—What lies at the beginning of MNH

MNH originally began with the desire to "create a social business model for young people who want to contribute to their communities."
However, as we dug deeper into those words, we realized that at the root of our thinking was a simpler and more urgent question.

How can people stay connected to society and make a living while working?

There are many young people who want to revitalize local communities.
Who want to contribute to society.
Who want to do something for someone else.

Many young people carry such aspirations.
But aspiration alone cannot sustain a livelihood.
Just talking about ideals is not enough to keep things going.

So we asked ourselves:
"Young people who want to work for their communities must be able to thrive and earn a proper living themselves."
Unless we could establish, as a business, a model that creates that very kind of working environment, it would mean nothing.

—Turning "for someone else" into work

What MNH has aimed for is this:
to turn the feeling of wanting to do something "for someone else" into real work, rather than letting it remain a mere ideal.

First, we had to stand on our own feet.
Instead of depending entirely on subsidies or support, we needed to create our own business model, sell it, operate it, and sustain it ourselves.

In that process, we took on a variety of businesses and met many people.
What emerged from that was the "Community Factory," a place of manufacturing where diverse people can participate.

At the Community Factory, we mainly produce confectionery, but making sweets is not the end goal in itself.
It is, above all, a means to support MNH's initiatives and create places to work.

—Connecting with society through work

People who find it hard to live in today’s society.
People who do not quite fit into the systems of the world as it is now.

MNH has always wanted to create a place where such people are not treated as "special cases," but can naturally engage with society through work.

People who have experienced social withdrawal, and users of welfare workshops.

MNH works together with welfare workshops not in an employer-employee relationship, but as equal partners in manufacturing.

This collaborative model was not something prepared from the outset, either.
It naturally took shape as a result of our effort to keep turning "for someone else" into sustainable work.

—Partnerships expand and take shape

The "Matchbox Museum" series, now entering its fourth year, is supported through collaboration with more than 10 welfare workshops.

This is also a practical expression of the kind of manufacturing through collaboration with welfare workshops that MNH envisioned from the beginning—in other words, a loosely connected small-factory collective system.

Rather than concentrating everything in one place, individual sites with their own strengths connect with one another, and work circulates among them.

The more the products sell, the more people become involved, and the happier everyone involved becomes.

We are seriously striving to build that kind of cycle as a business.

—Looking ahead

"Genmai Decaf," which we have nurtured in Shonai, Yamagata since 2012, is now beginning to attract attention both in Japan and overseas.
Full-scale expansion abroad also began last year, and demand is steadily growing.

This year, to meet that demand, we will renovate the site of a former waterworks facility in Shonai Town and establish a new factory.

Across Japan, and to the world.
We will deliver JAPANESE RICE COFFEE, "Genmai Decaf."

—What MNH aims for

To pursue social businesses that truly benefit society.
And for the products born from that work to gradually change the structures of society itself.

At the center of it all is always the act of "working."

To turn doing something for someone else into work.
And to build a system that allows that work to keep running properly.

MNH will continue to move back and forth between ideals and reality, creating new forms of society with "work" as the starting point.

2026 President, Naohiro Ozawa