Asian Product Import Business Support Seminar 2008

CONTENTS

Introduction Shuji Miyazaki, President; Manufactured Imports and Investment Promotion Organization (MIPRO) ………… 1

Asian Product Import Business Support Seminar, September 24 “Expanding Your Business with Asian Products: Methods of Importing Food Products and Sundries.”

•Seminar 1 Bangladesh Takako Ueda, Craft Link Project, SHAPLA NEER (Citizens’ Committee in Japan for Overseas Support) (NGO) ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 2

•Seminar 2 Nepal Haruyo Tsuchiya, President; Nepali Bazaro ……………………………………………………… 17

Q&A ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 26

Asian Product Import Business Support Seminar, November 21 “Expanding Your Business with Asian Products: Methods of Importing Food Products and Sundries.”

•Seminar 1 Cambodia Aiko Kanzaki, Shanti Volunteer Association ……………………………………………………… 28

•Seminar 2 Laos Toshinori Komine, Representative Director for Lao Airlines (Japan General Office/ATB) …………………………… 39

Q&A ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 44

Profile of Administering Groups ………………………………………………………………………………… 47 Seminar 1, September 24

Expanding Your Business with Asian Products: Methods of Importing Food Products and Sundries − Bangladesh −

Takako Ueda Craft Link Project, SHAPLA NEER (Citizens' Committee in Japan for Overseas Support) (NGO)

Hello everyone. My name is Takako Ueda, and I am ° About SHAPLA NEER involved with a project called Craft Link, operated by the First, I would like to explain just what SHAPLA NEER does. international cooperation NGO SHAPLA NEER. Craft Link We are a private sector international cooperation organization, is an international cooperation project that imports fair trade or an NGO. Iʼm sure that everyone here is well aware, but an handicrafts. I will be talking to you today for about an hour on NGO is a non-governmental and non-profit organization formed the subject of how to expand your business through Asian goods by private citizens, which works to resolve problems on a global and handicrafts. scale, among them problems related to development, poverty I confess that I exercised my mind a great deal about exactly and human rights. As a private sector organization, which had what I would say today on the subject of expanding your its origin 36 years ago as a volunteer organization formed by business. Knowing that many of the people participating today students wishing to provide support to people overseas, we are had already launched their own businesses or have business also known as an NGO. experience, I wondered how talking about what we do at We conduct our activities in four countries: Bangladesh, which SHAPLA NEER could provide any guidance. It is not possible I will be discussing today, Nepal, India and Japan. SHAPLA for us either to say “Do such and such and you will succeed in NEER has about 20,000 supporters. We are a membership- business.” So what I intend to do today is talk about how we based organization, and we periodically request contributions operate our business, and especially about the mistakes that we from our members to assist in our operations. have made in importing products from Bangladesh, and what We rent office space in Tokyo's Shinjuku Ward. You can see we have learned in doing so. I will be delighted if this discussion a picture of our office at the lower right of the screen. We also of our mistakes and our experiences helps you in your own have offices in Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh, and Katmandu, business enterprises. the capital of Nepal. We have 15 Japanese staff members, including three in Bangladesh and Nepal, 12 Bangladeshi

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staff members, and four Nepalese staff members. Our income in fiscal 2007 was 240 million yen, of which about 30% was income from the fair trade project I will be discussing today. As I have indicated, we are active in four countries, Bangladesh, Nepal, India and Japan, as you can see on the map here. Our activities are basically concentrated in South Asia, and we are able to provide emergency assistance to other South Asian countries such as Afghanistan if a disaster occurs.

every 1,000 live births. The rate in Bangladesh is seventy-three against Japanʼs four.

° History of Bangladesh Many of you are probably aware of Bangladeshʼs history, but allow me to provide a very brief overview. The time series shown on the screen moves from left to right. In 1947, India and Pakistan achieved independence from Britain. Todayʼs The data on the screen is taken from our website so it might Bangladesh was then part of Pakistan, and East and West be a little difficult to read, but it provides basic information on Pakistan, divided by India, were one country. Bangladesh. The country is about one-third the size of Japan. In 1971, the country that became Bangladesh, then known as The population given here is 121 million people, but that is a East Pakistan, became independent from West Pakistan. The fairly old figure, and the population is probably higher today. spark that ignited the war of independence was language. Urdu The population density of the country is high, similar to Japanʼs is the official language of todayʼs Pakistan, while, as I indicated or perhaps a somewhat more populated region. Ninety percent earlier, Bengali is spoken in Bangladesh. The Bangladeshi War (90%) of the population is Muslim, with the remaining 10% of Independence is said to have originated in the fact that during made up of Hindus, Buddhists and Christians. The official the period that the nation was known as East Pakistan, the use of language of the country is Bangla. Bengali was forbidden, and citizens were forced to speak Urdu.

° Status of Bangladesh ° SHAPLA NEER (Citizensʼ Committee in Japan for This is a comparison of various figures for Bangladesh and Overseas Support) Japan, to give you an idea of the situation in the country. We SHAPLA NEER commenced activities in Bangladesh in 1972, can see a considerable difference in average life expectancy. immediately after the nationʼs independence. At that time, The mortality rate of infants under five years of age shows the the organization was not known as an NPO, and certainly did amount of infants which die at less than five years of age for not have 15 paid staff members. Recognizing that the nation

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had been devastated by the war of independence and was in a longer than the hour allotted to this presentation. To describe terrible state, a Christian group called to young people in Japan the nature of our activities briefly, I would say that we are to do something to help. This call was answered, and a group involved in agricultural development. In the agricultural areas of about 20 young people traveled to Bangladesh to provide of Bangladesh, where we started out working with the tractors, assistance. Bangladesh is an agricultural country, and as you can and of Nepal and India, we work to provide aid to the most see from the photograph here, these volunteers worked the land economically impoverished strata of society, the people to using tractors. whom aid generally does not reach. I will discuss one episode from this period. The volunteers were The problems, however, are not limited to farming villages; seeking, of course, to do good, to provide help by using tractors these countries also face urban problems. This is certainly true to assist in cultivating the land. However, the response of the of Nepal, which, as Japan did, is facing enormous problems local farmers was to ask them to stop and to go home. Naturally as a result of urbanization. One of these problems is the large they wondered why this was so. As they discovered, the poorest number of children who migrate to the city from farming people in Bangladesh were farmers without land, and many of villages seeking jobs, and who become street children. them eked out a living by cultivating other peopleʼs land. While These children leave their villages for a variety of reasons, and doing their best to help, the volunteers were actually stealing end up attempting to support themselves in the cities. They jobs. receive no protection from their parents or other adults, and What we learned from this is that the aid-givers cannot afford having no homes are forced to live on the streets. Sleeping to assume that they know what has to be done; in fact they on the streets with whatever money they are able to earn in donʼt understand the situation at all. It was repeated mistakes their pockets, they are victims of violent robberies and sexual like this that produced todayʼs SHAPLA NEER. Our activities assaults. Even if they are injured, it is impossible for them to go commenced from our recognition that it is the local people who to the hospital. Many Nepalese children are in this position, and have the clearest understanding of what has to be done, not us. so we are also working to provide aid to them. Among the young volunteers who returned from Bangladesh, We are also involved in the importation and sale of fair trade there were a number who were not content to let this tractor handicrafts, which I will be discussing today. These are the three incident put an end to their aid activities. They felt that there broad areas in which we conduct our activities. was more that they could do for the people of Bangladesh. Little by little, their activities became more organized, and the group ° SHAPLA NEERʼs Fair Trade Activities expanded. So, what are our aims in our fair trade activities, and what What we are aiming to achieve at SHAPLA NEER is summed exactly do we do? Our main aim is to sell handicrafts in order to up in the phrase that you can see here: “To create a society in increase the quality of life of the people who produce them. We which every personʼs potential can blossom.” At present we call this “the most familiar form of international cooperation.” work in four countries, Bangladesh, Nepal, India and Japan, There are probably very few days on which you do not buy but our goal is not limited to these countries; we would like to something. I also buy things every day. What we are doing is realize this type of society in every country. making this very familiar activity, shopping, an opportunity for If I was to discuss our activities in detail it would take me international cooperation. We link people through shopping,

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Jute is one of Bangladeshʼs main products, and it was easily available, growing as it did in all the villages. Our handicrafts program emerged from this idea; that it would be possible for local women to earn an income by producing goods using handicraft skills that they already possessed, from a material that was readily available and did not have to be purchased from elsewhere. The photograph here shows a sika, which is a rope used to hang pots. This is before my time, but the people involved in the program at this stage did not see what they were doing as “fair and this is why we believe it to be the most familiar form of trade,” and did not know the term. What they were doing was international cooperation. based on the thought “Isnʼt there something that we can do?” At that time the products were not exported to Japan. Export ° The History of Craft Link to Japan required money and was a difficult matter. It was felt “Craft Link” is our name for our handicrafts project. Craft link that the activity should directly assist in increasing the womenʼs had its start 34 years ago, in 1974. Iʼve already told you a little income, and that it would be best to sell the products in their about the group of young volunteers who worked the land village markets. with tractors in Bangladesh in 1972, following the nationʼs Step by step, well-managed organizations developed in independence. The following year, the organization sent one Bangladesh working with the same aims as SHAPLA NEER, young Japanese woman to live in Bangladesh. Following the seeking to help women and assist the desperately poor through tractor incident, they believed that in order to understand the the medium of handicrafts. It was felt that the best method of needs of the local people, it was necessary to live among them procedure would be for SHAPLA NEER not to directly employ and consider together with them what needed to be done. the producers of the handicrafts, but to leave arrangements in What this young woman saw was a country devastated by its Bangladesh to these organizations. Giving consideration to what war of independence, in which large numbers of male workers we could do in Japan, it was decided that we would import the had been killed, and many women had been left behind. The products, enabling us to increase knowledge of Bangladesh social circumstances here were entirely different to those of among Japanese citizens, and to provide more work in the todayʼs Japan, and it was extremely difficult for these women country by selling the products here. to find work outside the home. Craft Link was born from the In 1998, we also started handling products from Nepal. In 2003 question “What can be done?” when faced with these women we engaged in discussions to decide on a set of guidelines for without food to eat and unsure of how to earn a livelihood. our activities, and in the same year we commenced calling the First, a project was started to organize a womenʼs cooperative project that we had been conducting “Craft Link,” based on the for the production of jute goods. You will find a large number fact that it established links between people through handicrafts. of jute products in our latest catalogue. Anyway, the idea was to have the local women manufacture products using jute. ° How Craft Link is Organized Allow me to briefly discuss the different actors who are involved in the Craft Link project, and how the project is operated. Here we see SHAPLA NEER positioned in the middle. As I mentioned a little earlier, we work with partner organizations in Bangladesh and Nepal. Beyond these partner organizations are the producers of the products that we import. This means that we do not directly employ the producers. We order products from our partner organizations and pay the revenues from the sale of the products to them. It is our partner organizations which request products from the local producers,

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° Workshops with Our Partner Organizations Here we can see some images from workshops with our partner organizations. These workshops are held to enable us to let our partners know, for example, what types of bags are popular in Japan at the moment, what colors and styles are selling, and so on. If the organizations have designers, we invite them to our workshops. Here we see a designer suggesting ideas that might go over well in Japan.

and that pay them their wages. We sell the products to Japanese consumers by mail order, either via our catalogues, or through the Internet shopping site Rakuten Ichiba. We also offer products for sale on consignment, and loan them out, in particular to events such as university festivals, daycare center and kindergarten bazaars and local festivals. We commenced sales on consignment in order to build a system in which shops could handle our products without having to buy them and without any risk, enabling us to involve more people in the sale of our products and in fair trade activities. Our products are now handled by about 350 wholesalers throughout Japan. That describes our basic mode of operation. I donʼt think that the role we play would change greatly if we were a company. Now, I would like to discuss the types of things we do that can only be done in the area of fair trade. First, we get feedback from our customers on their impressions and opinions, and we provide information to our partner organizations, and do research for them. Of course, some products donʼt sell, and we often encounter organizations with which we do not wish to ° Offering Training to Our Partner Organizations deal. But our ultimate aim is to increase the income and improve In addition to holding workshops, we also offer training. Just the quality of life of the people who make the products, and to leave Bangladesh for a moment, here we see some women simply quitting right there would be counter to this aim. Taking of the Tharu ethnic group. Note the patchwork pattern on the into consideration the feedback from our customers, we provide skirts the women are wearing and on the wall behind them. As our partners in Bangladesh with the necessary information you can see from the page of our catalogue shown here, Tharu on how to make products that will sell, and what types of women produce bottle holders, pillow cases and other products improvements to make. for us. Our partner organizations do not just provide work to the This patchwork design is traditional for these women. They producers of the products that we sell. Of course, they do produce the designs by hand, and so in the case of this bottle give them work, requesting them to make this or that product, holder, for example, they would sew the rhinoceros design to and they provide wages for this work. This is their main aim. the cloth. This was as much as they were able to do. They didnʼt However, their role does not stop with providing money. They have any sewing machines, and in fact didnʼt know anything also give consideration to how to improve the quality of life of about them, and so they couldnʼt sew the cloth into this bottle the producers, and conduct programs accordingly. holder shape. What we did was to give them the cloth and the rhinoceros design and have them sew the rhinoceros design, after which we would have the bottle holder shape made up in

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women to borrow small amounts to improve their quality of life or start their own small businesses.

° What We Think Is Impsortant at Craft Link We regard culture and tradition as important, and this is also the case when products are made. Of course we cannot lose sight of the fact that we need products that will sell in Japan, but we commenced our activities with the aim of introducing people in this country to the cultures of Bangladesh and Nepal. Because of this, we try as hard as possible to ensure that our products use another workshop. traditional motifs and colors, and are produced using traditional As a result, the women received less money. We felt that if methods. the women had access to sewing machines and could sew up As in the case of the jute products I discussed earlier, the type pillow cases and bottle holders and so on, that they would be of products that we are trying to work with are made using able to earn higher incomes, so we provided them with training materials the makers wonʼt have to order from overseas, which in the use of sewing machines. This was difficult for them everyone is familiar with, and which are readily available. And because it was their first experience of using the machines, but of course, we regard manufacture by hand as very important. over the course of the training some of the women in the group This is important from the perspective of providing more people eventually gained the ability to sew anything using a machine, with work. If things are made using machines, the job can be and were able to increase their incomes. finished right away, but the weaving of cloth using traditional methods, for example, provides work for a lot of people. For this ° The Efforts of Our Partner Organizations reason, we attempt to deal exclusively in hand-made products. Most of the manufacturers of the products that we deal with are women, and so our partner organizations make efforts to establish child-minding areas to create an environment enabling the women to work in the intervals between household duties. In Bangladesh there are often floods as a result of cyclones, and a great many of the women working on our products have experienced disasters like these, so our partner organizations also work to provide emergency assistance. They also provide aid for education by organizing loans so that the womenʼs children are able to attend school. In the area of health, they enable the women to visit doctors without charge, and offer information on where hospitals are located. They also offer micro-financing services, making it possible for the

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° Culture and Tradition I would now like to offer a brief description of the type of products that we handle. For more detail, I would urge you to have a look in our “Craft Link Minami-Kaze” catalogue, which you have received. This is a nakshi kantha, a traditional type of Bangladeshi embroidery. Among our products, this type of embroidery is used for large tapestries, clothes, and small goods. This is a photograph taken in a Bangladeshi village. We can see women talking at the well. They are wearing saris, single pieces of cloth skillfully wrapped to hide the lines of their bodies. The local people use nakshi kantha as bed covers and swaddling When saris are old and worn out, rather than throwing them clothes. We sell these embroideries made into other products. away, the women quilt them, using the traditional patterns of their specific regions, which they learned from their mothers. ° Jute: An Easily Available Material This is how nakshi kantha are made. We also handle a lot of jute products, and they were some of the first products that we made in Bangladesh. These are jute plants, which will become the material used in the products. The plants grow in wet areas, reaching a height of about two meters. Here we see the cutting of the jute. A fibrous substance is extracted from inside the stalks and soaked in water for two weeks. Following this, it is pounded to separate the fibers and the husk. The Bangladeshis donʼt just use jute to make fabrics; they have also long used the husks for the exterior walls of their houses. They make the walls stronger by mixing the jute with earth. They also use jute to fuel ovens. The new sprouts of the plant

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can be made into a sticky paste similar to Jewʼs marrow in that is, to create saleable products that enable us to provide Japan, and the Bangladeshis also fry and eat this. continuous orders, the outcomes that we are seeking are to Here are Bangladeshi women sewing up jute bags for us to sell. create continuing employment, to improve the quality of life of the producers of the goods that we sell, and to improve the status of women. We see the phrase “Connection to society, self-confidence” written here. Our goal is not just to improve economic conditions. We enable women who are trapped in the house and who have been told that they are not capable of anything to realize that they are also able to work, and to link them up with other women so that they can discuss their concerns. Increasing the self-confidence of women by enabling them to connect to society is one of the great outcomes of our work. Up to this point, I have told you about how SHAPLA NEER got its start, what type of goods we sell, and the thinking behind our activities. Now I would like to discuss the practical aspects of our operations, such as how we go about developing products, and how the process works from ordering a product to importing it to Japan.

° Our Staff We are an extremely small organization, with three staff members in Tokyo, including myself. In total, SHAPLA NEER has 15 Japanese staff members, but operations in Japan are managed by a total of nine people, three of whom look after the handicrafts business, and six of whom are part-time staff who oversee our inventory storage space. We donʼt have special staff members like designers and so on; we are all jacks-of-all-trades. Our staff people are generalists who try their hand at anything, from developing products to sending out stock, formulating and distributing catalogues, managing Internet sales and creating Internet pages. ° Desired Outcomes of Our Activities We also have two staff members overseeing our handicrafts In working with our partners overseas to decide how we can business in Dhaka and two in Katmandu. One of the staff avoid having to stop manufacture because products donʼt sell, members in each city is a Japanese citizen, and the other is a

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The diagram on the right is an image of the system that I discussed earlier, in which it is our partner organizations that deal directly with the producers and producersʼ groups.

° Product Development I will now go on to discuss how we go about developing products within the system of producersʼ groups and partner organizations that I have described. Basically, we develop products to fit in with the timing of the twice-yearly publication of our catalogues. We publish our spring and summer catalogue in March, and our fall and winter catalogue in September, and we begin product development for the catalogues about a year and a half before they are due to come out. At present, our staff in Japan visit Bangladesh, Nepal and India twice a year. During these visits, we go to the stores and storage centers of our partner organizations and meet with their staff, gathering information on new products, materials or designs. Based on this information, we bounce ideas around on the type of products we should produce for the next catalogue, what is popular in Japan, and just what our possibilities are. This local person. Four staff members in total oversee our handicrafts process leads to decisions on specific products. business overseas. Their role is to liaise with our partner At the moment, we generally receive samples from our partner organizations in the countries. They are right on the scene, organizations and send them back twice before the product is and so if any problem arises, they are available to head off completed, but there are also times when we turn a sample into immediately to determine what it is and how it can be solved. a product without any changes. We try as hard as possible to They also conduct surprise inspections to check on quality go with the products that seem as if they will not require any before products are shipped, and they visit the producers of changes, but there are also times when we are not operating with the products. Our staff in Japan canʼt visit the women who are a full complement of people who could give attention to the making the products for our partner organizations very often, product. Our principle is to use products as much as possible as and so our staff on the ground go and talk to them to find out they are; sometimes we are able to order them without change, what type of people they are, whether their wages are being paid but at other times we request certain modifications. as they should be, whether their lives are genuinely improving, So the object that is produced, based on our design, is modified and whether they are experiencing any problems. We also visit once or twice before it becomes a product. The production of when we are able, but because they are right on the scene, it is a sample generally takes 90 days. I am not sure whether some most convenient for our local staff to collect information for us. people might consider that a long time, or how long is generally At present, we deal with 15 partner organizations in Nepal and Bangladesh. Nine of these are in Bangladesh. There is a little information on our partner organizations in the back of our catalogue, so you can learn more about them later if you wish. The nine organizations in Bangladesh are quite varied. They handle different products and have different structures, ranging from one-man operations to organizations with some thousands of staff members, much larger than SHAPLA NEER. Some focus on producing hand-woven cloth, while others specialize in nakshi kantha embroidery or jute products.

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taken, but it is often the case that delivery is late anyway. differ from our expectations, ask about expense, and discuss One reason for this is the fact that it takes about 10 days what type of problems will be likely to arise when we order the for documents, original samples, or products that we have product. We donʼt visit the country when the second sample is requested changes to get from SHAPLA NEER to our partner ready, but our resident staff members hold discussions with the organizations. We dispatch post to our overseas offices by OCS partner organization at this time. or EMS. After delivery, our staff members walk to the nearby We try to order products no later than three months before the offices of our partner organizations to explain the situation to desired date of delivery. As I indicated earlier, ensuring that we them. This whole process takes two or three days. have a long time for production is extremely important for us. Next, it takes quite a while for the information to get from We try to give the Bangladeshi side a long time so that they can our partner organizations to the producersʼ groups. Producers meet our deadline without any problems. living on the fringes of the city will receive the information very quickly, but in the case of people in the country, it might ° Product Development (Materials, Purchase of Samples) take two days by boat to reach them. In Nepal, some of our Before our trips to the country, we indicate to our partner producers will take a week to get to by trekking, plane, and organizations what types of products we might be interested in, bus. Considering that a sample then has to be made up and then and they will present a selection of products for our approval. At delivered to the partner organization for delivery to us, in a very other times, they may wish us to look at a product that they have large number of cases the process takes around 90 days. We developed. The scene at the bottom left was photographed when proceed based on a tacit understanding that a month and a half we were developing designs for swaddling clothes for babies. will be required for a sample. Here, one of our partners is suggesting a design, and wondering The Eid holidays referred to here are Muslim festivals whether it will be popular in Japan. something like the New Year celebrations in Japan, and are celebrated at this very time of year, in October, and again in December. During the festivals, people will not turn their hands to work for periods of one week to ten days. As you may be aware, the Eid festivals are preceded by a period of fasting. During this period, people eat nothing in the hours of the day when our producers do their work. The very devout also donʼt take anything to drink, and in fact will spit their saliva outside rather than swallowing it. Naturally, hunger makes peopleʼs productivity decline, and work makes slow progress. Because of this, we try to organize it so that things get done earlier, to ensure that as little work as possible has to be done before the ° Product Development (Discussions with Partner Eid festivals. Organizations) Work is also slow during the rainy season, and during the When the samples are completed, we visit our partner harvest season. The women who make products for us donʼt organizations in the country. During these trips we discuss specialize in this work. They have to perform a variety of tasks, various issues. For example, our partners might tell us that a like doing the housework and caring for children; they might specific cloth is available at the moment, but that it probably also be required to look after livestock, and so on. The majority wonʼt be when the order is received. Or again, they discuss the are making handicrafts for us in the intervals between these opinions of the women producing the items For example, the other tasks. In particular during the busy periods for farming, women may feel that a particular design is too complex, and it is often the case that shipments will be delayed, and we also want us to make some kind of modification. have to take this type of thing into consideration. We time our visits to the country to coincide with the completion ° Product Development (Instructions) of the first sample, and so we are able, while actually looking at This is an example of our instructions, written up when we are the sample, to talk directly with our partners about points that requesting a sample. When a product is designed from scratch,

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is, however, rather difficult to obtain thick woolen cloth suitable for winter wear in the country. While we had thought that we could finish up the product development right there, at the time when we ordered the product it was still summer, and we were asked by our partner organization to order the product in winter. Our mistakes didnʼt stop with thick cloth. When we first purchased a sample of the bead earrings that you see on the screen, we liked them and decided that we could handle them as one of our products. Everything was OK up to this point, but when we actually ordered them and received the shipment, we discovered that they were an entirely different color. Obviously our partner organization, which had shipped the earrings to us without saying anything, was also at fault in this case. When we asked them why this had happened, we were told, “Well, thereʼs nothing we can do because we donʼt make these beads. We buy them in markets around here.” The women were only making the upper part of the earrings and attaching the beads; they were not making the beads themselves. The beads were purchased at local markets, and they made the earrings by attaching the beads to small, mirrored sections. we include various details such as dimensions, as you can see Green-colored beads had been available when the sample here. When we receive the second sample, we make specific product was made, but they had not obtained the beads with the requests, such as, for example, requesting the neck to be made idea of getting an order for several hundred pairs of earrings, smaller if we feel it is too big, until the product is completed. and so the earrings could not be made up as originally intended. This type of thing happens fairly regularly. ° Product Development.....Mistakes (1) Now, we make sure when we purchase the first sample whether We have made various mistakes during the process of product or not the product will be available throughout the year and development. These mistakes are so basic that I am embarrassed whether the color will change, and when we should order it if to talk about them, but I will discuss some of them with you there is any possibility of disruptions in supply. today. First, there was a case in which, when collecting samples, we ° Product Development.....Mistakes (2) came across a sample made of a material that we liked, but when Now I will tell you about a recent mistake that we made. we ordered the product to begin selling it, we were told that the Vegetable-dyed products have become quite popular, and we material was unavailable. Bangladesh has a hot climate, and thought that we would also like to include some among our cotton fabrics, which allow air to pass through, are widely used. It products. We contacted an organization in Bangladesh that was

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involved in dyeing products using vegetable dyes, and we ended they were shipped. Under the conditions of constant rainfall up making an order. While we were having the products made during the season, a special drying machine would have been for us, we realized that the catalyst used in the dying process required to dry the products. However, they were shipped as was banned as a hazardous substance in Japan. they were, and when they arrived in Japan, they were incredibly Itʼs really embarrassing to admit this mistake, but what we had moldy, and also full of insects. done was to get information only on what substances were In this case also, we were a bit late in realizing what we should being used as dyes; we had not asked what substances were have done. Since this incident, we have begun to ask our partner being used in every step of the process. We found out about the organizations to refrain as much as possible from making banned substance by chance, and when we did we immediately products using plants or wooden products during the rainy stopped selling vegetable-dyed products and switched to season, or if they do so not to ship the products unless they have chemical dyes. been dried in a special drying machine. This particular incident We were rather late in doing so, but after this we introduced the caused us to inconvenience our customers, because the product use of product information sheets. These are forms on which in question had already been advertised in our catalogue, and of we collect all the relevant information about a sample that course was not fit to be sold when we received orders for it. we purchase when we engage in product development: what materials are used, what chemical dyes are used, what catalysts ° Product Development.....Mistakes (4) are used if the product is vegetable-dyed, what the threads Well, the litany of mistakes continues. I indicated earlier that are dyed with, and so on. This is a nuisance for our partner we allot a period of three months for our products to be made. organizations and they donʼt like the forms, but we introduced But there have been occasions, continuing up to the present, them because they were essential for us. So we now have a clear when we have missed this target. For example, it has been the understanding of what goes into our products. case that we have been delayed in formulating the necessary documents, or we have had difficulty in deciding how many ° Product Development.....Mistakes (3) units to order, and the actual period for production has been The next mistake that I will tell you about is one that could reduced to two months. At times, this has been reflected in the probably only be made in Bangladesh. The rainy season in quality of the products. Bangladesh lasts from mid-April to September, and of course it Itʼs probably a little difficult to see clearly, but these are nakshi rains a lot during this period. The products on the screen are not kantha, the type of embroidery that I discussed earlier. On the the ones that I will be talking about, but you can see where the left is the sample that we received, which we liked. On the right products are made. The items are produced under the eaves, or is the product that was delivered. As can be seen, the quality is perhaps in a wider space outside the house which may not have entirely different. We allotted a period of two months for the a roof, and in many cases they are sewn up while people are production of these items, but for the women making them, this taking a rest from trips into the jungle to collect vegetation. period probably amounted to between two and three weeks. The product that we made our mistake with was one that we had In circumstances like this, when you have to finish the job but developed using a native Bangladeshi plant. The products were youʼre also busy with farm work, there is a definite possibility made in the rainy season, and they didnʼt completely dry before that the resulting work will be slipshod. From the perspective

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of the women who make the products, the work has to be done ° Ordering, Production, and Delivery or they wonʼt get paid, and they are being pressed to meet I would now like to briefly discuss our procedures for ordering, a specific deadline by the organization that has ordered the production, and delivery. product. Naturally they give it their best, but ultimately they canʼt take enough time, and you can end up with a product like this. ° Ordering Whether or not this is simply a problem of the time allotted for When we decide on an order, we send out the relevant production is a matter which requires mutual discussion; but documents to our partner organizations. These go through if people are rushed, it can result in the production of items of our office in the country, and our staff members there visit the this type of quality, and we are therefore very careful about the partner organization and deliver the documents while explaining length of time we allot for production. the necessary items.

° Product Development.....Mistakes (5) The next of our mistakes that I will discuss resulted from a lack of dialogue. We requested one of our partner organizations to make a particular product, based on our belief that it would sell in Japan. They told us that if we thought that it would sell, they would give it their best, and they provided us with an extremely attractive sample. Thinking that they could make the product, we ordered 100, but we only received five. Under these circumstances, we could not sell the product to our customers, and it was not worth listing it in our catalogue. Naturally, we asked our partner organization why they had only ° Production delivered five of the products despite telling us that they were We donʼt do anything in particular during the period allotted for able to produce them, and they responded that it was because production. However, because delivery is often delayed, we need they were difficult to make. I think that the situation would be to ask our partner organization about the progress of the job. the same in Japan or any other country. The people who produce Obviously, we canʼt do this on a daily basis, but we get in touch the samples are highly skilled, but when the actual order came every week to ask how things are going, whether everything is in, the women to whom the job was allocated were incapable of proceeding as it should, and what stage the job is at. doing it, with the result that the order was unable to be filled. If there are problems on the production side, for example if they I think that the fault in this case was very much on our part. I donʼt think that they will meet the deadline, or they canʼt get the believe that it is extremely important not to take it on faith based materials that they need, then we are always ready to discuss on a sample that you understand the level of skill of the people the problem and consider what needs to be done, so that we can making the product and whether they will be up to the task. resolve it as quickly as possible. It is essential to look further into the details and to give more consideration to whether or not the job can be done.

° Delivery At present, we are using airmail and sea mail to ship our products. We would actually like to ship everything by sea mail

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We also inspect the products before they go from us to our customers. We introduced mechanical inspections two years ago. This was due to our need to speed up the process, but we had also discovered needles in sandals sent to us by one of our partner organizations. I donʼt want to spread this around too much, but for us, this was a very serious incident. In most cases, the makers of our products do not have any because itʼs cheaper, but considering that it takes three months workshop to go to, but rather take the work home with them. for production and 90 days to make a sample - and samples In this case, the sandals were sewn up with needles still inside. have to be made twice - we wouldnʼt receive products on time Very few of our partner organizations in Bangladesh have using sea mail even if we commenced the development process machines for inspecting the products. At the time when we were a year and a half in advance. If we moved the start of the process dealing with this particular organization, there were probably up, then it could be done, but this is not always possible, and none at all available, and so the sandals were not mechanically so at present we use airmail for new products, and sea mail for inspected. At the time, we also did not conduct mechanical existing products and heavy items. inspections. In the case of Bangladesh, we have nine partner organizations, No one was hurt, but our customers did notice. They realized it of which six provide us with rather fewer products than the after the sandals were worn down and they had finished using other three. So what we do is to import the products made for us them. This was a very important incident for us, and it was after by these six organizations all together, enabling us to reduce our this that we introduced mechanical inspection. customs expenses. This area is a matter of trial and error for us, Naturally, we also consider it important for our partner and so I would actually like to ask anyone in the audience today organizations to carry out mechanical inspections, but in the who has more experience to share their knowledge with us. case of small organizations in particular, there are many reasons why this is impossible: they donʼt have enough money to buy ° Inspection on Delivery a machine, or there arenʼt any available in Bangladesh and one There are often defects in the products made for us. Prior to would have to be imported, or they are not sure of what type to shipment, our partner organizations inspect the items, and our purchase. For these reasons, they are still not using machines staff in Bangladesh also conduct surprise inspections. After the to inspect their products. We think that the use of this type of items have arrived at SHAPLA NEER, we check some of them equipment is not just the responsibility of the Japanese side, and mechanically, and we also inspect all the items for defects. This that our partner organizations and the makers of our products would be impossible with only three full-time and six part-time should also be conducting mechanical inspections, and so we staff members, but it has to be done. What we do, therefore, is to now have to attempt to make this possible. ask for volunteers with an interest in fair trade to help us. For our latest shipment, we had about 50 helpers come to our storehouse, ° Quality and it took around two months to inspect all the items. I will now discuss our responses to defects. What you see on the right here are batik mirrors. The colors vary, but it is not certain that this could be called a defect in the case of hand- dyed items. In the case of the monkeys on the left, we received monkeys without noses, and the faces differed quite a bit. Some customers found them more interesting on account of this, but others complained and returned them. We had actually requested our partner organization to try as hard as possible to produce the monkeys with similar faces. In this case, we didnʼt return the items and request replacements, but we sold them as unique hand-made items. Of course, customers

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° Problems In terms of everything that I have discussed up to this point, I think that our biggest issue in importing our products is improving their quality. While they formed only some of the examples of mistakes that I offered today, problems in quality in fact occur extremely frequently. In considering how to make higher quality items, the aim is not so much to improve quality in itself, but to make products that will win over Japanese consumers. Achieving a higher level of quality is extremely important from this perspective. To enable us who order from a catalogue expect to receive what is shown in to make higher quality items, we visit the producers, and we the catalogue, and so we sold the monkeys whose faces were also sometimes provide financial support for the purchase of too different at bazaars and other events, where customers were equipment. What we are aiming at is to enable the women able to see the actual item for themselves. who make the goods to use their skills. There are often variations in the size of products. In the case of Other than importing, protecting the environment is another the jute mats you can see here, the sample was 42 centimeters, important issue for us. As my discussion of the catalyst but the products we received were 39 centimeters. This would used with vegetable dyes earlier indicated, we have actually have been a result of someone at our partner organization making had experience of hazardous substances being used in our a mistake in the figure when making the order, or the women products, and we therefore consider it very important to who made the mats not paying attention to the figure. In this case know where, how and by whom the raw materials used in we discussed the matter with our partner organization, because our products were made. we wanted them to remake the mats in the original 42-centimeter Well, Iʼve gone on for a long time. Thank you for allowing size that we had requested when we made the order. me to talk about SHAPLA NEERʼs activities today, although When a defect is discovered, notifying the production groups, my presentation was mainly about the mistakes we have determining the cause of the problem and coming up with made. a solution are not solely our responsibility. Our partner organizations know best what should be done, and so we ask them to come up with ideas and suggest solutions, which we can then offer our opinions on. At these times, the role of our staff members in the country is extremely important. While we have to respond via e-mails and telephone calls, our staff in Bangladesh are able to talk face-to- face with members of the partner organization with the product in question right in front of them. We think that this is very important.

16 Seminar 2, September 24 Nepal Seminar 2, September 24

Expanding Your Business with Asian Products: Methods of Importing Food Products and Sundries − Nepal −

Haruyo Tsuchiya President Nepali Bazaro

Good afternoon. Iʼm Haruyo Tsuchiya, president of Nepali This catalogue is our best weapon. Itʼs actually a lot of work to Bazaro. Iʼd like to start by asking you a question. Please raise issue it four times a year, but we pour everything we have at the your hand if youʼve ever gone to Nepal. There are quite a few time into it, and we fill it with information about the producers of you, arenʼt there? A lot of you. Thank you. Iʼll keep that and newly developed products. Depending on the season, information in mind as I speak. we may have 400 to 500 items, everything from clothing, Iʼd first like to talk about why I chose Nepal. At first, I accessories, and sundries to gourmet foods like coffee and tea, considered starting a small civic organization that provided as well as cookies and cakes that disabled people in sheltered educational assistance for Nepali children. When I went to workshops in Japan make using organic spices, coffee, tea, and Nepal and saw the actual circumstances, I realized that even orange peel from Nepal. though school and education are important, if parents donʼt have At the beginning when we had few employees, we concentrated any jobs or economic power, they canʼt send their children to on wholesale trade, but recently, weʼve acquired more school; and furthermore, if there are no jobs for children who individual customers, and nearly half of our sales are direct finish school, they canʼt improve their lives, so I decided to sales to individual customers. Even for large companies, mail create jobs at the same time as I supported education. Coming order sales using paper media are on a downward trend, while from a country that is described as an economic superpower, Internet-based online sales are growing. The same is true for I thought that there might be things that would sell well in the Nepali Bazaro: sales from our web shop have grown. Printing Japanese market, and I was aware that the people there had such a catalogue requires a tremendous amount of labor and money, expectations, too. So in August 1992, I founded Nepali Bazaro but I think that you can manage an Internet website and online for the purpose of planning and developing Nepali products and shop fairly easily, without a large amount of capital. importing them. We completed our 16th year on July 31 of this An increasing number of shops handle fair trade products. I year, and weʼre now in our 17th year. think there are now about 500 of them in Japan, and we list I started small, working by myself, and sales during the first about 200 of them on the last page of our catalogue. There are year were about ¥20 million. After 16 years, sales are now ¥300 many more stores other than these, and it seems that a lot of million. I started out alone, but now I have 22 staff members, people have gotten involved in fair trade. You might say that including part-timers. the environment for it is in place, so I have to assume that itʼs Iʼve distributed catalogues as handy reference materials. Have become quite easy for new entrants in this market, and people in you had a chance to look at them? This catalogue, Berda, comes society have become a driving force in the fair trade movement. out four times a year, in spring, summer, fall, and winter. We I donʼt think that I need to explain fair trade to you, but its basic publish about 20,000 copies each time and sell the catalogue form is a trade business, with the proviso that itʼs trade that itself in large bookshops and fair trade shops throughout Japan. takes the producers into account. Itʼs not complete support, so

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we can continue supporting it so that it survives even in the the products miraculously improved. I learned that as human harshest business communities. What we are seeking, what we connections and relations of trust develop, the quality of the are aiming for is respect for everyoneʼs dignity and everyoneʼs products improves. ability to be independent. Previously, Mr./Ms. Ueda of SHAPLA NEER talked about When I began 16 years ago, I was a company employee. I the difficulty of improving product quality and the problem couldnʼt do this part-time, so I quit my job and started Nepali of defective goods being delivered to Japan, and actually, we Bazaro as a limited liability company. Iʼd never worked in received a lot of products that were so bad that we wondered foreign trade, nor had I done any work related to fashion. In fact, how they could send them. We took all of them back to Nepal, I rushed into founding the company without any experience at showed them to the people who made them, explained what was all. The reason I started it was that I was responding to what I wrong, and had the makers repair them. saw when I traveled to Nepal and to the wishes of the people At the beginning, I simply packed all the defective goods into there, and I realized that what they needed was trade. a large bag, so when the producers saw that bag, they were It was tougher and more difficult than I could have imagined, overwhelmed. As the years went on, I gradually started traveling and I constantly regretted starting the company, but once I had more lightly and put fewer things into the bag. The producers started it, I couldnʼt give it up. In addition, I was nearly 40 years laughed as they told me, “Before, you used to come to us old when I started it, and I thought that this was my last chance looking like Santa Claus, but weʼre delighted that youʼve started to challenge myself. If I were to give up like a coward, I would traveling light.” I spent a lot of time with them over the years, probably hate myself forever, and keep beating myself up about and the quality improved, step by step. it all my life. That was my fear, and so I kept going somehow. Of course, there are still some products that we have problems I often joke that in the first several years, I prayed for my plane with. We divide them into the things that we tell the producers to crash both going to and coming from Nepal, the idea being to fix and the things that we repair ourselves before putting them that Iʼd finally be at peace if the plane crashed. I caused a lot on sale. Since we are importing greater amounts than ever, we of trouble for my family and other people and forced them to can no longer take everything back to Nepal to be fixed. Every make sacrifices, but I since I had started this business out of month, we receive several freight shipments of one or two tons, an overwhelming desire, I couldnʼt say, “Iʼm quitting because so we canʼt take them all back to Nepal, but even now, I take this is too hard.” For years, I was in a state of finding it hard to the most important defective goods back, show them to the move forward and yet being unable to give up. Even so, as I producers, and explain what is wrong. traveled back and forth and met Nepali people more and more, I have employees who do repair work in Japan, and Iʼm told we became close and gradually developed strong personal ties. I that they can tell which person from which town made an item, began to look forward to seeing them. just by looking at the defects. We have a few producers like that, At the beginning, I was desperate to tell them every single thing people who always make the same mistakes. that my customers told me, so I was always complaining. Since When I first began working in foreign trade, I wondered what the Nepalis were always being scolded about something and I kinds of things would sell well in Japan and what the local was complaining about every little thing, they assumed a hostile people could make that would most increase employment, attitude, and the mood between us became quite awkward, as and how I could create jobs. I finally decided that clothing if they were thinking, “What a nuisance she is.” But when I could play a major role and that it should be the main product. changed my approach to building human relationships, I was Clothing sells well in Japan. The overwhelming majority of the able to find ways to placate them, even if I had to force myself, customers are women, and it seems that all of you want to buy and gradually I found myself able to say, “This is how Iʼd like it new clothes for each season, even if you already have a whole done.” closet full. I speak sternly about things that are non-negotiable, but if I insist Making clothing was good from the point of view of the on having my own way in everything, then the other person has producers, too, because it has a wide range of supporting no room for compromise. I learned that our relationship canʼt industries. In recent years, Iʼve been trying to have as many of continue if I force them into a corner, and as I began to feel an the raw materials as possible made in Nepal, so this creates a almost familial closeness to them, I found that the quality of wide range of jobs for people who grow cotton, people who

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raise silkworms and spin thread, dyers, weavers, cutters, sewing We gradually came to an understanding that they should make machine operators, finishers, inspectors, and even people who uniquely Nepali fabrics that look hand-woven. Furthermore, I make buttons and other trimmings. made all kinds of efforts, such as bringing experts from Japan to However, the Japanese market is really demanding when it teach them sewing technology, and by the tenth year, we were comes to quality, and it took ten years to achieve clothing able to put the clothing on the market and label it as clothing that was worthy of the name; clothing that we could sell with made in Nepal. At that point, our catalogue started to look just confidence. At first, we didnʼt have fabrics. Nepal buys cotton like a fashion catalogue, and sales rose steadily. from India, silk from China, and wool from New Zealand and The hard part about clothing is that things go in and out of processes them, and their processing technology is not of a fashion and you canʼt keep selling the same things all the time. particularly high quality. Being surrounded by India and China, You can keep selling the same sundries for years, but even itʼs in an inconvenient location for imports and exports and for if clothing isnʼt subject to the whims of fashion, you have to distribution. Since it costs so much to move the products, thereʼs have new things every season, or else the customers grow tired no profit in simply processing raw materials. of them. Thatʼs why itʼs important to develop new products Weʼre working on developing raw materials in Nepal, but at and, at the same time, to make sure that you donʼt have excess the beginning, we didnʼt have the ability to do that, so we made inventories. clothing from printed fabric imported from India. Yet, if we In the apparel industry in general, you can recover your costs if made samples and then tried to order the same fabric again, you sell half of a mass-produced line, so they manufacture and we had a lot of problems with it no longer being available and sell them in a way calculated to ensure a profit. They assume things like that. that they wonʼt sell everything at first, and that the overstocks Even though there was an organization that went to the will go into landfill. trouble of weaving cloth, the cloth that they wove was good Weʼre not interested in producing trash in any sense of the word, for tablecloths or pajamas or other items that didnʼt have a so we put out the number of garments that we expect to sell, lot of distinctive characteristics, but it didnʼt seem like hand- order quantities that we can sell out, and set our prices so that woven cloth. Thatʼs not what we wanted. We wanted cloth that we can achieve our desired profit when the last garment is sold. appeared hand woven, but no matter how many times we told If we donʼt sell everything, we go into the red and our situation the people over there, they just listened and nodded and then becomes precarious. failed to produce it. The biggest difference between a fair trade business and an One day, I went to the office of the executive director of the ordinary business is that we who practice fair trade do not take organization and saw a marvelous piece of woven textile profits for the distributors into consideration, nor do we think hanging on the wall. When I said that I liked it and wanted to about where to have good things made cheaply in order to make clothing out of it, everyone was astounded. “This is a gain the greatest possible profit. Instead, the concept is based rug,” they said. “It was woven to be laid on the floor.” But I told on thinking about where there are people who need jobs, what them that the texture and drape were really wonderful and that those people can do, and what they have access to. We also I wanted to make clothing out of it, but that it should be woven ask whether the designs will work well for the producers in the with a thinner thread to produce a lighter fabric. The local future. people said, “Oh, is that what you were asking for?” And from By the way, design is really important. If youʼve known then on, we both understood what the other side wanted. Nepali Bazaro for a long time, youʼll be surprised at our So why did the people over there weave cloth that looked as recent catalogues. In the early days, we published amateurish if it had been woven on a machine? Itʼs because they had an catalogues, but one day, our sensibility suddenly improved, inferiority complex about being poor and not being able to and everyone was surprised: “Nepali Bazaro, what happened afford mechanized looms and being able to weave only by to you? Has something happened?” That was around the year hand. They thought that machine-woven fabric was wonderful, 2000. When the catalogue design became more fashionable, so they tried to make their own fabric look machine-made. The sales grew remarkably. The same is true of products. Design is resulting fabrics were absolutely unable to match the quality of extremely important. the fabrics mass-produced in the factories of India and China. If I may mention an actual example of a product, we have a

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product called an “eye pillow” which you place over your eyes the incomes of the workshops, but the prices of raw materials to relieve eyestrain. Itʼs made in the shape of a cat or dog, and skyrocketed, and we made plans to raise the retail price. As itʼs stuffed with flax seeds. There are cute eye pillows shaped we worried that the cookies wouldnʼt sell at a higher price, like cats and dogs on the lower left side of page 109, but when we revised their design and even though we started selling the we invited Mahaguthi, the executive director of the production cookies at a price 20% higher than before, they sold even better organization to come to Japan to give a speech at a seminar, he than before. brought us long, narrow, plain bags full of flax seeds and told Thatʼs how important design is. I think fair trade design is us, “These are called eye pillows. They have such-and-such an “negative design.” Ordinary design, whether youʼre talking effect, and I really want you to sell them.” about materials or technology or production sites, is a matter When I saw them, I said, “Wait a minute. No matter how good of choosing the best places and things from a wide variety they are, they wonʼt sell with this design. Just putting the seeds of possibilities. With fair trade design, there is a wide variety in a nondescript bag like this...wait while I think of a design.” of limitations on the available raw materials, the producersʼ We took a look at the market and did a lot of research, and since capacities, the production environment, and the technology. Japanese people like dogs and cats, so we made cute drawings, Within these limits, you use the elimination method, and with the cartoon characters Pochi and Tama in mind, drew up negative design consists of deciding that a certain alternative is specifications, and took them to Nepal. the only option. Itʼs amazingly easy. Thatʼs when we discussed size, shape, and other details of the For example, itʼs terrible to be asked to choose one of ten specifications, but I told them to use whatever they liked for options. You fret about it, you donʼt know which one is best, and the fabric, even fabric ends. After the producers have made your head starts spinning. However, if youʼre asked to pick one garments, there are always a lot of scraps of the woven fabric of two or three options, its relatively simple, and you can choose left over, so instead of wasting them by throwing them away, one. Itʼs like cooking. You donʼt cook like the owner-chef of a I asked them to collect these scraps for future use. I donʼt get famous restaurant but like an ordinary housewife, who makes involved in design development at all, and the producers told me side dishes out of whatever is left in the refrigerator. Thatʼs the that they had accumulated a lot of scraps, so when I had them essence of fair trade. make samples, I told them to make patchwork eye pillows using Iʼd like to show you what kinds of products are made in Nepal any color they wanted. and what the production sites are like. The clothes Iʼm wearing I had them make 10 each of the cat and dog patterns, and all of now are made of something called pulp cloth, which means them were really cute. The heads were identical, but I asked the that theyʼre actually made of paper. Theyʼre made by cutting producers to assemble the bodies in any way they wanted. The handmade paper into thin strips, spinning it, and weaving it into customers were very receptive to these eye pillows, and they cloth. When I was thinking about how Nepali paper could be were a huge hit. They were our original design, but Iʼve heard sold, I realized that there are already too many paper products that this design sells well in the U.S. and Europe, too. Thatʼs on the market, whether youʼre talking about stationery or how much of a difference design can make in selling a product. lampshades. I was just at the point of deciding that we couldnʼt Another example is the cookies sold on pages 82 and 83. develop anything out of paper when the idea came to me of Theyʼre made out of carefully selected, high-quality ingredients, making paper clothing. I got the idea from the fact that Japanese including organic coffee and tea and Japanese wheat and peasants wove pulp cloth in the old days. Once I realized that, crystallized raw sugar at sheltered workshops for the disabled I decided to make pulp cloth in Nepal and spent several years called Madokaʼs Workshop and Katakuri Village. In this case, developing the concept. too, the design was different at the beginning. The initial design Iʼve taken all this and put it into a video. Itʼs a bit long at 20 was not attractive enough to make it reasonable to give an minutes, but it has both narration and music, so I think youʼll individual cookie as a present, and the price at the time was enjoy it. lower, about ¥260 or ¥270. I wanted to improve the lives of the people in Nepal, but I also DVD: Setting Our Hopes on Paper Fabric aimed to create jobs for disabled people to improve their lives. Narration: Pulp cloth: turning paper into fabric to make light, I wanted to hand over as much money as possible and increase airy clothes. Paper clothing is extremely rare worldwide, but it

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protects you from both heat and cold and covers you splendidly. of the market, which is a regrettable situation. The plants that grow amidst the natural splendor of the With Nepal undergoing political strife, the region with the Himalayas are used for food, firewood, and tools, as well as fiercest and most continual fighting overlaps with the poorest for thread and fabric, to support the local peopleʼs lives. One region where Lokta paper is made. What is the answer to the of these plant products is a strong paper called Lokta paper, question of how to win acceptance for new materials in the which is resistant to insects. Thereʼs handmade paper, made in marketplace? In our bewilderment, we found a clue in Japanʼs the backcountry of Nepal, and Japanese pulp cloth, which we history, in the cloth that desperately poor peasants devised for encountered when tracing its sales routes. Weʼre going to guide themselves. you along the long route by which paper is made into a fabric Unable to buy either cotton or silk thread, they diligently wove and then into clothing. fabrics out of the waste paper that they were able to obtain Nepal is a small country nestled between the two major and made them into work clothes to protect themselves from powers of India and China. The 8,000-meter Himalayas lie in the cold. Later, the price of pulp cloth rose, the samurai class the northern part, and almost all of the countryʼs land mass is took notice of it, and it began to be woven in the regions that mountainous. The narrow southern strip of flat land is a jungle produced the best paper. inhabited by elephants and tigers, and until recently, fear of As times changed and cotton became easy to obtain, pulp cloth, malaria kept most settlers out. which was tedious to make, gradually disappeared from the Itʼs a small country, about twice the size of Hokkaido, with scene. A few people preserved the technology, but it was too a multi-ethnic population of 23 million people, including expensive for general distribution, and as it was made only in speakers of Tibeto-Burman languages with Japanese-looking small quantities, almost no one knew about it. facial features, and speakers of Indo-European languages with When we considered weaving pulp cloth in Nepal, it took two deeply sculpted features. The official language is Nepali, but years to gather information and documents and investigate each of the ethnic groups has its own language. It was once the possibilities. In the spring of 2003, we finally felt ready to launch only country in the world with Hinduism as its official religion, a full-scale production project. We obtained the cooperation although that religionʼs special status was abolished in 2008, of Japanese dye expert Rumi Ohtsuka, and we moved forward however Buddhism and Tibetan Buddhism are mixed in. with preparations, making samples of threads and fabrics. About 80% of the people make their living through agriculture, Just as we were at a loss about whom to take on as a Nepali but there is little arable land in the mountainous regions, and it partner, we thought of Ms. Usha. She was the executive director is difficult to build roads in such terrain. That makes it difficult of the Wean Co-operative, and we sometimes had disagreements for farmers to take their produce to market and turn it into with one another in the course of our work, but we understood cash. Itʼs hard to turn their crops into income, so increasing and trusted each other. Even though we had expended a lot of numbers of people are migrating to the cities to work. The cities energy for three years, wondering what form the project would are now overflowing and unable to generate enough work to take, we couldnʼt help being surprised and delighted when our absorb the influx of people, so the gap between rich and poor is plans were realized in three years. We were right when we chose widening. Despite being endowed with the natural beauty of the Ms. Usha. Himalayas, Nepal is in dire straits, suffering a deterioration in We thought about how to widen the sales channels for Lokta public order and a decline in tourism. paper, a valuable industry located in a remote region. We came But Nepal still contains a number of buried treasures and up with the idea of making pulp cloth, but until now, there have possibilities. One of these is Lokta paper. Its fibers are long been any number of setbacks. and can be woven together even without adhesive. Paper of The first obstacle was the difficulty and complexity of the work. such a high level of purity is rare in the world and extremely After Rumi Ohtsuka found out how much effort it took to spin valuable, but since there is no market for it, the Lokta, the thread from the paper and weave it into cloth, she said, with a trees from which it is made, are neglected and left to grow pained expression, “I could never tell anyone else to do this.” wild. Meanwhile, the people are struggling to live their lives. Even so, Ms. Usha and the other people who had accompanied Countless people are in need of jobs, and even though they have her to Katmandu saw Rumi Ohtsuka spinning thread, and after the materials, they donʼt make any products that meet the needs much trial and error happily announced, “We can do this.”

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Rumi Ohtsuka: Given a tedious task like this, we wonʼt do it if where they didnʼt know whether or not they would succeed. we donʼt like it to some extent. Yet these women didnʼt think it Listening to Usha, I learned that the workersʼ attitude arose was so difficult. When I learned that they were genuinely glad from their strong trust of me. Emotion welled up within me as to be able to work, I felt that I definitely had to make this project I realized that there was no alternative but to go ahead. Even if a success. the fabric was expensive, Japanese customers would understand When I learned that Haruyo and her associates were going to the and buy it if it was of good quality. I believed that, so I felt like trouble of bringing heavy construction blocks for the workshop gambling on the outcome. all the way from Japan, I wondered if I should bring some, too, We decided to spin the textile threads, weave them by hand, but I decided to bring a large cutter for photographs. and color them with plant-based dyes to create clothing with a I was impressed by their determination, but for precisely that beautiful silhouette that was pleasant to wear. I spoke plainly reason, I was worried about what would happen if we failed, and and directly to Usha about the costs. I told her that our only I couldnʼt sleep the night before the workshop. I was relieved option was to aim for clothes with high added value and that we when it was all over, and I no longer had anything to fear.” had to use technology far exceeding their current technology. Usha Gongal: When we first began to spin paper, it was cold, Even though I had to admit that it was hard work, I asked the so we went out into the sunshine to work. However, the paper workers to make the threads thinner and twist them more tightly. was rough and tore easily, so everyone was saying, “This paper This was nerve-wracking work in which you didnʼt know is no good. We should return it.” But I said, “This is good paper, whether the paper would tear or not. You had to concentrate so if we canʼt do anything with it, then itʼs hopeless.” So we got your nerves in the tips of your fingers. together and thought about what to do. Narration: At Young Wow, they work for 6 hours a day, That was when we got the idea that maybe it needed some excluding breaks, but they divide those work hours to fit the moisture, so we spread it out under some cushions and went situations in the workersʼ home environments. After Usha has home. The next day, we found that we were able to spin the finished her work, she teaches people how to use computers paper, and we all thought it was fantastic. After that, we spread and how to preserve food. She teaches other people whatever the paper out under cushions every day before going home. On she is taught, and her unchanging desire is to improve the harsh the other hand, the paper is easier to cut when itʼs dry, so we cut circumstances of the women, even if only a little. it after drying it in the sun. We can make 2,000 meters of thread This is Radha Kharel. Her job is to cut the paper with a cutter out of 200 sheets of paper. and then trim the ends to make a single string. She lives with Thereʼs almost no waste, so we can make about a kiloʼs worth her husband and two-year-old son. Sheʼs been married for four in one month. When we started out, we could make only 400 years. Her husband is unemployed, so the family lives entirely grams. Our goal is to make 1.5 kilos in a month. We can make off her earnings. Because of problems with the Maoists, a lot about 12 meters of fabric with that thread, or about two sets of of people have fled the village for Katmandu, and it is currently clothing. very difficult to find work. Haruyo Tsuchiya: Since making the cloth required so much Radha Kharel: When he heard that my job was to spin paper effort, the costs exceeded our expectations, and it became very into thread, my husband couldnʼt figure it out. “How can paper expensive. That would make it difficult to sell. The longer the turn into thread?” He finally believed me when he saw the process went on, the more harmful it would be to Usha, so we garments. He must have thought I was just going out to have decided that we should stop the project as soon as possible, and fun, but I really was working! But he does all the cooking and I went to Nepal with the intention of telling her so. childcare, so itʼs a real help to me. I was feeling rather depressed when I visited Ushaʼs workshop, This is Sita Khanal. She is a home-based worker, and Usha says but seeing how seriously she and the other women were going that the thread she spins is of the highest quality. She has two about this mind-numbing work, I found myself unable to tell sons and a daughter, and her second son, Sadasan, is severely them that the fabric was too expensive and probably wouldnʼt disabled. Her husband is a building manager who takes care sell. I wondered how they could do such difficult work with of cleaning and odd jobs, and the family lives in the building smiles on their faces, and how they didnʼt seem the least bit managerʼs office. anxious, even though they were entering an unknown world Sita Khanal: When he was eight months old, my second son

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suffered a high fever, developed a severe illness, and became Aoki, was satisfied. unable to move. My life is hard. Even if I want to work, I canʼt With its unique individual characteristics, this fabric is unlike leave my child with anyone and go out to work. Nobody wants any previous fabric. We were united in our determination to to hire you if you have a disabled child. Thatʼs why this is my keep improving it, and we all gave everything we had to the first job. I can do it while watching my children at home, so itʼs effort, aiming toward an announcement in the spring of 2006. a big help. Before I started doing this work, my husband and Our seemingly impossible dream was to make the kind of pulp I used to argue a lot, but we donʼt anymore. In the end, I think cloth created by the wisdom of Japanese peasants, and to weave that the hardest thing at that time was not having any money. it out of Lokta paper from Nepal. If we could take this fabric, Usha Gongal: I was born in a village called Hetauda, and so with its superior characteristics, and make it into everyday were my parents. When I was twenty, my mother died, so I clothing, it would lead to jobs for the hard-pressed people of became responsible for taking care of my younger brothers and Nepal. doing all the housework. So I know how heavily burdened the Everyone was astonished when I proposed creating a new women of the village are and how important it is for them to industry, but when we began rushing to bring that bold idea earn an income. to fruition, we found people in both Japan and Nepal who If a woman earns an income, she can buy the things she needs were ready to come with us and support us. It took five years for the familyʼs health and for her children. Itʼs important for pulp cloth to grow from an idea to a fully formed reality for women to earn an income and gain some independence. incorporating the ideas of many people. However, even now, women in the villages have few We hope for that day in the future when pulp cloth technology opportunities to earn money, and unless their husband gives becomes more widespread in Nepal, takes a leading role, and is them money, they canʼt buy medicines for themselves or things sent out into the world as a national product of Nepal. We also that their children need. hope that all of you will one day include a pulp cloth garment in Besides, they have to walk long distances to pick up firewood, your wardrobe and wear it with pleasure. and after their husband and family have eaten, they canʼt Usha Gongal: (speaking in Nepali) eat unless something is left over, so they donʼt know how to improve their lives. Thank you for your kind attention to the video. The problem is that people donʼt have jobs and canʼt eat. If With respect to the development of pulp cloth, we are trying to only they had jobs, the rest of their problems would work out use raw materials of local origin, and right now, weʼre looking somehow. They can overcome their problems together. The at organic cotton. Yes, you can grow cotton in Nepal. Weʼre more difficulties they have, the more intensely they feel their under pressure from Indian imports, but weʼve decided upon a joyous moments. We often had difficulties, but seeing the pulp project involving peasants and organic cotton, and thatʼs what cloth clothing that Haruyo is wearing, all those difficulties weʼre working on now. vanished. We also plan to raise sheep. We are importing raw wool from Narration: The threads had become thinner and the women New Zealand, but itʼs really hard for us to pay for raw materials had made soft fabrics, but another issue arose when it came time when weʼre dependent on a foreign country. Even though Nepal to make sample garments. When the women were told that the is a poor country, we are required to buy most things from threads needed to be wound tighter, they quickly and quietly foreign countries. If we can bring that business to Nepal, the went and rewound all the thread that they had accumulated. We lives of the peasants will improve, so we are planning to raise were impressed by their enthusiasm. This made us even more Merino sheep. However, unlike Japan, Nepal isnʼt the kind of determined to create good products. place where you can accomplish things soon after you think of During the year, we made several sample garments. Our them. employees and other interested parties experimented repeatedly Thatʼs because conditions are very bad right now. As you may with wearing and washing them. The quality improved steadily, know, Nepal has been in a state of civil war for the last ten and we invited the head seamstress, Sharmila, to Japan for years. People known as Maoists are in an armed struggle, and training, offering her detailed instruction and guidance. We there have been skirmishes in every region. During this time, the repeatedly corrected the patterns until our patternmaker, Imiko young men who would have been the labor force for the remote

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regions of the country have been drafted into the national army are also unplanned outages. Nowadays, there are sometimes as soldiers, or else they have joined the Maoists, or else they blackouts even during periods when the power is supposed to be have become desperately hungry enough to look for work in on. I suppose that hotels and hospitals have their own generators foreign countries. In one case, insurgents abducted some Nepalis and can generate their own power even during blackouts, but who had gone to Iraq to work, and all of them were killed. recently, to make things even worse, the diesel fuel that powers It was therefore very hard to survive in Nepal, and there was those generators has become unavailable. Itʼs not that itʼs too the further difficulty of not being able to foster the growth of expensive. No matter how much money you have, itʼs not industries with so many workers having left. It takes a long time available, so you canʼt even use a generator. to realize plans. We have the same problems with water. There are few people When the civil war ended, the election of the Constitutional in the city who can expect that water will start flowing when Assembly, which had been postponed for a year-and-a-half, they turn on the faucet in their homes. Instead, they draw their occurred on April 10, 2008, allowing the people to choose the water out of common water pumps. Even if you have running members who would create a Constitution. In a betrayal of the water, itʼs not on except for about one hour in the middle of the peopleʼs expectations, the Maoists became the leading party, night. For example, in this area itʼs on from 1:00AM to 2:00AM, and the head of the party became prime minister. Now, with and in that area, itʼs on from 2:00AM to 3:00AM, but it doesnʼt democracy still in its early stages, there is doubt that those always come on at the right time. Even so, everyone wakes up people are capable of any kind of politics that has serious and waits for it. “Itʼs time for the water,” they say, and they use regard for the interests of the people. Nepal is really in a state of buckets and other containers to save up enough water for one confusion. day. For example, because Katmandu is the national capital, you Recently, gasoline has become more expensive in Japan, but in would think that it would have its infrastructure in order, but Nepal, itʼs ¥160 a liter, the same as in Japan, and thereʼs a limit incredibly, four days a week for eight hours a day, there are of 10 liters per vehicle. You canʼt buy it unless you line up for blackouts. The power is shut off for as much as 35 hours per 12 hours, so thereʼs always a huge line in front of a gas station. week. Since Nepal uses hydroelectric power, the power outages Sometimes when people are lined up all that time, they seem so mean that there is no water behind the dams. determined that you think that theyʼd probably become violent Itʼs the rainy season now, but power outages have begun due to if they were told that there was no more gasoline. Iʼve heard that the recent floods, from 6:00AM to 10AM or from 4:00PM to there are people who will wait in line for you if you pay them. 8:00PM; then the next day, from 1:00PM to 5:00PM and from If you buy gasoline on the black market, it is ¥300 per liter, so 7:00PM to 11:00PM, but there are no outages in the middle of if you consider the difference in the cost of living in Japan and the night. The idea is to save electricity, so power outages of up Nepal, you can see how expensive the distribution costs are. to 8 hours occur during the day, when economic activities are at In addition, the natural gas used for cooking isnʼt just expensive. their peak. Itʼs unavailable. Some houses have the leeway to have stocked We arenʼt very efficient at making clothes, so there has been a up extra cylinders of gas, but Iʼm hearing complaints that proposal to switch to electrically powered sewing machines, and theyʼve used these up, too. Every day, Nepali people drink we did bring in some electric machines, but we realized that we several cups of a sweet milk-tea beverage called chia, and they couldnʼt use them unless thereʼs electricity. Irons are important, look forward to drinking it at work, but sometimes they canʼt too, because ironing when necessary makes for easier finishing brew chia, and they canʼt even use gas flames to cook hot meals. of a more beautiful garment, but thereʼs a limit to the number Given these conditions, sending such marvelous items to Japan of hours when we can use them. If things need ironing, we set requires more than the usual effort to an amazing degree. When them aside until the power comes on, and then we iron them all Iʼm in the workplace, I know how hard the work is, and so at once. Viewed in terms of work procedures, however, work on even if I want to say something, I sometimes realize that I will the garments for which ironing would be effective is postponed, only make things harder for the workers, so I bite my tongue. and we have to backtrack in our work, which makes it hard to The look in their eyes encourages me to speak freely and tells get things done. me that the workers realize that they canʼt make a living if the There are 8 hours of planned power outages each day, but there products donʼt sell, so I come out and say what I need to say.

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In order to bring as much money as possible to Nepal, we are only that we want safe products that we can eat with confidence, trying to create local sources for silk and organic cotton, and but also that we donʼt want to damage the health of the local when it comes to the dyes, we can put a lot of the wisdom of people. Cotton production also uses chemical fertilizers, but Japanese peasants to good use in Nepal, so we are working the people whose health is harmed the most are the producers on this little by little. Recently, weʼve become able to make themselves. We recommend the use of organic cultivation persimmon tannin. When I saw persimmons in Nepal, I thought methods, so as not to pollute the earth, water, and air that that we could make persimmon tannin, but everything takes a support human life and so that we can use them forever. long time in Nepal, and it took several years before we were Nowadays, even corporations have initiated efforts to deal actually able to make tannin. seriously with problems connected with the deterioration of the Both fuel and water are rare and expensive in Nepal, but the global environment, and we are in an era when they are being advantage of persimmon tannin is that you can dye things asked to document their corporate social responsibility and without heat. If weʼre asked to use the plant-based dyes their contributions to society. I think that some companies have preferred in Japan, we have to use a lot of fuel, soaking the adopted a public relations strategy in which they tout superficial fabric for ten or more minutes several times and then rinsing attempts at ecological responsibility and fair trade, but we arenʼt it several times. With persimmon tannin, all you have to do is like that. We are seriously dealing with these issues, so itʼs dilute it with water. Even so, you have to soak and dry it, soak important that we continue, assuming that we can make a go of and dry it several times so itʼs a lot of bother, but you donʼt use it. If we try to solve problems on a global scale, as a company or any fuel or much water. I think itʼs the perfect dye material for as a business, people will be able to discern their own hopes and Nepal. Weʼre working on a lot of designs for products dyed with people from many fields of endeavor will get involved. I believe persimmon tannin. This is one of the ways in which we fulfill that this will lead our business to success. our role of considering the circumstances of the Nepali people Of course, itʼs difficult for a business to continue for a long in thinking about what kinds of products will sell in Japan. time, but the more disadvantageous conditions are, the more Previously, I talked about the market being propelled by trends. that meeting those challenges and overcoming them gives us If you turn on the television news, you find that instances of that inimitable feeling of pride and sends us in an advantageous contaminated rice and of rice for industrial purposes being direction. The companies that will grow in the future are the used for food have created a huge uproar. Japanʼs distribution strong-willed ones. I believe that there are still plenty of business channels are so complex that you donʼt know from whom, opportunities for such companies. by what means, and to what place your product went, so with Actually, when I started doing this work, people around me the difficulty of guaranteeing food safety, you can feel some were strongly opposed, and not one person said, “Good idea. confidence with fair trade, knowing who the producer is and Go for it.” Itʼs hard to believe, but Iʼve had this company for 16 knowing that the distribution system is extremely simple. years, and weʼre operating in the black. Itʼs really possible. If We buy directly from the producers and sell directly to the someone like me can do it, then all of you certainly can do it, customers. You can trace who produced the product, where it too, if you make an effort. Thatʼs all I have to say. Iʼm sorry to went, and by which path. Given these circumstances, fair trade have rambled from topic to topic, but thanks for being such a is perfect for the future, in several senses of the word. patient audience. The reason that we have implemented organic production is not

25 Q＆A Q&A September 24 Questioner prices and costs are becoming very similar. Of course we canʼt ask the producers to reduce their Thank you for a very interesting presentation. costs, so what we do is to decide in advance on One question that I would like to put to both a selling price, based on how much we think a Q presenters is what sort of criteria do you use, specific product could be sold for in Japan. We and what sort of guidelines do you follow, in then project a cost for the item on this basis, and selecting partners among producers in the have a sample made up so that we can calculate countries you deal with? the actual cost. If the cost is too high, then we might for example Tsuchiya We look for small-scale producers. And as much change the materials, or remove the pockets. This as possible we look for groups or organizations in is to say that rather than trying to beat down prices, which there is a significant involvement from local we exchange ideas with the producers about how women, and which are well-managed. We focus we can modify the specifications of the product. on handicrafts in Katmandu and on agriculture in However, these measures also have their limits, more remote regions, but we use the same criteria and after this has been tried, what remains is to in each case. reduce your own internal costs. We have to work long hours, but we operate with a small staff. We Ueda In the case of SHAPLA NEER, we donʼt pay spend money on our catalogues, but we donʼt particular attention to whether the organization invest in other forms of advertising. This type of is large or small, but we do look for good work attracts media attention, and the fact that management. This means that we focus on they will take up stories represents an advantage, I whether the most disadvantaged are given priority think. when people are employed to make products, whether this type of thing is taken seriously by the Ueda We have the same concern as you. We also have a management, and whether at present wages are rule that if costs increase, we have to increase the being paid appropriately. wages provided to the makers of the products by a commensurate amount, and this increases the Questioner selling price of the products. Recently in particular, we have had a lot of customers complaining about I am involved in a similar area to both of you, cost and wondering why free trade goods are so and I have a specific concern, which is that expensive. Q the low volume of products made means that We are making efforts to reduce costs through the final price of the goods after import is high. design and to lower our expenses in Japan, but I'm not saying that this makes customers another thing that we are attempting to do is to ultimately decide not to buy the products, but provide our customers with information on the if there is some way of solving this problem, I producers, such as who made this specific product, would be happy to hear it. and how much the work has benefited them. At present we are engaged in a process of trial and Tsuchiya We wholesale products, but recently there has been error in this area, but our aim is to win people over such a tremendous increase in costs that wholesale and encourage them to buy the products, and we

26 Q&A September 24

are endeavoring to present the information in the is deposited in accounts that have been set up most convincing manner. for each individual worker, on condition that the savings are not used for daily living expenses, but Tsuchiya Just let me add a few points to that. As Ms. Ueda are treated as a fund for times when larger sums has said, wages are an important matter, but if we are required. start rapidly increasing wages, then the prices of products also go up, and we cannot continue this Chairman Thank you for your attention over an extended over the long term. Of course wages have to be period of discussion today. Please join me in increased to a certain degree, and the method that offering another round of applause for our two we use is to operate a “jobs plus welfare” program, presenters, who have offered us such valuable to which we provide extra funds by reducing perspectives in their presentations at todayʼs our own surplus expenses rather than through seminar. raising the price of the products. Every month, our Thank you both. workers, our partner organization in Nepal, and And with that, allow me to bring todayʼs seminar Nepali Bazaro set aside a sum of money, which to a close.

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