MUJI participated in the "Namie Genki Fair" Held in Michi-no-Eki Mamie (Roadside Station)

On Saturday, January 16, MUJI participated in the Namie Genki Fair, which is held once a month at Namie Town in Fukushima Prefecture.

The Michi-no-Eki (Roadside Station) Mamie facility in Namie Town, Fukushima Prefecture, was pre-opened on August 1, 2020 as a symbol of the reconstruction of Namie Town, which was greatly affected by the Great East Japan Earthquake and the incident at TEPCO's Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station. It has a communication facility to foster interactions among local residents and a restaurant and shopping facility that support people’s daily lives. The grand opening is scheduled in March 2021. In conjunction with this, MUJI has signed a partnership agreement with Namie Town, and we decided to open the store “MUJI Michi-no-Eki Namie” as well.

For the event this time, we participated mainly with members from MUJI Sendai Loft, who have been engaged in reconstruction assistance activities in local communities, such as the ones they have carried out in the neighboring town of Minamisoma. In addition to the regular sales of MUJI products such as foods, kitchen utensils, toning water, and so on, we used whiteboards to conduct interviews with local residents about their expectations for MUJI, the problems in the local community, the kind of products and services they wish MUJI to provide and the spots the recommend around Namie Town. In this way, we hope that we can increase opportunities to communicate with the local residents and let them know more about MUJI, before opening our MUJI store.

Participants expressed their delightfulness at the opening of the MUJI store. They also commented that they would be particularly happy if home delivery services were provided to elderly residents, and if mobile sales and shopping service would be available. In addition, the staff of Michi-no-Eki Namie, who will be operating the MUJI store as a licensed store, expressed their positive opinions saying, “I am very happy that the customers are expecting for our opening. I can’t wait for March to come,” “I expect to see communications through our products,” and “The opening of MUJI store would become a chance for people to return to the region.” We felt that this event served as an opportunity for the staff of the Namie Town office and the employees of the Michi-no-Eki Namie to communicate and share their thought about community revitalization.