In a story that will make you ‘aww’ and ‘ahh’ like the best Pixar film, a Japanese community center released a line of collectable trading cards featuring the town’s male elders.
Seeking a way for the younger generation to connect with the “amazing” community members, middle-aged and older, the center’s secretary general leveraged the youth’s enduring love of Pokémon trading cards to create these masterpieces of civic engagement.
The town of Kawara in Fukuoka Prefecture has a population of about 10,000. Limestone mountains, relatively famous from their appearance in a well-known novel, are all the northern Kyushu town can boast of that tourists might want to visit.
But a strange phenomenon has gripped the town’s youth originating from the Saidosho Community Center. They’re rapidly taking up a new trading card game, but the cards don’t depict fantasy creatures, anime heroes, or even famous baseball players.
Instead, the characters portrayed on the distinctly Pokémon-like cards are the town’s ojisan—middle-aged or older community members. Ms. Eri Miyahara, the Secretary General of Saidosho center, originally created them just as a collectable card game.
“We wanted to strengthen the connection between the children and the older generations in the community. There are so many amazing people here. I thought it was such a shame that no one knew about them,” she said in an interview with Fuji News Network, according to Tokyo Weekender. “Since the card game went viral, so many kids are starting to look up to these men as heroic figures.”
It costs less than a dollar per card, while $3.00 gets you a set of 6 that includes one shiny card.
The 47 characters include ‘Soba Master’ Mr. Takeshita, an 81-year-old maker of soba noodles and Mr. Fujii, a 67-year-old former prison guard-turned community volunteer whose card is so sought after that kids will approach him asking for an autograph on it.
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“I was honestly shocked when they asked me to sign it,” Mr. Fujii said, laughing. “I never imagined I’d become a trading card, let alone have fans.”
It was the kids, though, who took the idea and turned it into a card game where the town’s ojisan were given special abilities. A retired fire brigade chief can strike opponents for 200 fire damage, while a local electrician can do the same with electricity. His card explains how he can fix any electronic appliance in the country.
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The cards are made by hand and virtually always sold out and, best of all, Ms. Miyahara’s idea has caused youth participation at the center to double—and the elders of the town are meeting more of their younger neighbors than ever before.
Japan has one of the oldest, fastest-aging populations, and lowest birthrates of any country in the world, and these sorts of efforts to connect those of silver hair with younger citizens will be more important here than virtually anywhere else.
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Great story! Correction: Kawara, Fukuoka is in northern Kyushu (not Honshu)