Instrument seller works to make disaster-hit town in Miyagi a music hub

The operator of Japan’s largest musical and audio equipment shopping site is working with the local community of Onagawa, Miyagi Prefecture, to make the coastal town devastated by the March 2011 tsunami a music hub.

Sound House — a company based in Narita, Chiba Prefecture, which operates an e-commerce site well known among music lovers — established its logistics center in the town and a showroom in Seapal-Pier Onagawa, a shopping street in front of Onagawa Station. The firm also offers free music lessons to children in the town.

It all started when Daishi Shoji, along with an official of Seapal-Pier Onagawa, visited Sound House’s headquarters in Narita without an appointment in December 2020, aiming to attract music-related facilities to the town. Shoji, 53, was at the time the head of the Onagawa branch of the 77 Bank, a regional bank headquartered in Sendai.

Sound House, established in 1993, grew rapidly as a pioneer of e-commerce in the music industry. With some 200 employees, the firm posted sales of some ¥23.3 billion ($148 million) in 2024. It has logistics centers at its headquarters and also in Tokushima Prefecture.

When the two introduced themselves to Naohiko Nakajima, the 68-year-old founder of Sound House, he unexpectedly said, “Such a coincidence! I was in Onagawa last week!”

Pruning volunteer

Nakajima enjoyed trail running as a hobby and had just returned from Mount Kinka, a mountain on Kinkasan Island, a sacred island located off the coast of the Oshika Peninsula in Miyagi Prefecture, accessible from Onagawa by boat.

He had planned to visit Onagawa again as a volunteer to prune fallen trees on the mountain, which had been left uncared for since the Great East Japan Earthquake.

When Nakajima visited Miyagi at a later date for pruning, Shoji accompanied him and, while pruning together, they talked about how to revitalize the area, such as by setting up a logistics center inside an old school building and creating employment in the depopulated town.

“Sound House has expanded its business since it was founded while relocating from place to place, moving into buildings that used to be a clothing store, a supermarket and a factory,” Nakajima said. “So I found the idea interesting.”

Distribution center in a school building

Shoji accompanied Nakajima in pruning trees a total of three times.

“I explained (to Nakajima) the need to have distribution centers in multiple places from the perspective of risk diversification,” Shoji recalled. “We really wanted the firm to come to Onagawa.”

After Sound House and Onagawa established close ties, the plan progressed smoothly.

Following a public application process, the town sold the school building and its grounds to Sound House for ¥96.69 million.

The building underwent repair work and a distribution center opened in the summer of 2022.

The four-story, steel-framed building with a total floor area of 6,000 square meters stores roughly 28,000 items. The place is operated by eight staff members and between 700 and 800 boxes are shipped from the facility everyday to the Tohoku region and Hokkaido.

A Sound House logistics center in a renovated school building in Onagawa, Miyagi Prefecture | KAHOKU SHIMPO

Since the place was a closed school building, however, it is not very user-friendly compared with cutting-edge logistics warehouses.

An elevator that had been used to carry school lunches is now being used to bring large items downstairs.

The exterior of the building was basically left as it was, in consideration for local residents who have lots of memories about the school. The murals created by students before graduation were also preserved.

Making Onagawa attractive

“The good thing about Sound House is that we have actively taken on challenges that other firms would not normally set their hands to and have delivered results beyond expectations,” Nakajima stressed. “With a target to ship 1,000 boxes a day, we will continue making efforts to make Onagawa the place where young people would feel they want to stay.”

Onagawa Mayor Yoshiaki Suda, who leads the town’s initiative to become a music town, likes playing the guitar and performs in a band in his spare time.

“Music-related jobs didn’t exist in the area,” Suda said. “We can now offer people of younger generations a new path to pursue their dreams.”

“It is highly significant that the firm expanded its business to the town, as it doesn’t compete with existing businesses.”

A showroom and music lessons

In August 2022, Sound House opened a showroom in Seapal-Pier Onagawa to display its own brands of musical instruments and audio equipment.

The firm also offers free music lessons to elementary and junior high school students in the town. Around 50 students are currently taking lessons in piano, drums and wind instruments.

Yumi Sato, an official in charge of the showroom who also offers the lessons, said, “I hope I can give children the opportunity after school to become acquainted with music and feel positive.”

Sato, 56, organizes events regularly for students to give live performances.

Future plans and dreams

Sound House donated musical instruments such as a trumpet and a clarinet to Onagawa Junior High School. It also provides stage equipment for events held in the town.

Nakajima said, “We also hope to open a live music club in the future.”

Glide, a guitar workshop, also opened in Seapal-Pier Onagawa after the Great East Japan Earthquake.

The town plans to organize a music festival in October and November to celebrate 100 years of townhood, inviting renowned musicians and artists with ties to the town through post-disaster support.

“We want to make the event as big as the Jozenji Street Jazz Festival in Sendai,” Suda said.

This section features topics and issues from the Tohoku region covered by the Kahoku Shimpo, the largest newspaper in Tohoku. The original article was published Aug. 31.