The barriers to entry that exist throughout our society are becoming thicker, to the point where it can be called a society of barriers rather than a society of gaps.
What are the conditions for breaking down barriers and moving toward a society where everyone coexists? To embrace a future where everyone can thrive, we need a new imagination.
The world is now seeking new ways to coexist.
Countries like Finland, Germany, the Netherlands, and Spain are experimenting with policies for coexistence through basic income.
To build the community's foundation for a sustainable future.
France, Austria, Sweden, and other countries have created institutional mechanisms to allow people of different classes to live together.
It is part of an effort to eliminate discrimination and separation and restore the power of relationships.
--- From "Prologue - Another world is possible when you don't give up hope"

The results of the Mincome Project, a basic income experiment conducted by the Manitoba government, defied everyone's expectations.
Most of the residents who participated in the experiment used the basic income as a stepping stone to design a better life.
The idea that giving people cash would make them lazy was also completely untrue.
“The impact of basic income on working hours was very small.
Only two groups reduced their working hours, the first being married women.
In the 1970s, maternity leave was only four weeks.
Married women have been able to take advantage of the basic income to extend their leave when they give birth.
The second group whose working hours were significantly reduced were adolescent males.
They found full-time jobs a little later.
Instead of dropping out of high school at 16, I went for an extra year and graduated.” --- 「Chapter 1.
From “A New Imagination for Coexistence in the Age of Hereditary Succession”

In the Netherlands, part-time jobs are considered full-time jobs and receive the same social security benefits.
There is no disadvantage to working less.
Women in this country rarely have career breaks due to marriage and childbirth, as they can adjust their working hours to suit their circumstances.
Professor Ton Wildhagen of Tilburg University analyzes how the Netherlands was able to create stable jobs with less work.
“The Netherlands has not forgotten two things.
The first was that low-quality part-time jobs cannot sustain households, and the second was that a social security system must be established for part-time or irregular jobs.” --- 「Chapter 3.
From "If you do the same work for the same amount of time, you get paid the same amount of money"

After the massive tent protests of 2011, change began in Israel.
In particular, efforts to break up the monopoly of conglomerates continued.
The most notable of these is the change in the mobile communications industry.
As new companies entered the market dominated by conglomerates and competition arose, immediate economic effects emerged.
Cell phone bills dropped by a whopping 90 percent, from 300-500 shekels per month to 50 shekels (about 15,000 won) in one year.
Israeli political columnist Asher Skechers says Israelis' perceptions have changed.
“People are beginning to understand why the pyramid structure is flawed.” --- 「Chapter 4.
From "To overcome the era of conglomerates"

We expect that when a society's economic situation worsens, the mental health of its members will also deteriorate.
In fact, our country lives up to this expectation.
In Korea, the unemployment rate more than doubled following the 1997 IMF economic crisis, and the suicide rate also increased rapidly.
But Sweden produced different results in similar situations to ours.
Sweden, which experienced an economic crisis in 1991, lost 10 percent of its workers.
However, the suicide rate has been steadily decreasing regardless of the economic situation.
This is because the Swedish government has actively helped unemployed people return to good jobs so that they do not feel frustrated or abandoned by society.
--- Chapter 5.
From “There are no happy individuals in an unhappy society”

“I appoint Tracey Crouch as Minister for Loneliness.
She will actively address the issue of ‘loneliness,’ which has been a key agenda of the British government.” In January 2018, British Prime Minister Theresa May appointed the world’s first ‘Minister for Loneliness.’
It was a declaration of the government's will to see loneliness as a social disease and to step in to solve it.
Loneliness has long been considered a personal emotional problem, but it has now emerged as a social issue that the community must address together.
--- Chapter 6.
From “Connection, the Key to Unlocking Loneliness”

Sweden is the country closest to becoming a cashless society in the world.
Sweden's cash usage rate already fell to 1.4 percent in 2016 and is projected to fall to 0.5 percent by 2020.
Swedish shops are allowed to openly refuse cash, except in pharmacies and other places.
The number of stores accepting cash fell to 15 percent of all stores in 2016.
When using public transportation such as buses and subways, you can only pay with a credit card or smartphone app.
The use of cash is prohibited by law.
However, this cashless society is a global trend, not just in Sweden.
Denmark stopped printing currency in 2017 and legally recognized the right of shopkeepers to refuse cash payments.
The eurozone also stopped issuing high-denomination 500-euro notes in January 2018.
--- Chapter 7.
From "The Cashless War of Money"

What if you could wake up to the chime of birds instead of the alarm clock, and ride your bike to work at an IT venture, surrounded by nature instead of crowded subways and crowded buses? In Kamiyama Town, a small mountain village in Japan, people live just such a life.
Kamimiyama-cho, a town with a severely aging population, began to experience significant change 10 years ago, thanks to the local government and non-profit organizations renovating vacant houses, renting them out as offices at low prices, and establishing a startup infrastructure.
Satellite offices of Tokyo-based IT venture companies began opening one after another in the town's vacant old houses, and now 16 companies have established themselves in Kamiyama-cho.
The barn was also transformed into a comfortable office.
If you want to get some fresh air while working, you can take your laptop outside and work from a hammock while looking at the green nature.

--- 「Chapter 10.
Is the extinction of local governments an inevitable future?