The Greening of Japan #4 Village OS — The Community as an Ecosystem

In the previous chapters, I explored the difference between growing food as part of everyday life and farming as a profession, as well as a new way of living through “100works — The Modern Hyakusho.”

A society where growing food is not something left only to farmers, but something anyone can take part in. A way of life where people are not confined to a single profession, but develop different skills and knowledge, working according to the seasons and the needs of their communities.

But what would happen to our communities if more people began living this way?

I believe we need to start seeing communities themselves as living ecosystems.

For example, Kaga City in Ishikawa Prefecture, where I live, has farmland, forests, rivers, the sea, and vacant houses. It is home to farmers, traditional craftspeople, chefs, carpenters, engineers, and people with all kinds of skills and knowledge.

Yet these people and resources are not necessarily well connected.

One farmer has machinery sitting unused, while another needs that very machine. Someone has land they are not using, while someone else wants to start growing food. Food-processing facilities generate large amounts of byproducts, while elsewhere, fertilizers and animal feed are produced or purchased using imported raw materials.

The resources are already there, but we cannot see how they connect.

In today's society, these resources often exist separately, and we rely on purchasing what we need from outside.

I believe there is enormous potential here.

If we could reconnect the resources, people, technologies, and knowledge that already exist within a community, perhaps an entirely different kind of economy could emerge.

For example, pears that do not meet commercial standards could be processed into juice, jam, or fermented beverages. The byproducts from that processing could potentially be turned into compost or animal feed ingredients, provided they are properly treated. The compost could then return to the farmland the following year, helping to grow another harvest.

Timber from forests can be used for construction, furniture, and tools. Wood scraps can become other products or sources of heat energy. Buildings that are no longer in use can be repaired and transformed into homes or workshops.

Of course, not everything can be easily circulated. Processing requires equipment, and fertilizers and animal feed must meet safety standards. When transportation and labor are taken into account, keeping everything within a local area is not always the most practical solution.

That is exactly why we need to try things out, collect data, and find out what actually works.

The point is not to produce everything locally, but to rediscover the value of things that have been discarded or left unused.

In nature, the beautiful colors of autumn eventually give way to fallen leaves, which become part of the soil. The soil nourishes plants, plants sustain animals, and eventually, life returns to the earth. These processes form complex cycles.

The human economy cannot exist independently of these natural cycles either.

I believe we need to move away from a linear economy built on mass production, mass consumption, and mass disposal, toward an economy in which resources continue circulating in different forms.

And to support these cycles, we need a new kind of system.

This brings me to the idea of a “Village OS.”

An OS is the fundamental software that connects computer hardware with applications and allows them to function. Just as different applications run on a common operating system, perhaps communities could also have a shared foundation that supports people's activities and the use of local resources.

We could create a system that makes information about farmland, vacant houses, machinery, equipment, people, skills, and surplus resources available to those who need it, connecting people with the resources and opportunities they are looking for.

For example, a farmer may need extra hands, while someone nearby wants to work in agriculture for only part of the year. A building may sit empty while someone is searching for a workshop or workspace. People may possess valuable knowledge and specialized skills without ever meeting those who could benefit from them.

If we could make local needs and available resources visible and connect them, wouldn't that create opportunities for new kinds of work and activities?

AI and digital technologies could help organize complex information and connect people and resources more effectively.

We should also think about energy. Small-scale hydropower using local rivers and irrigation channels, solar power, and woody biomass could be combined according to the conditions of each region. By monitoring electricity generation and demand, and managing energy storage and power sharing locally, communities could expand their energy options.

Agriculture, transportation, energy, housing, education, and welfare.

Rather than treating these as separate issues, we could see them as parts of one interconnected system supporting the lives of people in a community.

By connecting different fields, relationships and possibilities that were previously invisible could begin to emerge.

What matters is not simply making each sector more efficient.

It is about creating new relationships between things that have existed separately.

I believe this is the foundation of a Village OS.

However, I do not imagine a system in which everything is digitally managed.

On the contrary, it should be a system that supports human relationships.

Sharing information brings people together. They begin to help one another. Exchanging knowledge and skills creates new work. Things that were once thrown away find new purposes.

As these many small cycles begin to overlap, the entire community starts functioning as a living ecosystem.

Another important idea here is the shift from ownership to access.

We do not need to own everything we use. What matters is being able to access the resources available within a community, in the right way and at the right time.

This does not mean rejecting private ownership. The freedom to own something and the option to share it should both exist.

At the same time, sharing comes with questions of management and responsibility. Who maintains the equipment? Who pays the costs? What happens when something breaks? Without clear answers, shared systems will not last. We need to design not only the technology, but also the systems of management and economic responsibility that support it.

Above all, I do not want to create a structure in which large corporations or government authorities alone monopolize local information and resources.

The people who live in a community should be able to take the initiative, share the information they need, and improve the system themselves. They should be able to discuss and decide matters that affect their own lives. To me, that is what democracy is supposed to be about.

What I imagine is not a smart city that pursues efficiency and productivity above everything else.

It is an OS designed to improve people's quality of life, or QOL, while protecting the natural environment and culture of each community.

And each community should be able to decide for itself which problems to address and what to prioritize.

Some regions face population decline and aging, while others struggle with a shortage of people to carry on traditional industries, increasing numbers of vacant houses, unstable energy supplies, or limited transportation options. Their natural environments, histories, cultures, and the values of the people who live there are all different.

That is why we do not need to impose one finished system on every community.

Each region should be able to identify its own challenges and build the systems it needs by combining the resources and technologies available to it.

Village OS is not about making every community the same. It is about providing a foundation that allows each community to choose and shape its own future.

The time saved through greater efficiency should not simply be used to work even more. It could be spent with family, cultivating a garden, making things, learning, playing, or creating.

That is the kind of future I hope technological progress can help us build.

And these community systems do not necessarily need to remain within the boundaries of a single town.

One region might develop a successful way to reuse food-processing byproducts, while another might establish an effective system for locally produced energy. By sharing the knowledge and experience gained through these efforts, other communities would not have to start from zero.

We should share our failures as well as our successes, and learn from one another. I believe failures should not be hidden, but put to use.

Knowledge developed in one community might prove useful somewhere else in the world.

Local experiments could become part of a global circulation of knowledge.

Each region could develop the capacity to support its own way of life, while still cooperating with others whenever necessary.

Independence does not mean having to do everything alone.

By developing our own capabilities, we can become freer to connect with others.

Perhaps what society needs now is a system of “autonomous interdependence.”

The first step is to understand what already exists in a community, what is missing, and what remains disconnected.

So far, I have explored the way we live, the idea of the modern hyakusho, and new systems for organizing our communities.

But will changing the structures of society alone truly make our lives richer?

Perhaps the consciousness of the people who create and use those systems also needs to change.

More than half a century has passed since Charles A. Reich described “Consciousness III” in The Greening of America. Today, we are on the threshold of a new era shaped by technologies such as AI and robotics.

As technology advances and the structures of society change, what should we reclaim, and what should we carry with us into the future?

In the next and final chapter, I want to bring these ideas together and explore what I call “Consciousness IV.”