Field-Born: A Series of Short SDG Documentaries from Yamaha Motor Yamaha Motor Newsletter(May 25, 2022 No. 99)

Yamaha Motor is undertaking a variety of activities aimed at addressing important societal issues that encompass the environment, natural resources, transportation, and industry, all with approaches unique to the company.
“Field-Born” is a series of short documentary videos that trains the camera on the passionate people working to resolve these societal issues as they go into the field, search for clues for solutions, and take action with fervor, while introducing the Yamaha products and services that enable or complement their work.
In this issue, we will briefly introduce the entries in the series and cover the premises behind it.

A Young Captain’s Challenge to Preserve Fishery Culture

The city of Miyako is located in Iwate Prefecture on the easternmost part of Japan’s main island of Honshu. The small fishing port of Hideshima sits on the city’s beautifully intricate ria coast and the abundant natural marine resources helped the area flourish as a fishing town for centuries.

However, the Tohoku region where Miyako lies was devastated by the Great East Japan Earthquake on March 11, 2011, and more than 18,000 people lost their lives or were never found in the aftermath of the mammoth tsunami, fires, and other damage caused by the earthquake. Debris ravaged the seaside, ships were swept away, and the region’s fishing industry suffered an enormous blow from the loss of so many workers and fishermen. Yamaha Motor quickly moved to support the recovery effort by rapidly ramping up production of the Japanese fishing boats indispensable for coastal fishery and making other reconstructive donations. However, more than a decade later, Tohoku’s fisheries have yet to fully recover.

Still, the progress made is surely and steadily being passed down to the next generation. On the waters of Miyako proudly sits a beautiful Yamaha scallop fishing boat. “Even with the disastrous tsunami, I’ve never been afraid of the sea,” says its young captain. “What’s most important is your resolve. Do you have the resolve to live alongside nature or not...” He hopes to pass on the wonders of the sea and fishery to the next generation, working to cultivate delicious scallops prized nationwide while promoting activities to better connect people with the sea. With the declining labor force in the fishing industry presenting a major societal issue today, there is no doubt that the winds of a new kind of fishery have begun to blow, and the latest entry in the Field-Born series tells this young captain’s story as he heads out to sea once again.

Introducing Initiatives to Solve Issues through the Lens of “People”

Field-Born puts a spotlight on the work being done by people taking on societal issues big and small, and how they are doing so right from the field.

The first installment introduces the efforts of a local taxi company to introduce low-speed electric vehicles based on Yamaha Motor golf cars in an aging town in order to provide a means of mobility not only for the locale’s elderly residents but also visiting tourists. Vol. 2 closes up on a Yamaha Corporation researcher and his work to study a forest of Sakhalin spruce in Hokkaido, with an eye on providing the means for keeping Yamaha instruments and their music around 100 years from now by conducting surveys from the air with an industrial-use unmanned helicopter instead of solely on foot.

Yamaha Motor is taking an approach unique to the company by leveraging the technologies, know-how, and networks we have built up to date through our businesses, and casting a wide net for addressing important societal issues related to the environment, natural resources, transportation, and industry. Field-Born introduces each of these efforts through the lens of the people behind them and those covered in each episode all express an honest desire or otherwise feel the need to “do something” about the issue at hand, and the passion they put forward to solve each is inspiring to witness in these short SDG-based documentary videos.

The real challenges that need solving are in the field, so we head there to find the root of the problem, discover the clues to fixing it, and then put that into action. Field-Born is how Yamaha Motor communicates the approach and message behind the SDGs work we are doing for a more sustainable future.

Field-Born Episodes

Field-Born | Yamaha Motor Co., Ltd. (yamaha-motor.com)

Vol. 1 Mobility Bringing People Together As the population of a small Japanese port town continues to age, a local taxi company is setting out to provide a solution for first- and last-mile mobility.

Vol. 2 Nurturing Forests Rich in Sound This initiative to survey and cultivate forests in order to produce wood for pianos has its eye on keeping Yamaha’s instruments and their music alive 100 years in the future.

Vol. 3 Sharing the Sea’s Blessings A young captain’s desire to keep Tohoku’s fishery tradition alive in the beautiful waters of northeastern Japan aboard a Yamaha commercial fishing boat for scallop harvesting.