Naoko Tomita discusses integrating Sustainable Development Goals into business strategies to create a more sustainable and equitable future for all in episode 74 of the Ikigai Podcast.
Naoko holds a Six Sigma Black Belt from GE and has served as a project leader at AIG (American International Group).
*Watch the full playlist above.
The Journey of Leading a Zen School
Naoko shares how she helps lead a Zen school that aims to ensure psychological safety and assists people in reconnecting with their inner child, helping them realize what gives them the same sense of excitement they experienced as children.
A school to develop mental abilities
Nick: You also helped out Miki-san with his Zen school, which we talked about on the previous episode. So do you want to touch on the work you do with Miki-san?
Naoko: Zen school, is a school to develop mental abilities, it's like a six-month course. You try to discover one's own worldview, finding what you really want to do. Or maybe you can find ikigai there.
I mean, if you think you can make that as a business. Of course, you can create your own product or own business, but it's not that you have to do that. You just stick with your waku waku. Waku waku is a word, it's an onomatopoeia: bouncing of your heart, or the excitement thing.
So you just have to switch your mind, that you can stick with waku waku, always live with waku waku, and that will lead you to some new products, sometimes ikigai, sometimes it's something like that.
So the Zen school is done by the Zen meditation and the dialogue. And we do thorough self disclosure, ensures psychological safety in the team, and do meditation work to remember what your waku waku were when you’re 10 years old.
Nick: You’re sort of connecting to your inner child?
Naoko: Yes, and pick up the real two things that you want to do under the future. So I really had fun, and I was a graduate of that in 2019, and became a master after that. So I lead the Zen school right now.
The Meaning Behind Willwind
Naoko shares the inception story of her company, Willwind, and delves into the meaning behind its creation.
Willwind: carry our will on the wind
Nick: Let’s switch to your company. Let's start with the meaning and message behind the name, which is Willwind, so would you like to talk about that?
Naoko: Yes, thank you. Well, the name of the company Willwind means to carry our will on the wind and pass them to the future. And I have a logo here.
Nick: Yes, I see the logo, the leaves.
Naoko: These leaves represents the meaning of ‘Rich and fertile golden land, blue ocean, and green forest,’ which I want to preserve and pass on to future generations. And I founded this little company, it's still little, I'm doing with my sister and my partner, in 2005.
And currently, we support companies and individuals to understand the importance of sustainability as SDGs. And to come up with our regenerative business ideas through workshop or Zen school session.Nick: That's fascinating. So I see ikigai often relate to nature as almost like a universal source of ikigai being connected to nature, I think everyone loves to connect to nature. So that must be very fulfilling work, but also challenging?
Naoko: Yes, it is. We are so divided from the nature these days. So we're getting that sense.
Nick: Does that relate somewhat to Shinto or Shintoism, this idea of connecting to nature, and I think, in the West, and this has probably influenced Japan, thinking the West, we feel we can control nature, and we try to control nature. And that sort of causes problems.
But my understanding of Shintoism is, there's a synergy—a connection between man and nature. So is that how you relate connecting to nature?
Naoko: That's how I do. Well, my family is Shintoism, but we're not really religious person. But yes, the nature, for me, I'm a part of nature. And I think that comes from the Shintoism or type of thinking.
Undergoing Significant Life Changes
Naoko recounts her journey of personal transformation, transitioning from an office worker to passionately pursuing her dreams and establishing her own company, Willwind.
Pursuing something you love to do
Nick: This involves actually a personal transformation, I think. From your previous life of office worker, to establishing whirlwind. So what was the catalyst for this change in your life?
Naoko: Well, I think it is going to be a bit of my life story. I was born and raised in Tokyo, spent my childhood from one to seven years old in New York. Because there was not much nature around me. I always sought nature and learned from nature.
And my teacher were the trees, the flowers, and the waves that came and went. And I always got answer to my life problems from such nature and natural phenomena. But usually, the answers were like, well, just be yourself, you're okay as you are the just like the waves.
Another good thing will come again, or the sunrises, or your life, something like that. But anyway, it really ease me a lot.
Nick: Great teachers, wonderful teachers. What wonderful interpretation you have of nature being a teacher.
Naoko: So I still talk to nature a lot. So I'm quite an introvert. And for some reason, ever since I was a small child, I have always loved to think about the future of mankind, because I loved nature. And I was aware that I was part of this nature.
And my interest was whether we could survive as one of the species which formed this ecosystem. So I would sometimes think that it is amazing and inspiring that we humans have evolved so far with various inventions.
On the other hand, I also worry that we as humans, we cannot stop wars, and destruction of nature will perish, if we do not do something about it. In other hand, I also believe that the reason why human beings, who are biologically so weak, have been able to build a society on such a large scale and increase in number is because of our tremendous ability.
And I also believe that the potential of using this ability for better purposes other than destruction is immeasurable. As a member of the human race, I would like to have hope and confidence in this. And that makes me waku waku.
Still, having these questions in my mind, yet, I didn't know what to do. So I started my career in 1993, as a consultant and a project manager in Tokyo, working for several American and European companies.
The reason I became consultant was, it's not like I wanted to be a consultant, but I wanted to have a broader perspective of the world. And I thought, if I become a consultant, I can see many companies and what they do, and understand the system of this world.
Behind that, I was always looking for something I really wanted to do. And in December 2004, I remember I traveled alone to Australia, I wanted to see the Great Barrier Reef, and New Zealand, the southern island.
And through the dialogue with mother nature, I was able to break free from the endless loop of my vague questions, believing that there is no right answer to how human race should live. And if there is no right answer, then all that remains is to create the future we want to live in.
And it came to my mind that maybe I can create and provide an opportunity where we can all continue to ask ourselves about the ideal world that we want to live in. And we are a human being blessed to live in such a transformative era. It's so exciting. I couldn't stop being really excited when I talk about this idea of spending my lifetime facing this open question with others.
So I thought that maybe I can do, like a facilitator, become a facilitator for those workshops. And these feelings overflowed me, and I decided to turn around from my life as an office worker, and started my small family business company, Willwind, in 2005. And now I'm a workshop designer, and do workshops to people and share this waku waku.
Nick: I love it. What an amazing transformation and journey.
Waku waku: What is it?
Naoko often refers to "waku waku," conveying the excitement in her heart. Currently, her waku waku is relocating to a tiny house in Tateyama, a rural seaside town in Japan.
Change our inner way of thinking
Nick: You love this word, waku waku. So would you like to touch on its meaning and how you interpret waku waku?
Naoko: Well, it represents the bouncing of your heart and bouncing of your excitement. Like, maybe this kind of body language in my head or something. I have waku waku every day, ever since when I was little.
But the current work that I have, I just talked about my well water. But last year, I moved to a tiny house in a rural seaside town called Tateyama. And I want to show you where I was living before, I was living here before. Right in front of the Tokyo Metropolitan Government building, surrounded by skyscrapers. And now I have moved and now I'm living here.Nick: Oh, wow. That's such a contrast. There's only one building or one small little house.
Naoko: Yes, in the field. So I'm talking from the small buildings, small house, right now. And this is Tateyama in Chiba prefecture. It's about two hours from Tokyo by car. And we have electricity, but no public water system, and only well water.
And it's like 700 meters away from the Pacific Ocean and surrounded by abandoned farmland. Isn't this waku waku?
Nick: I think so. Yeah, it would be for many people. And it must be so beautiful to have fresh air and no manmade noise, just the sounds of nature. And I bet the water tastes good as well, yeah?
Naoko: Actually, not really. The mountain waters are more tasty, often tasty, but we have hard water. So it has too many calcium and magnesium in it. So I have to purify this water. Many things we have to do, but many things I can learn.
And it really was a life shift for me, because I only have experienced drinking tap water. And so I didn't know that there's such soft and hard water. And if I only have hard water, I'm learning so many things every day.
But anyway, by studying SDGs, there are so many things that I wanted to try, such as off grid from the power supply, regenerative farming, or like passive house construction and others. So I don't have to use much energy by living like the heat and air conditioning.
So there's so many things that I wanted to do. And I also found that the inner development will be key for the sustainable transformation. So I don't think we can achieve the SDGs go just with our mindset, the current mindset. So really, we have to change our inner way of thinking.
And I heard from someone that the consciousness changes our daily lives, and our daily lives changes our consciousness. So if I could transform myself by having a different daily life, I thought I might find a clue to transform the world as well. So this is a huge experiment for me.
Pass Something on to The Next Generation
Naoko passionately shares her ikigai, dedicated to constructing a brighter future for the upcoming generations.
Living responsibly for the sake of future generations
Naoko: At the very end of your last interview with Miki-san, you gave me a chance to talk about my ikigai. And since I was not prepared at all, you all of a sudden just asked me what is my ikigai, and I think I answered something that was not what I intended.
So I appreciate if you can give me some time to reconsider once more. Thinking about ikigai, the most recent time I have heard this word ikigai in my life was from my father, seven or eight years ago.
So ikigai is a very popular word and everybody knows the meaning in heart. But it's very hard to define it in Japan. But anyway, I heard that word from dad, and I remember that. And it was around a time when my mother began to suffer from dementia, and was finally unable to take care of herself.
At that time, my father said to me, ‘Well, now I found my ikigai.’ It is to take care of my mom. And this has a little story behind. About 20 years ago, my father became visually impaired, and ever since, he lost his joy of living in many ways. He did have fun, but anyway, I'm sure he lost a lot of joy.
However, when he had to face my mother's disease, he found the meaning of his existence in taking care of my mother, and it came out from his mouth as the word ikigai.
Nick: Wow, what a beautiful interpretation. I mean it ties in, obviously, relationship and love, but maybe also that gave him a new purpose to care about someone he truly loves. So I think the relationship aspect of ikigai is really important, that being needed or helping others, or your role as you know, father, husband, wife, mother, can also be a source of ikigai. That's beautiful. Thank you for sharing that.
Naoko: Thank you. So I thought about that, oh, my father said that word ikigai. And so, in my father's case, the word ikigai may be word that shines in the absence of ikigai and in the presence of some negative aspects they have in their lives.
Something such as a boring or painful day-to-day life, or some kind of there's this darkness and you find the ikigai in the dark. So looking back in my case, I've always chased after what I truly wanted to do, and it has brought a lot of excitement and joy, and waku waku to my life.
So I never had to think about ikigai, I was just alive. I was just ikite iru in Japanese. But since he asked me, I took time and thought about it once more, that what makes me feel it is ikigai. And I tried to apply all my waku waku things, whether they are ikigai or not.
But most of them sounded okay, but little unsuitable for the word ikigai. But one thing came to my mind that living a responsible and joyful life, imagining about what to pass to the next generation, is my ikigai.
The reason I can say this is my ikigai is because, not being able to live for the next generation gives me a negative feeling. If I'm not living to pass something on to the next generation, I would lose hope, and wouldn't know what purpose to live for now.
So even if I enjoy waku waku in daily life, I would feel a certain sense of worthlessness. And well, therefore, maybe I thought that this is my ikigai—that my ikigai is the desire to hand over a better world to the next generation. So thanks to you, I came to this conclusion that it links directly to Willwind, what I'm doing.
For the full podcast conversation, go to: Sustainable Horizons: Shaping a Better World for Tomorrow