2024-04-20 02:52:22
Soichiro Fukutake, owner of Japan’s Benesse Group
An island on the verge of extinction as a mecca for modern art
Working with artists such as Tadao Ando
500,000 guests per year on an island with a population of 3,000
“So that even if I die, support will continue… ” In early February, I visited Naoshima, Japan, known as the ‘mecca of modern art.’ The story of Naoshima, which transformed an island abandoned due to environmental destruction into a world-class tourist destination over the course of 30 years, is well known among those in the know. Since it was a family trip, I had not initially considered writing an article about it.
However, Naoshima kept coming to mind while interviewing Kim Sang-moon, Chairman of Ingwang Group, who plans to build a culture center in his hometown of Boeun, South Chungcheong Province. Chairman Kim wanted to build a cultural center with his own money and revitalize his hometown, which was withering due to population decline, with the power of culture.
Isn’t Naoshima a case where an entrepreneur’s confident investment changed the future of an island?
A dock welcomed by Yayoi Kusama’s red pumpkins
Naoshima is a small island with a population of about 3,300 in Kagawa Prefecture in south-central Japan. With an area similar to Yeouido (8㎢), many tourists rent bicycles to get around. There is only one common convenience store, 7-Eleven.
It is said that 500,000 people visit this island every year. There are many different faces, including tourists, architects, artists, and activists who want to study regional regeneration.
During the Setouchi International Arts Festival, held every three years since 2010, more than 1 million visitors flock to Naoshima and the surrounding islands.
When you arrive at Naoshima, Yayoi Kusama’s ‘Red Pumpkin’, which has become the dock’s landmark, welcomes you. Wherever you go, you encounter foreigners in a landscape that combines quiet nature and cute villages. The aging rate is 33.9% (2020), which means there are many elderly people.
There were quite a few small shops that made use of what was already there, such as a house that sold cookies they baked in a renovated part of a house, a restaurant or cafe with tables set up in a house.
![The reason why the chairman who led the ‘Miracle of Naoshima’ moved to New Zealand[서영아의 100세 카페]](https://dimg.donga.com/wps/NEWS/IMAGE/2024/04/19/124563922.1.jpg "The reason why the chairman who led the ‘Miracle of Naoshima’ moved to New Zealand[서영아의 100세 카페]")
The tenacity of an entrepreneur who is sincere in his love for art and humanity.
The islands of the Seto Inland Sea, including Naoshima, are so scenic that they were designated as national parks early on, just like Korea’s archipelago. However, until the 1980s, disused smelters and waste were left abandoned. Art projects began in the 1990s on islands that no one visits.
The leader is Soichiro Fukutake (福武總一郎), honorary advisor to Benesse Holdings (79, hereinafter referred to as Chairman Soichiro).
In 1992, as the owner of ‘Fukutake Bookstore’, a publishing and education company in Okayama, he established ‘Benesse House Museum’, a gallery and hotel, in Naoshima. It was part of the corporate Mecenat, and later it became the starting point and central axis of Naoshima Art Island.
There is no TV in the hotel room, but instead there is a gallery for hotel guests only. Guests were able to purify their bodies and minds while appreciating Naoshima’s nature, sea, and artwork. These days, Benesse House is fully booked with half a year’s worth of reservations, but it is said that there were quite a few times in the beginning when only flies were flying. However, he persevered and pushed forward with his next plans, planting modern art throughout the island, including Yayoi Kusama’s Pumpkin in 1994.
In 1995, the company name was changed to Benesse and it was listed on the stock market. Benesse means ‘to live well (esse)’ in Latin. He said, “The purpose of developing Naoshima is to create a ‘benesse (well-living)’ community,” and advanced the theory that “humans can only be happy if there are people who ‘live well’ together.”
In 2004, the world’s first underground art museum, Chichu Art Museum, was built. To prevent damage to nature, the building was placed underground and designed to maximize natural lighting. In 2010, the Lee Ufan Art Museum opened. All of this work was undertaken by Tadao Ando, an architect who collaborated with him.
The theme of Naoshima development is ‘coexistence of nature, architecture, and art.’ Through this, Chairman Soichiro hoped to attract outsiders and revitalize the lives of local residents through exchanges with them. In fact, around 2004, when the Chichu Art Museum was built, the number of tourists visiting Naoshima began to exceed 100,000 per year.
According to the ‘2020 Tourism White Paper’ (Japan Tourism Agency), Kagawa Prefecture’s ‘total growth rate of foreign tourists by metropolitan government (2012-2019)’ was 16 times, about 4 times the national average. It was revealed that Naoshima’s artistic activities contributed greatly to attracting visitors.
Invest in the island with a resistance heart
Why did he, who graduated from the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Waseda University, think of planting art in Naoshima?
He says that the driving force behind his initial investment in Naoshima was ‘anger.’ “It’s a short distance from Okayama, so I often went back and forth to create an international youth camping site, but I was angry that this beautiful place was neglected and not covered by the government’s administrative power.”
At the time, Naoshima and nearby Inujima (犬島) were completely gray due to toxic gases emitted by the smelter, and nearby Teshima (豊島) had become an illegal dumping site for toxic waste. He explains that like the ‘Resistance’, he “fought against the state using modern art as a weapon.”
The miracle of Naoshima is spreading to surrounding islands. The foundation built the Smelter Art Museum on Inujima in 2008 to express critical awareness of Japan, which has lost its pride by going all-in on economic growth. The white, drop-shaped concrete art museum that opened in Deshima in 2010 symbolized the purification and revival of Deshima, freeing it from the stigma of being an ‘island of industrial waste.’
In the same year, the 1st Setouchi International Arts Festival (Triennale) was held on Naoshima and 7 surrounding islands (12 islands from the 2nd). Chairman Soichiro serves as ‘general producer’ for each episode and is responsible for planning and finances.
The event has a reputation as a festival that communicates with local residents, with residents helping artists with their work process and acting as docents to explain their works to visitors.
930,000 people visited the first time in 2010, and 1.07 million people visited the second time in 2013. The economic effect estimated by Kagawa Prefecture was 11.1 billion yen in the first round. 2It reached 18 billion yen in 2019, and 10.3 billion yen in 2022, which was not smooth due to the coronavirus outbreak.
‘Living well’ means
The real protagonists of the island project are the residents.
After the sudden death of his father, Tetsuhiko, in 1986, Chairman Soichiro quickly ended his stay in Tokyo until the age of 40 and returned to Okayama to take over the company. As his father’s retainer, he visited the island several times to build the Naoshima Youth Camping Site. He became fascinated by the island and thought he wanted to bring smiles to the faces of the people living there, especially the elderly, through art projects.
So, before starting the ‘Naoshima Project’, a middle school, community center, and ship terminal were built for the island villagers. It is said that more than 2,000 information sessions were held for residents.
“Art moves people’s hearts. “I realized what true happiness is when I saw the islanders gaining vitality by communicating with outsiders through works of art.” (Chairman Soichiro)
Finding vitality through resident participation can also be seen in the ‘Ie (House) Project’, which started in 1998. They purchased abandoned houses, temples, shrines, dental clinics, salt warehouses, etc. and recreated them as works of art that capture the times and memories they lived in. A house became an artist’s gallery.
Island where population decline has stopped
The first one is ‘Kadoya’, which was a 200-year-old old house that was renovated and a huge water tank was installed with 250 digital numbers floating around. In the pitch-black darkness, you can see the colorful digital number LEDs flashing from 1 to 9 at their own speed. The numeric LED was managed by 250 residents, allowing them to control their own speed.
If you wander through the small alleys of Naoshima with a map in hand to see all of the 7 projects scattered across the country, you will encounter foreigners milling about in groups, each looking for their own way. Their eyes sparkle with joy, as if they are playing hide and seek. Wherever you go, you will meet grandfathers volunteering to give you directions, grandmothers greeting you with a smile, and houses with their front doors wide open so you can see their neatly organized yards.
All field guides are local senior citizens. The staff, who appear to be in their 70s or 80s, are not very quick and friendly, but they are doing their job well. On the contrary, they seem to be enjoying their work indifferently, so they are comfortable with each other.
Because there are not many lodging facilities on Naoshima, visitors usually arrive by boat early in the morning and leave by the last boat. Even if tourists spend only 1,000 yen each on the island, if there are 500,000 tourists, it is 500 million yen per year. Wouldn’t Naoshima be a little richer?
Unlike other local governments, Naoshima’s population decline has almost stopped. About 300 people immigrate to nearby Shodo Island (Sodu Island) every year, and in Ogi Island (Nam Island), about 50 of the 130 residents are immigrants from outside the island. Thanks to the immigrants, elementary schools and daycare centers have reopened on this island.
“The economy must be subordinated to culture”
He inherited Fukutake Bookstore, with capital of 600 million yen and sales of 59.3 billion yen, from his father and grew it into Benesse, a listed company with consolidated sales of 400 billion yen.
The company’s philosophy is that ‘the economy should be a servant of culture.’ It is argued that it is important for humans to ‘live well’ if companies use the wealth they obtain from economic activities to create good communities by investing in culture rather than the economy. This means that companies must move toward capitalism that values not only the profits of their owners but also the contribution (public interest) to all stakeholders, including employees and their families, customers, business partners, and the local community. He calls this ‘public interest capitalism’.
In 2004, he donated his personal assets to create the ‘Naoshima Fukutake Museum Foundation’. He and his family spent over 250 million dollars (about 350 billion won, Forbes 2022) for Naoshima’s development and art festival.
In 2012, existing foundations were merged into the ‘Fukutake Foundation, a public interest foundation,’ and additionally donated 5% of Benesse Holdings stock, cash, owned works, and assets. Stock donations continued thereafter, and the foundation’s current stake in Benesse stock exceeds 8% (equivalent to approximately $136 million, Forbes 2022). Dividends from these stocks flow from Benesse to the foundation every year.
When a media outlet asked him in an interview, “I heard that the chairman’s family and the Benesse Group spent about 100 billion yen (900 billion won) on Naoshima,” Chairman Soichiro tilted his head and said, “I guess it’s not that much, right?” I also did it.
“Defend funds to support the arts.”
As I searched and studied related materials, I found Chairman Soichiro’s current situation more interesting. He no longer lives in Japan. In 2009, the couple moved to New Zealand and settled there. Since he had no children, he adopted his nephew Hideaki (47) and entrusted him with the Fukutake Foundation.
The Japanese media cited ‘tax saving’ as the reason why he, who has a net worth of 138.3 billion yen (2022 Forbes), moved to New Zealand. New Zealand has no inheritance tax or gift tax, and the highest personal income tax rate is 33% (Japan 45%). Inheritance tax in Japan is 50%.
The foundation’s arts support activities are maintained by dividends from Benesse stock, but if the foundation dies, previous dividends cannot be maintained. To avoid this situation, he moved to New Zealand and completed the foundation’s ‘sustainable’ structure.
In addition, Benesse recently chose the path of delisting. Starting in January, most of the shares were purchased through a public tender offer with management participation, and the company was made private on March 4. This is related to the Japanese government’s policy in March of last year to emphasize the expansion of shareholder value for listed companies and to penalize companies with a price-to-book ratio (PBR) below 1.0.
This means that in the future, there will be no possibility of pressure coming from activist funds or other sources to ‘stop supporting arts that have nothing to do with corporate interests.’ The Japanese media assessed that this stock tender offer was the final task of Chairman Soichiro, ‘Art’s Patron’, who is about to turn 80 years old.
The Fukutake Foundation will open a new art museum in Naoshima in the spring of 2025. This time, Tadao Ando was in charge of the architectural design. This is his 10th project in Naoshima alone.
In line with this announcement, Chairman Soichiro issued a message saying, “The new museum will be a culmination of our activities to date over more than 35 years.” 2025 is the year in which the Setouchi International Arts Festival will be held. Will Chairman Soichiro take on the role of general producer of the festival again this time?
Naoshima = Reporter Seo Young-ah [email protected]
2024-04-20 02:52:22