Report: Tohoku Regional Event on Iwate’s Gibier and Regional Revitalization

On July 19, 2025, a Tohoku regional event was held in Iwate Prefecture and five TOMODACHI alumni attended the event. We were honored to welcome Mr. Satoki Oba, who is active in Otsuchi Town, as our guest speaker.

His talk covered a wide range of topics, including Iwate’s gibier (wild game meat), methods for attracting visitors to depopulated areas, and biological insights. Although the topics were specialized, he explained them in a way that was easy for all participants to understand. Attendees commented that they learned a lot from hearing directly from a hunting expert about the differences between urban and rural areas, as well as the recent topic of bear sightings.Following the lecture, we moved to a gibier restaurant in Morioka City. We enjoyed the gibier cuisine while the owner explained each dish. Having just heard from an expert, we were able to appreciate the food with a deeper sense of gratitude than usual, making for a truly valuable experience.

Tomoki Yoshihama from 2016 TOMODACHI Summer Softbank Leadership Program alumnus said, “I learned about the game meat that’s been making headlines. It also gave me time to think about how to attract visitors from other areas to depopulated regions.”