Promoting a Communist Farm on The Outskirts of Tokyo.

What is a Communist farm?

This article describes a collective agricultural cooperative on the outskirts of Tokyo. In this explanatory note, its structure is later examined through the lens of Karl Marx’s analysis of alienation under capitalism.

Marx and Engels argued that capitalism creates four types of alienation:

1. From the product of labour.
2. From the act of production.
3. From fellow workers.
4. From human nature/species-being.

Then, they prescribed their solutions:

1. Collective land use & cultivation of abandoned land
2. Abolition of town–country separation
3. Shared obligation to labour (without coercion)
4. Abolition of the capital–wage labour antagonism (alienation).

Manifesto Principles

Collective land use & cultivation of abandoned land

Abolition of town–country separation

Shared obligation to labour (without coercion)

Abolition of the capital–wage labour antagonism (alienation)

Farm Practice

The farm sits on fragments of underused farmland and degraded satoyama. The land belongs to everyone and to no one in particular.

Participants are a mixture of urban dwellers and retired farmers. Urban dwellers share their time between the farm and the office.

They rotate weekly, sometimes seasonally. Rotations follow gojo, the ancient art of mutual aid.

No wages are paid, no land is rented. Labour is contributed and produce is distributed by time spent, not by capital held.The decisions are mainly taken by consensus or by a majority of voters.

One important issue worth mentioning here:

5. Communism as a description of existing relations

“The theoretical conclusions of the Communists are in no way based on ideas or principles that have been invented, or discovered, by this or that would‑be universal reformer. They merely express, in general terms, actual relations springing from an existing class struggle, from a historical movement going on under our very eyes”

 Target audience

• The most likely audience is younger urban professionals in Tokyo. They are selected first not for ideological reasons but for their capacity to participate in the movement. They combine proximity to land, economic stability, and scheduling flexibility required for early-stage participation.

They are already engaged with farmers’ markets, satoyama revival content, and lifestyle publications such as Turns, which covers urban-to-rural lifestyle migration.

• The secondary audience comprises ever-mobile expatriates who have already tried alternative lifestyles and are equally financially stable.
• The tertiary audience, which will come into focus later, comprises planning authorities and NGOs, whose role is to support the development of such farms on a larger scale.

This assignment concerns the first group of people.

Relevant features

• Squeezed by Tokyo's cost of living,
• Interested in sustainability, food quality, and meaningful community

 Pain points

• Karōshi (death by overwork)
• Corporate hierarchy rigidity
• Social isolation
• Rural land abandonment

 Motivation

• Desire for food safety and transparency
• Loss of connection to food sources
• Alienation from atomised urban life
• Interest in shared, low‑status, non‑corporate forms of meaning

Content strategy

Framing

One thing to state from the outset: we cannot promote a communist farm by labelling it as communist, for fear of alienation. Japan has had a painful experience with the Soviet Union, and the very word carries heavy historical and political baggage. Therefore, the strategy is to describe its features that echo long-standing Japanese communal traditions. Reference is made to p.5 in the first chapter above: “Communism as a description of existing relations”

The farm is then presented as structurally communist but culturally Japanese. It is more of a rediscovery than an import.

Below are the practices in an openly communist enterprise that would sound familiar to any Japanese person.

• Satoyama (里山)

Rural areas where nature and people coexisted through the sustainable management of rice fields, ponds, mountains, woods, and meadows as communal resources tied to continuity rather than speculation.

• Gojo (互助):

Mutual aid. Reciprocal assistance. Cooperation.

• kyōdō sagyō (共同作業)

Joint work. Cooperative labour. Collective task / group work.

• Mottainai (もったいない):

Regretting waste. Strong norm against waste and production detached from use.

• Yui (結)

Forging relations. Risk absorbed collectively through social ties, not external insurance

 

Content form

It is suggested to write a piece of journalism, a long article for a digital edition of a lifestyle magazine.

The piece is written for an unaware audience and therefore offers guided observation without argument. The readers are expected to recognise the system’s logic before, if ever, its ideological lineage is named. Two behavioural psychology tools were used here: priming - pre-suasion (Robert Cialdini) and the customer awareness stage (Eugene Schwartz).

The article presents an emotional, detailed human story. It describes how the system works rather than what it believes. The language used is locally authentic.

 Distribution channels

• Niche lifestyle magazines (Turns, sustainability publications)
• CSA networks and local food platforms
• University and community newsletters
• Farmers’ markets, talks, and closed online groups

Explicit exclusion: mass media

Mass media are not engaged at this stage because it inherently frames messages ideologically through gatekeeping and controversy. Instead of inviting participants, it invites commentators, thereby politicising the project before it can stabilise.

This project relies on quiet adoption and replication rather than on public debate.

There is no call to action:

The decision to omit a call to action is deliberate and strategic. The article must shift the reader’s perception. The reader must revise their assumptions about ownership, labour, and risk without ideological framing. Since the reader is in the early stage of awareness (solution-unaware), trust and recognition are more important than a direct call to action. 

 

What actions do I want the readers to take

The primary action is cognitive rather than behavioural. This meets the assignment requirement to define reader action by treating perceptual change as the relevant action at this stage.

 

The intended actions for readers are:

• reconsider food production as a visible social process rather than an abstract supply chain, and
• recognise collective organisation as a practical, non-ideological response to everyday risks.

 

The content is designed to move readers from an unaware state (“food just appears”) to a problem-aware and solution-aware state (“this could work differently”), without instructing them to adopt or join a specific initiative.

 

While the assignment asks for reader actions, this project treats perceptual and interpretive change as the relevant action at this stage.

 

A secondary, indirect effect is that some readers seek further information independently (e.g. about satoyama projects, cooperative farming, or community-supported agriculture). They discuss the model with peers or revise existing assumptions about ownership, labour, and food security in their own context.

Importantly, the content avoids prompting immediate behavioural change. This is deliberate, as premature calls to action can undermine trust at the early stages of awareness formation[1].

Measure of success

Research suggests that narrative success should be measured by outcomes, not outputs. Rather than counting only metrics such as views, shares, or whether a message was sent, it recommends tracking how a narrative changes people’s perceptions, trust, attitudes, and behaviour over time.1[2]

In practical terms, indicators of success would include:

• readers describing the farm as “practical” or “normal” rather than “ideological”
• spontaneous reference to visibility, proximity, or shared responsibility in responses
• requests for further information framed as curiosity, not advocacy
• low incidence of polarised or ideological pushback in feedback.

 

This softer approach helps readers remain open and receptive.

 

 

 

[1] https://commonslibrary.org/measuring-effectiveness-of-narrative-change-campaigns/

[2] https://staffbase.com/blog/measuring-narrative-engagement