Okage Kitchen Mulberry blending into the shopping district

The map clearly indicates Shirakata’s byways and sea areas, and features a clear timeline for those interested in visiting historical sites or going to watch skilled local craftspeople at work. But the map offers more.

Prepared by Soyu, a local social welfare organization, this is not just another sightseeing map. It also provides a wealth of information on barrier-free facilities. For example, the maps of Shirakata's the four shopping districts both show the main shops and at the same time clearly indicate the availability of wheelchair ramps and elevators, the locations of wheelchair-compatible restrooms and parking facilities for those with disabilities.

Soyu’s base, the Shirakata Tenjinmachi shopping district

Soyu also runs a restaurant called the Okage Kitchen Mulberry, also located on the map. This buffet-style restaurant is popular among the elderly and local business people. Okage Kitchen Mulberry’s bread and cookies, baked with carefully selected ingredients, including natural yeast and domestic wheat, have built a reputation that attracts visitors from far and wide.

Okage Kitchen Mulberry is also expanding its sales channels by selling under the Mulberry brand on the Internet and at local upscale supermarkets and other shops.

Rainbow provides information on employment of people with disabilities

Soyu began with the founding of the Mulberry Co-op in 1988, which was started by hospital employees in order to help those with mental disabilities return to society. It was based on the founders’ wish to help such people recover dreams and hopes they thought they had lost after their illnesses. This background set the course for future activities. Based at its bakery in the town of Hikawa and its facility in Matsue, Soyu helps these dreams come true for some 70 members, assisted by 50 employees.

A crowded lunch hour at Mulberry

Worsening economic conditions have had a direct impact on the employment of those with disabilities. Workplaces developed through much effort have been forced to close. Undiscouraged, however, Soyu and a partner organization continue to publish Rainbow, journal that focuses on issues related to the employment of those with disabilities. Distributed as an insert in the local newspaper (San-In Chuo Shimpo), the journal spreads awareness by reporting on the energetic work done by people with disabilities and by addressing topics including systems of public aid available for employing people with disabilities.

In addition, based on the idea that activities that lead to the employment of people with disabilities truly generate results once people with disabilities become a vital part of the community, Soyu also organizes pre-employment activities in which special-education children help at local shopping districts after school or at other times, helping with store cleaning or deliveries, or delivering packets for courier companies. In return, in addition to the opportunity to take part in work, the children are paid in stamps from partner stores, which they then can exchange for cookies and other rewards.

The Shirakata Fan Map is another result of these efforts, which receive funding support from the Nippon Foundation. “Developing places to work requires a thriving community,” says Soyu 高橋尚志事務局長　executive secretary Takashi Takahashi. “We try to do as much as we can toward this goal through activities like preparing barrier-free maps and pre-employment activities and by coming up with new independent projects.”