as a result, to an economic cycle
- Showing complex things as they are: simplifying a local issue drops the voices of the people living with it. We described printing an issue map large, spreading it on the floor, and having residents walk on it and add stickers and notes
- Rethinking the rules of accounting: the balance of social, economic and creative value, and beyond it, the idea of bringing value that does not show up as money into accounting
