Thank you very much. I am Yamamoto. Good morning, everybody. Within a very limited time I would like to just introduce the points. I am from Miyazaki Prefecture, and the west of Miyazaki Prefecture there is Shusen no Mori in Aya Town. This is where our Tourism Division of our Unkai Sake Manufacturing Company, Unkai Shuzo, is located.

　Let me talk about our facility. In 1989, in November it opened. And this is the 12 th year since we opened this facility. And when we went to Aya, it was 1989, however, during the 1980's, already Aya Town started their tourism, and they had about 300,000 to 350,000 tourists every year. And 11 or 12 years have passed since then. And currently we have about I million tourists in our facility, and in Aya as a whole we have 1.2 million visitors. The reason why we have such a development is that Aya made a great effort in tackling with tourism industry as well as our efforts in Unkai Shuzo. So we had a partnership, great partnership between the public and private sector.

　I think we have distributed Aya-cho's, Aya Town's material to you. And the first founder of the tourism industry is actually the former Town Mayor, Mr. Goda, who unfortunately passed away. During the 1950's the Aya's population was 9,000 at the time. The land area is 9,500 square meters. However, the forest area accounts for more than 70 percent. We had about 9,000 population. However, there are a lot of out-migration or depopulation phenomena occurred. And from the 1960's it has decreased to 7,000 in terms of the population. And the former Town Mayor really felt a crisis and really the difficult situation, so he started to implement a new policy, that is, the tourism industry. He proposed the new concept. Let me tell you the contents of the policy.

　In Aya there are beautiful evergreen forests and trees, and there are many cultures generated out of the forest and also water coming out of such beautiful evergreen trees. Evergreen trees are actually based on our attractiveness. So he said: We wanted to make the handicraft which can transmit to outside of Aya based on this evergreen forest, and also we would like to promote the organic agriculture based on the ecosystem. So from the earlier 1960's we tackled with, we started this organic agriculture, and we became one of the pioneers in this field.

　However, this wasn't really enough for the activation, invigoration of Aya. We have the town, we have the beautiful water and pure water, so we wanted to find out some kind of method by using this water. By using this water we started to use the sake brewing company to support this tourism. And that's why we were requested by the town local government. That was actually 1960 when we were requested by the government to be involved in the tourism industry. From Hokkaido to Kagoshima we have seven plants all over Japan, and in Aya we have the biggest plant. And that was in the 1960's, and as the Town Mayor said that, in line with the policy of the town we actually established a plant which can meet with the demand of the tourists, where the tourists, I mean, the visitors can look and come into how the sake is brewed. And so we can provide experiences to the tourists. And including those visitors, the actual tourists, the total tourist numbers are now increasing to 360,000. But it is not really enough for the vitalization, so we wanted to have something of core facility to be able to represent to outsider towns. That's why Shusen no Mori was established.

　Shusen no Mori was established in November 24 th in 1989. we have a lot of cultures, something like glass handicraft and bamboo craft or wood craft, or also there are of course kinds of wood handicraft, there are also ceramics. There are 44 ceramists, and 18 are actually originated from Aya. The rest of the people, 30 other people actually came from outside of Aya as the potter. And we have the museum of ceramics and potteries. And sake brewing, manufacturing, including local beer or shochu and also the wineries, such sake or liquor brewing process can be observed by the visitors and tourists in this museum. And in order to improve the convenience of the visitors we also provide Japanese type "ryokan" or the inn, and also we can provide good restaurants as well in a very traditional way. Those are the ways how we are providing the traditional culture to the visitors and tourists.

　That is called as Shusen Park. But even though we opened that Shusen Park, we couldn't make a good advertisement all over Japan. Within one year since we opened, about 300,000 to 400,000 people came. And in Aya as a whole, 450,000 people came at a time; in other words, 4 percent to 5 percent increase of visitors. After that, within four to five years, there is not much increase of the visitors. But in 1994, Aya Winery was established. And we have used local resources and we manufactured Shochu by using the local resources, but there are also the grapes, vineyard in Aya. Therefore we were making investigation and research how we would be able to manufacture good wine. And actually the winery was opened. And by opening of this winery, about 620,000 people came. And after one and a half year, the local beer was manufactured. This is a tertiary plan of the community building based on the tourism. This was actually 1995, in April.

　So the third tourism plan, in line with that plan we were promoting with the industrial tourism or tourism-based community development. Now we have I million visitors and Aya-cho as a whole we have 1.2 million visitors at this moment.

　As I just told you the background of Aya, the former Town Mayor promoted industrial tourism with the initiative, and there are beautiful forests, as I just mentioned, and this is evergreen tree forest, and the Ministry of Forest had planned they were going to deforest and they were going to plant the cider trees. That was in the 1970's. But we made lobbying to the Ministry of Forest in order to preserve our evergreen tree forests. So that's why we have been able to have this evergreen trees remained in our area. If there was going the deforestation, there was going to be a lot of subsidies given by the Government. So there are the pros and cons in our Aya area. However, the local government decided to lobby to the Central Government in order to preserve our evergreen forests. Now the tourists and visitors enjoy looking at this beautiful evergreen tree forest. One hundred twenty-four(124?) tall trees are there, and this is the highest, and also the longest road of the evergreen forest where the tourists can enjoy. There are a lot of ups and downs, however currently we have 200,000 visitors coming to see this evergreen forest. This was actually the 1970's.

　And after that, in the 1980's, this is a very historical place where there was a fighting in the ancient time. And there is one historical monument located in Aya, and there is also the castle remains. We wanted to rebuild that castle again, to revive that castle. So we made that. This is not really the splendid, outstanding castle, but we actually have about 1.5 million visitors looking at this castle. They never used a needle at all for construction of this castle. Then we made it revival of this castle. This is one of the tourists attraction for the visitors to enjoy.

　As the Company we of course have to make a profit, and this is of course a basic thing, but as Unkai Shuzo we should not only focus on the hardware part but we wanted to focus on the software part, and we want to always do community-based industry. Shochu, this is a clear liquor distilled from rice and wheat, and we are actually showing the processing or manufacturing of this shochu to the visitors, and tourism visitors can enjoy the software which has been provided by our Unkai Shuzo. And at the same time we are the pioneer and leader in the regional promotion, or regional prosperity promotion.

　Right now we have 1.2 million visitors, and out of that I million people are attracted to our facilities. And for twenty years in the past in Aya we have been working very hard and making a lot of efforts, and also citizens made a great effort in order to preserve this natural ecosystem. It was unrelenting efforts made by the local residents and also the administration of Aya. And in that context, our industrial tourism has been developed. Currently in Miyazaki Prefecture, not only the domestic travelers but also the travelers come from the overseas countries, from Korea or Taiwan, and they are now promoting exchange of the industry, and we have been witnessing increase of industrial exchange with those countries. We have the Foreign Ministers Summit and also the Pacific Islands Summit. So there are a lot of visitors coming from the overseas countries to look at the tourist attraction or industrial tourism. And Aya-cho is now attracting a lot of tourists, and I think Taiwan tourists are the majority out of the overseas tourists. On April 14th, with Seoul of Korea, between Seoul and Miyazaki area there is a direct flight, therefore a lot of visitors are coming to from the overseas countries. Two or three days ago we had also a lot of tourists from overseas countries.

　Industrial tourism, how we have been promoting that, how this industrial tourism is being used, those the overseas visitors are actually trying to learn a lesson from us, how to promote industrial tourism based community development. And currently we have three Chinese employees, two from China and one from Taiwan, and so those Chinese employees can deal with the customers from China or Taiwan. Of course we have the employees who can speak English, but not speaking in Chinese. So we have employed the persons from China and Taiwan. They actually passed examination of our Company and they are now working in our Company. They are working so hard, harder than the local employees in Miyazaki. When a mission comes, they tour around, and also attracting business from Taiwan, Hog Kong, Korea; we are trying to expand business of tourism to Taiwan, Hong Kong, Korea as well, based upon those human resources.

　Actually, Shusen no Mori is making contribution for the invigoration of the tourism activities, and we are considered as a successful example. During the first four to five years from the opening, we were not doing enough promotion. There were many visitors coming, but 350,000, actually 70 percent of the people were from Miyazaki Prefecture and 30 percent from outside of the Prefecture. And we have sales marketing people dispatch into various areas for the promotion of Aya-cho; from the north part of Kyushu to Kanto area we have done marketing and advertisement activities. And also in the second and the third phases of the projects of tourism promotion, we have 1 million, and 60 percent of the people today are from outside of the Prefecture, the rest 40 percent is from within. But Japan is suffering from the slump economy and sluggish economy, we are hit hard. As tourism industry we are keeping I million mark even today, but 50 percent from Miyazaki Prefecture and 50 percent from outside of Miyazaki Prefecture; north part of Kyushu, and Kansai, and the third is from Kanto, this is the order of the number of visitors.

　Welcoming visitors is possible with marketing sales activities and various events and projects, but the content and the quality is rather difficult to make improvements on. Basically, visitors from Miyazaki Prefecture come to visit for shopping, and they would like to purchase, for instance, items around 1,000 yen; but those from Fukuoka Prefecture, 1,600 yen per person is spent; but Kanto and Tohoku, they would use 3,600 yen per person to purchase some souvenirs. This is a purchasing behavior. So depending upon where they are from, I am not saying that the balance of people from within and outside is not a bad thing, but those coming from Tokyo and Osaka, other metropolitan areas, they go to overseas countries, not coming to Kyushu, therefore, the number of people coming from the metropolitan areas is declining. Therefore, together with Aya-cho we are making plans for the operation of the tourism industry keeping the level of 1 million visitors. This moment that is the current status of the tourism in Aya-cho.

　So, the treasure for us for the promotion of industrial tourism, the most important essence is the traditional arts and art crafts, some people participate and some people do not participate in this process; there are some very small scale art and craft activities, and industrial level big ones are also there, but we can extend help for the sales of the goods. And food industry is as well, like organic agriculture and organic farming, and we would like to provide support for those activities as well. And meat industry, and cow, and we have a lot of activities to raise pigs, and animal husbandry is also a very active industry here in addition to tourism. And Unkai Shuzo makes shochu, and we have meal from sake brewery and shochu making, we have some meals and remnants. And we were able to dump them into marine environment since 1998; this environmental dumping has been restricted last year, in the year 2000 it was completely prohibited to dump these remnant meals to marine environment. Therefore, we have to think about how to dispose of these residues of sake and shochu making.

　This is the grain meal or grain residue. Therefore, this can be taken advantage of as a feed for cows and oxen and these can be used for foodstuff or feed for animal husbandry, and we are making research how to take advantage of the residue meal from sake and shochu making. So there are various materials coming from tourist activities and also sake making activities. So I think we can make some feed for animals, and also we can make fertilizer for agriculture, for instance, sake and shochu making process can create various materials for recycling for the use as a fertilizer as well as feedstuff for animal husbandry. We have started this approach five years ago, and finally we have started up this as a business after five years effort.

　So although we are talking about tourism, for instance, there are various aspects into that. And at Miyazaki Prefecture traditionally we have wonderful scenery of Nichinan Seashore, and also we have both natural and man -made beauties for the promotion of tourism industry. And within tourism we would like to go beyond what ancestors have done and we would like to create something anew. But we are in a very difficult situation, and large -scale resort development is stalling, but still we would like to keep the visitor level at 1 million. Why is that? Because we have the atmosphere of homeland and also co-existence harmoniously between the rural, local areas and metropolitan areas. This kind of community development effort is realized and visitors can sense that coming into Aya. There were a lot of fireflies last month, and also in August we have a lot of fireflies in the evening; we see them every year. Nothing particular, nothing extraordinary, but for those children coming from urban cities it is very special, and we have the tour to take a look at fireflies. Children coming from the metropolitan cites have just seen the pictures and photographs of fireflies only; they have never seen them flying, and therefore, it is a great tour for children. And so we planned and implemented firefly watching tours, and various families together with children came to watch fireflies. This is completely natural, and we would like to continue to maintain the environment where fireflies can survive. And I think this is one of the very important factors for tourism development, too. This year again we have a lot of fireflies, but this is dependent upon climate and weather; for instance, rain and wind will affect. And many people come all the distance from far away, and sometimes they cannot enjoy watching fireflies. So we would like to create something alternative just in case, or we can serve them sake and shochu to forget about the fact that they were not able to take a look at fireflies.

　But at Unkai Shuzo you may think that this is kind of hardware, but although we are making sake and shochu, we are trying to show the process of making them, and also we are trying to cook the cuisine suited for our sake, and also we can introduce how clean and beautiful the water is, and also we have walk rallies, and people can swim in the river, and also they can take a look at fireflies. Therefore, this is a software side of tourism in addition to the physical hardware, and through this process we are trying to explore new and innovative tourism through our experiences.

　I have been saying that this is "industrial tourism"; this is supported by various industries at different towns and villages. For instance, people coming from other areas say that we have made hot-springs but this is only for local people, and we cannot pay the salary and wages for the workers. Actually you cannot develop a community just with a hot spring. You have to have something very unique to your local community and you have to nurture it. And hot-spring is just secondary to the unique features of your town and village. Otherwise, visitors will not come to your town. Therefore, it is very difficult, and we have to attract visitors not only from the local area but from outside of your prefecture domestically and also even internationally. Otherwise, you cannot achieve a breakeven point of your business operation as the tourist destination. And that is the basic principle of our area. We attract many people from overseas countries, and we are trying to show how we are doing the tourism activities in a local area. And I think we can find new possibilities and we would like to explore those possible new potential areas for tourism development further.

　Later we will have an opportunity to discuss in the panel discussion; you may have more questions to me, and we would like to invite questions later.

　Before opening this area it was rice paddies before that. Therefore, rice is harvested and put soil. And I was a farmer, so 99.9 percent of the speech can be done with respect to rice farming, but as a private company I cannot speak much of that business operations as I can talk as a farmer. Anyway, this is my sentiment in promoting tourism, and now our area is one of the attractive tourist attraction and one of the destinations in the Kyushu tourism. For instance, Nichinan Seashore of Miyazaki Prefecture and Shusen no Mori of Aya-cho have become well known. Although the tourism industry is hard-pressed today because of the economic sluggishness, but we are going through the second difficult period, and the community people, together with our employees of our Company, we would like to work hard so that we can make our steps forward. Thank you very much for your attention.