312shy away from joining the company because they are deterred by the burden of driving. To overcome this situation, Katsurao Village aims to enhance the industrial estate by con-structing new apartment buildings. If more places can be built close by, we hope that more people will want to join the company.” (Mr. Seino)Kinsen Knit’s recruitment activities are also PR activi-ties for Katsurao VillageMr. Seino, who says “we want to actively do whatever we can”, is espe-cially focusing efforts on PR activities for Kinsen Knit and Katsurao Village.“As much as possible, we try to participate in PR opportunities and plans, for example, we sell Kinsen knit products at “Azeria” - the Katsurao Village Reconstruction and Exchange Hall. Our participation in the Fukushima Innovation Coast Framework, which aims to build a new industrial base, is also for public relations. To increase the number of recruits, we first want people to know about Kinsen Knit. Then, through learning about Kinsen Knit, we want them to have deeper understand-ing of Katsurao Village. Through con-ducting recruitment activities for Kinsen one from Tokyo. In order to conduct all processes from knitwear manufacture to shipping at the Fukushima plant, we aim to increase the workforce to around 35~40 in a few years. However, the reality is harsh. People who lived in Katsurao Village before the Great East Japan Earthquake have not returned following evacuation, and the number of local applicants is still small. Since we established the plant with the desire to provide employment opportu-nities for people returning to the village, we want as many people as possible to return.” Mr. Seino is conducting repeated trial and error geared to increasing the number of local employees, for ex-ample, participating in job interview events, focusing efforts on online recruitment and so on. Thanks to such efforts, the number of applicants is gradually increasing, however, when it comes to actually joining the company, the unique problems faced by Katsurao Village have often been a bottleneck.“Since the trains and buses here run only several times a day, employees almost invariably have to commute to work by car. Some employees take longer than one hour to commute one way. Since the roads become snowy and frozen during winter, many people was also attracted to the personality of the residents of Katsurao Village that I did meet, so I made my decision almost instantly.” (Mr. Kaneoka)Wanting to provide a place to work for people returning to Katsurao VillageWith Mr. Seino and Mr. Kaneoka having similar sentiments concerning recon-struction, Kinsen Knit’s Fukushima plant commenced operation. To coincide with the launch, the company introduced 40 knitting machines to improve the knitting process, which is the core of knitwear manufacture. Each item of knitted wear undergoes manual repair of frayed hems, sleeves and so on by employees. This repair technique is passed on from veteran employees to new recruits through attentive guid-ance, however, according to Mr. Seino, the recruitment of such employees has been the most challenging issue.“Six months has passed since the plant started operation in June 2018, and currently the Fukushima plant has 14 employees, comprising eight from Futaba county including Katsurao Village, three from Fukushima Prefec-ture apart from Futaba, two from Okazaki City in Aichi Prefecture, and E16
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