Ideafund Co., Ltd. (Tokyo; Founder & CEO: Naoko Okawachi) is pleased to announce that its CEO, Naoko Okawachi, will serve as a commentator at the 84th Research Meeting of The Society of Living Folklore, to be held in Tokyo on April 26, 2026.
84th Research Meeting
Folklore × Business: Rethinking Everyday Life in “Companies” and “Workplaces”
Date & Time: Sunday, April 26, 2026, 1:00 p.m. – 5:00 p.m.
Format: Hybrid (in-person and online)
Venue: Kokuyo Co., Ltd. Shinagawa Office, 1F Open Space (COMMONS)
For online participation, advance registration is required for all members.For in-person participation at the venue, registration is not required.
Symposium Overview
In recent years, the relationship between the humanities and business has grown increasingly close. In anthropology, several consulting firms in Japan have been founded that apply ethnography and participant observation, while in philosophy, the role of the “in-house philosopher” has been gaining visibility. In the publishing industry as well, accessible books on the humanities have become increasingly popular, and the liberal arts are once again attracting attention as an area of study for business professionals.
Against this backdrop, rather than posing the familiar question of “What can folklore studies do?”, this symposium begins from the premise that diverse forms of practice informed by folkloristic perspectives are already being actively carried out in business settings. Since folklore studies take everyday life as their point of departure, “companies” and “workplaces” naturally constitute important fields of inquiry and practice.
Starting from these diverse folkloristic practices within business contexts, the symposium aims to articulate their distinctive features and possibilities, while fostering discussion that transcends conventional dichotomies such as independent scholarship versus academia, or professional practice versus academic research.
(Text by Yuki Tsujimoto)
Presenters
Yuki Tsujimoto (Center for Regional Development and Education, Shizuoka University)
Also providing the introductory overview
Saki Kudo (Yokoku Research Institute, Kokuyo Co., Ltd.)
Mao Mikami (Active and Company Inc.)
Commentators
Yasunori Shimamura (Kwansei Gakuin University)
Naoko Okawachi (Ideafund Co., Ltd. / Global Communications Center, International University of Japan)
Ryusuke Kuramoto (The University of Tokyo)
Moderator
Shinji Tsukahara (The University of Tokyo)
Coordinators
Yuki Tsujimoto
Shinji Tsukahara
Yasunori Shimamura
About IDEAFUND
With the corporate mission, “Observe. Uncover. Interpret. Ignite Insights.”, ideafund Inc. is Japan’s first company established to apply cultural anthropology to business. By visiting and closely observing people’s real-life settings—whether in their homes, workplaces, or other everyday environments—we derive deep insights that inform business development and organizational transformation.
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- Representative –
- Naoko Okawachi, Founder & CEO
- Established –
- January 4, 2018
- Headquarters –
- Tokyo, Japan
- Business Scope –
- Research, consulting, and advisory services grounded in cultural anthropology
- Corporate Website –
- https://ideafund.co.jp/
Contact info:
info@ideafund.co.jp