A Student's Vision: Less Poverty, More Entrepreneurs

Giving Children in Low-Income Areas Access to Education

When she was a senior in high school, Motojima developed the "Fridge Project" in a low-income area of Manila, the Philippines, and launched it as an actual startup the following year, in August 2023.

The Fridge Project lends fridges and capital to mothers raising children in impoverished areas so that they can establish small shops in their homes. By enabling the women to work from home and make a living while they take care of their children, the business helps them boost their household income levels and stabilize their lives.

Manila, where a minimum-wage job pays around 40,000 yen (about 270 US dollars) a month, is home to a substantial number of residents shouldering sizable debts and struggling to get by. For people living in those conditions, the extra 20,000 yen or so of monthly income that an at-home shop can provide would obviously makes a big difference. The mother who opened the first Fridge Project shop about six months ago reached out to Motojima, saying, "I've made enough to put all five of my kids in school at the same time!" Up to that point, the woman's household budget had been so tight that she had to stagger her children's education: one year, two of her children would go to school while the other three stayed home; the next year, she would have them switch places.

"I was so happy to hear that," Motojima says. "It was the response I'd been hoping for—and it made me feel like my project might be able to save people." The Fridge Project clearly had the potential for an impact, and people were beginning to take notice. At Social Innovation Challenge Japan 2022, an SDGs-oriented business contest for young people co-sponsored by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the Citi Foundation, the project won the Leave No One Behind (LNOB) Award.

Cultivating an Entrepreneurial Mindset

"I wouldn't be an entrepreneur today if it hadn't been for the program organized by the Tokyo Metropolitan Government (TMG) to help high school students start businesses," says Motojima, who was part of the program's first cohort. Through her junior year in high school, she'd never even taken an interest in social issues. But her perspective started to change when she spent eight months studying abroad in the Philippines, her mother's native country, where she came face to face with poverty. "I felt angry," she remembers. "Why does there have to be this huge disparity in how people live just because of where they were born? The experience really made me care about social issues and want to be part of the solution." Seeing business as a path to that goal, Motojima signed up for the TMG's program when she got back to Japan.

In December 2023, Tokyo Innovation Base brought Governor of Tokyo Koike Yuriko together with program participants and alumni for a discussion event. Motojima took the opportunity to speak there about her views and hopes. "I've found that giving low-income mothers the chance to run a private shop is the same as training entrepreneurs," she said. "As I work to grow the project, I also want to put a focus on women's capacity development so that they can start businesses."

Motojima also hears from high school students who say they want to start their own businesses but "don't know where to begin," a concern that motivates her to pour her own energies into helping foster a generation of young entrepreneurs. Looking ahead, Motojima has a plan that she is determined to make happen. First, she wants to go to France, where she can dig into a variety of topics and get firsthand knowledge of world-class entrepreneurship-education systems. Then, she wants to apply those insights toward cultivating entrepreneurial mindsets among young people in Japan and creating educational packages for cultivating female entrepreneurs in low-income areas across the globe.

Now, Motojima is getting ready to open the second Fridge Project shop. The goal is to expand to around 10 locations, create a group organization, build a system with a wholesaling component, and then start franchising. Seven years down the road, Motojima envisions a Fridge Project structure with 1,000 shops—and operations that stretch beyond the Philippines and into other parts of Asia and Africa.

Motojima may still fall into the "student" category, but her ambitions know no bounds. It will be fascinating to see where this young entrepreneur's drive takes her as she strives help the poor on an ever-expanding scale.

Motojima Himawari

Born in the Philippines and raised in Tokyo, Motojima Himawari launched the Fridge Project as a member of the Tokyo Metropolitan Government's program to help high school students start businesses when she was a student at Tokyo Metropolitan Harumi Sogo High School. She later won the top prize at the Japan Finance Corporation's 10th High School Student Business Plan Grand Prix. Motojima is currently enrolled at Toyo University.

*Tokyo Innovation Base aims to develop innovators who can advance society with their groundbreaking ideas and technologies.
https://tib.metro.tokyo.lg.jp/en