Between the Zebra and Swimmy: How Do You Get a Community Moving?
Notes from a former city official in Tokyo on local businesses, a children’s book, and what it means to be “the eye”
In Japan, it refers to businesses that tackle local social issues through business methods, creating social impact while also earning revenue. Unlike 「unicorn」 startups that chase rapid growth and market dominance, zebras are rooted in a place and aim to last. The national government has begun to back such businesses.
The inn being reborn
I recently visited one. They are restoring an old traditional inn in a rural area, and developing local products, branding, and visitor experiences all together. What stayed with me was their attitude: honoring a hundred years of the inn’s history while passing it on to the next hundred. They told me that securing revenue is still a challenge. Even so, I felt we were heading in a very similar direction.
An image I already had
When I learned the term, I realized I already carried an older image. Swimmy.
Swimmy is a picture book by Leo Lionni. A school of small red fish gathers to form the shape of one huge fish, and Swimmy, the one black fish, becomes its eye. Each fish is small, but together they have real power.
I have always thought a community works like this.
When one person becomes 「the hero,」 things don’t last. When someone carries too much, everything stops the moment that person leaves. I have seen many local initiatives that run only while a passionate individual is around.
A Swimmy-style community is different. Each fish is the leader of something and a follower of something else. They move by complementing each other. Roles are not fixed.
I felt this through twelve years in city government, and I feel it now. On the front lines, I have often heard people say, 「Just holding meetings to share opinions doesn’t move things forward.」 I agree. A community needs both mechanisms that move and a culture that moves.
When the words overlapped
I shared the idea of local zebra companies with two people I work with: a university professor, and a person at a public housing provider.
The professor replied:
「We may be able to have students think about whether efforts toward social issues are sustainable and have real social impact. We could also treat things like attachment to place, attitudes toward diversity, intention to take part in community activities, and well-being as outcome indicators. I’d like to design this carefully so that it eventually becomes self-sustaining.」
When I read this, it clicked. The Swimmy-style 「complementing each other」 had just been put into the language of a researcher. The point of students going out into a community is not volunteering or a field trip. It is becoming one part of a community that can run on its own. The students themselves receive something and change too. Designing a place where change flows both ways is close to what I am trying to do now.
The person from the housing provider wrote:
「I never had a chance to learn about this way of thinking. The perspective of pursuing both solving local issues and business viability is helpful. At the same time, I can’t yet picture how we could be involved. Let’s take it one step at a time.」
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This honesty made me trust them. I would rather work with someone who thinks at their own pace than with someone who jumps onto a grand plan right away.
They don’t compete. They complement each other.
Local zebra and Swimmy do not conflict.
「Local zebra」 is about how an organization should be: how it is defined from the outside, a banner of pursuing social impact and revenue together.
「Swimmy」 is about how a community moves: how it functions from the inside, with each fish complementing the others so the whole becomes strong.
When businesses aiming to be local zebras help design Swimmy-style communities, I think a town starts to move.
So where am I in this picture?
I think I am the black fish: the eye that helps scattered individuals face the same direction. My job is to design places where residents, students, businesses, government, and universities bring what they have and complement one another.
Chasing the same thing all along
I work under one banner: turning the town itself into a place to learn.
It is not only about education, and not only about community development. It is about moving both at once. Some children can no longer find meaning in learning inside school walls alone. Meanwhile, adults with experience and wisdom are looking for places to use their strengths. Connecting the two is, in the end, building a Swimmy-style community.
I learned the word 「local zebra」 only recently. But I have known Swimmy since I was a child.
I went from a tech company to city government to the private sector, working in the field. Looking back, I have been chasing the same thing all along.
What moves a town is not a single hero. It is many small fish who complement each other, and one who becomes the eye.
Original article in Japanese:
• Community Development
• Japan
• Social Innovation
• Local Economy
• Urban Planning
