Build something that outlives
your stay in Japan.
Japan is admired as a nation of health and long life. It is also growing old: the birthrate falls, people gather in the cities, and year by year the smaller municipalities lose the means to keep their townscapes standing and their traditions alive. Much of regional Japan has never needed a passport — there are communities here that have rarely spoken with a foreigner, living at a distance from how the world now moves and from the age of AI unfolding around it.
This program, selected by the Japan Tourism Agency as a national pilot, exists to close that distance — to carry economic and social possibility into the regions, not more tourism. We step away from cities strained by overtourism and go where visitors rarely reach, beside the people who love these places and intend to protect them. Builders arrive with everything they carry — technology, ideas, networks, experience — not to consume a destination, but to leave behind ideas the towns can actually use.
One base. Three frontiers.
Fukuoka City is home for 11 nights. For the final stretch, Oct 11 to 14, you pick one region and go deep: four days, three nights, stay covered by the pilot.
Getting to Luigans is covered. Every Sep 30 – Oct 2 program activity below runs at Luigans (ルイガンズ) — a dedicated shuttle bus runs back and forth between Hakata Place, where you're staying, and Luigans for all four days. No taxis to arrange, no logistics to figure out on your own.
The whole arc
11 nights in Fukuoka City with full access to Colive Fukuoka 2026, then 3 nights deep in one region. Sep 30 – Oct 2 is fixed and shared by the whole cohort; everything from Oct 6 on is flexible, so you can shape it around your own work.
Your stay starts — Check-in & Opening Party
Arrive at Hakata Place and meet your cohort. That evening, the Colive Fukuoka Opening Party kicks the whole month off, open dialogue with the full community from hour one.
Ikigai Academy — lunch & Destination Pitch
12:30–14:00, community lunch with the local managers from Yame, Koga and Buzen. Right after, the Destination Pitch: each region makes its case, and you start choosing your frontier.
Ikigai Academy — Directors meet the regions
Straight after lunch, Jacquie and Ryu sit down in the open with the regional teams — a public dialogue on where we can build something that matters, wherever the program takes you next.
SuzuPay workshop — inside Ikigai Academy
A hands-on workshop within the Ikigai Academy on the stablecoin pilot: how SuzuPay works, how your spending feeds the trial, and what Japan wants to learn from it.
Open days — yours to fill
With the core program done, this stretch is wide open: Ramen Tech collabs, coworking days at CIC and around the city, community-run meetups and workshops, all posted as they're confirmed. Drop in on whatever fits your week.
Mastermind session
A small-group mastermind: bring what you're building, trade honest feedback with fellow Builders and mentors, leave with a clearer next step.
Build With, Not For: Community Design Across Cultures
Hosted by Jacquie & Ryu. Global Builders and local founders and neighbors (Ramen Tech included) meet in the open to build toward ideas that create real, lasting value for the region. Culture & Community gives you the context first — how East and West build community differently, and what rebuilding it looks like in Japan. Ideas Worth Building follows: design thinking and AI, moving from assumption to evidence through real 1:1 interviews with the people you'll be working alongside.
Colive Fukuoka Closing Party
The official close of this year's Colive Fukuoka — one last open gathering with the whole community before Phase 2 begins.
Phase 2 — 4 days in your chosen town
Choose Yame, Koga or Buzen. Three nights, fully subsidized under the JTA pilot. Walk the fields and shopping streets, talk openly with the people who run them, and shape ideas together. On Oct 13 you share those ideas back with the community.
Yame
One of the world's most respected matcha regions, mid-transformation as global demand booms. Tea farmers, indigo dyers, washi makers and lantern craftsmen still work within a few kilometers of each other. You work from a renovated schoolhouse in the middle of it.
Koga
A mountain-to-sea town 30 minutes from Fukuoka, with retro shopping streets, family-run food factories and a community hub run by people who refuse to let the town fade. The most hands-on track: shopkeepers know you're coming.
Buzen
Framed by Mt. Kubote, a historic center of mountain asceticism. This is the retreat track: kagura ritual dance, forest walks, a riverside tent sauna, and long unhurried conversations with the people who chose this life. Come as you are, leave clearer.
One base. Three frontiers.
Fukuoka City is home for 11 nights. For the final stretch, Oct 11 to 14, you pick one region and go deep: four days, three nights, stay covered by the pilot.
Fukuoka
A world-class startup ecosystem with a historic soul. Your co-creation hub for 11 nights, with the full October Program as your playground and stablecoin-friendly shops opening across the city.
Yame
One of the world's most respected matcha regions, mid-transformation as global demand booms. Tea farmers, indigo dyers, washi makers and lantern craftsmen still work within a few kilometers of each other. You work from a renovated schoolhouse in the middle of it.
Koga
A mountain-to-sea town 30 minutes from Fukuoka, with retro shopping streets, family-run food factories and a community hub run by people who refuse to let the town fade. The most hands-on track: shopkeepers know you're coming.
Buzen
Framed by Mt. Kubote, a historic center of mountain asceticism. This is the retreat track: kagura ritual dance, forest walks, a riverside tent sauna, and long unhurried conversations with the people who chose this life. Come as you are, leave clearer.
Pay the town in USDC.
Powered by SuzuPay
Shops, cafes and pubs across the four hubs accept QR-code stablecoin payments (USDC / USDT), a multi-region trial on a scale rarely seen in Japan. It runs on SuzuPay, which converts your stablecoins into local spending points, so a matcha latte in Yame or a round at a Koga izakaya settles as easily as anywhere onchain. You don't even need to hold stablecoins to join: register with SuzuPay and your bonus points spend like yen.
Ideas the towns can use.
This is not a hackathon and nobody expects a finished product. The regions asked for something rarer: outside eyes and honest conversation. You research on foot, with interpreters where needed. You sit with farmers, shopkeepers and craftspeople. Then on Oct 13 each group shares the ideas that surfaced, in an open dialogue with the community. What resonates keeps moving after you leave, and the connection you build is yours to keep.
Immerse
Field visits in your region: tea farms, shopping streets, sacred mountains. Guided by community managers who live there.
Listen
Structured dialogue with local leaders and residents. Interpreters on hand, curiosity required.
Ideate
Engineering Cafe workshops (Oct 5–8) with Jacquie and office-hour mentors help you turn observations into ideas worth sharing.
Share — Oct 13
Open idea session with the community in your region. Direct feedback, real relationships, no slideware required.
One package. Everything in.
Meet your program directors.
Jacquie Wortley
Jacquie brings a decade of UX and product research to questions of sustainable innovation, work she's now applying to the collaboration with rural tea farmers. She believes the best-designed systems regenerate the places they touch rather than extract from them.
Ryu
Co-founder of 369meteor. Co-organizer of Zō Village, a Fracton Ventures member, and a Network School residential. Combining insights from global experimental communities with grassroots execution.