The envisioned cover of Handbook for Future

"N Project Hito, Michi, Machi (N Project People, Streets and Our Town)," aka "NPro," is a NPO based on Toyama Prefecture in central Japan. Since its establishment in 2007, the group has been working for ten years to create a sustainable society where everyone would feel comfortable to live in from the perspectives of women.

On April 10, Npro launched a crowdfunding project to publish two kinds of books.
https://readyfor.jp/projects/mirai-women
(Japanese only)

The project title is: Two Books of Empowerment throughout Your Life; With the Aim to Create the Society Where Everyone Can Feel Respected.

Npro hopes to establish a community where men, women, everyone can live a life they want to live so that people can realize a society where everyone can feel respected.

In this project, they're going to publish two kinds of books in order to achieve that goal.

The one is the series of The History of a Woman, in which each book is focused on the life of one woman in their community to learn from the past. The other is Handbook for Future, which everyone, regardless of gender, can use to design the future that they desire.

Publishing The History of a Woman

Looking back at the history, it's been all about men who achieved the feats. However, there are also many women who have done the great things, even around you. So you can learn a lot of things from their lives.

In Toyama Prefecture, on which NPro is based, gender bias is still said to be prevalent among the people. In such community, it was very difficult to make books about "the history of a woman," but the group decided to create them on their own.

Their first book will feature Saeko Ito, 83. They're planning to record the life of the 83-year-old spanning from pre-World War II to now, in order to pass her story down to the younger generation.

Ms. Ito has been very keen on community activities. She became the chief of a women's group within a labor union when she was 18 years old. She also worked as the only female baiyaku, or a medicine peddler from Toyama, to sell medicine travelling across Japan. The group says that the story of her life is both amazing and informative so they hope many people read the book.

Completing and Promoting Handbook for Future

Once you learned from the life of our predecessors in The History of a Woman, then it's your turn; With their lessons in in mind, you can create your own life and the society you want to live in.

Handbook for Future will be your guide as you look back your past and hope for the future in this insecure world. It will help you make your life and community comfortable so you can love them more.

Lack of funds has prevented Npro members from issuing these books. So the members started crowdfunding to make up for the lack in order to publish them so that they will be your guide in your life.

Please visit this website for the details (Japanese only).
https://readyfor.jp/projects/mirai-women
Original Article: bttps://wan.or.jp/article/show/7199
Adapted by TAJIMA, N.