Employee Interview] Making Gratitude Visible - Building a Social Apartment Community with 100Thanks

In this edition of employee interviews, we focus on the people who create the inner workings of social apartments. This time, we interviewed Mr. Yamamoto, who has been with Global Agents for 6 years and has experience as a social apartment resident.

Suddenly, have you ever had a moment in your daily life when you feel someone is helping you or supporting you? Did you ever say "thank you" to the person who helped you?

In the course of his involvement in various tasks, Mr. Yamamoto launched a project called "100Thanks (one-hundred-thanks)," a system to visualize gratitude.

I was curious as to why he decided to launch the 100Thanks project and what his thoughts were behind it, so I interviewed him about it!

*Thanks episodes submitted by actual residents are listed at the end of this article. Please read it!

What kind of person is Mr. Yamamoto?

Q: First of all, please tell us about Mr. Yamamoto! What kind of work do you usually do?

Mr. Yamamoto:
I mainly develop new social apartments and renovate properties. I report to the owner when there are major repairs or problems with the building, and I select and replace furniture and appliances.

Q：I understand that you have lived in social apartments in the past. We would like to ask you about the property, how you came to live there, and your life at Social Apartment.

Mr. Yamamoto:
I lived in a property called World Neighbors Gokokuji for 6 years and 6 months from 2017 to 2023.
The reason for moving in was that I had originally been attending English conversation classes to study, but the monthly fee of 50,000 yen is quite expensive, so I was looking for a place where I could live and do English conversation to save money. When I searched for "English conversation residence," Social Apartment came up, and the sales staff at the time recommended it to me, so I decided immediately (laughs).

Q: What was life like at World Neighbors Gokokuji?

Yamamoto:
It was very enjoyable; I lived there for six and a half years (laughs).
It is a very international community with 180 households, and I was able to speak English just by being in the lounge. Seasonal events are also popular, and I participated in many Christmas parties and Valentine's Day events. Through resident-led event planning, I learned the importance of being considerate to those around me.

Q: I heard that you joined Global Agents while you were a resident. What was your motivation for joining Global Agents?

Mr. Yamamoto:
My previous job was in agency sales of overseas interior goods, and I was approached by a Global Agents staff member when the store was closing.
In September 2018, an athletic event was held jointly with the "resident secretaries," who involved the residents from the planning stage, and I participated in the planning as a resident secretary.
There, I became friends with the Global Agents staff and was asked if I would like to participate in the Global Agents recruiting event.
When I actually attended the event, I was impressed by the staff and could tell that they seemed to be enjoying their work, so I decided to have an interview. I have been with the company for 5 years now.

The desire to "shine a spotlight on people who are working for someone else behind the scenes" that I felt while living in the social apartments

Q: What is the "100Thanks" project that you launched?

Mr. Yamamoto:
Simply put, it is a project to help people express their "gratitude that they have failed to express" and "thank yous that are usually hard to say.
We collect episodes of gratitude from Social Apartment residents and send the first 100 residents a gift card to send as a present to the person they wish to express their gratitude to. The cost of the gift cards is covered by Global Agents.
To help spread the gratitude, the episodes we receive are shared with other residents through the resident application and the property's digital signage (electronic bulletin board). Since messages from residents of other properties can also be viewed, the project has become an opportunity to create connections that transcend the boundaries of properties.
This project started on March 9, 2023 and is held every six months. It is scheduled to be held for the fifth time on March 9 this year!

Q: What was the inspiration for the 100Thanks project?

Mr. Yamamoto:
Living in a social apartment had a big influence on me.
I lived in a community with a diverse range of nationalities, backgrounds, and values, so there were as many ways to use the common areas as there were residents.

But that said, the kitchen in my apartment was always kept in a usable condition, and someone, I don't know who it was, but he/she washed and put away dishes used by others as a habit, or washed and replenished used rags on the housekeeper's day off.
I always wanted to express my gratitude to that someone, but in the end I never found out who that someone was. Then I realized that maybe people and deeds that work for others behind their backs are not often talked about.

Maybe that "someone" is not a specific person, but several people who do it when they notice. I didn't want those people to lose out and thought that they should have the opportunity to be in the spotlight. That's where the 100Thanks project started.

An initiative to "visualize gratitude": 100Thanks

Q: How did you go about putting together the contents of 100Thanks from the start of "I want to put a spotlight on people who are working behind the scenes for the benefit of others"?

Mr. Yamamoto:
At first, I thought about sending something in the form of a "thank you letter," but I thought it would be a shame to do just that. The presence of "someone" who cleans up the common areas behind the scenes naturally made me care about my surroundings, and I realized that "positive deeds" have a positive impact on the people around me.

For example, in a social apartment where I used to live, someone who saw someone wiping down a table in the common area started to pick up trash themselves. I realized that small changes like this can brighten the atmosphere of the entire community. So we thought that by shining a spotlight on people who are working for someone else and making their gratitude visible, we could spread the chain of gratitude and have a positive impact on the community.
Social apartments are communities without managers, so they offer a high degree of freedom and are an environment where a diverse range of people gather. That is why we believe that the people who live there create the culture of the property.

By soliciting episodes of gratitude,
(1) It gives people an opportunity to think about what and whom they want to thank.
2) A gift card that allows you to give a gift to the person who submitted the episode.
(3) By using the gift card to express your gratitude to the person you want to thank, both the person thanking and the recipient of the gift will feel warmth.
(iv) Positive feelings can be conveyed to those around you by displaying the episodes you have solicited on the property's signage.

We have put together the content of the program so that the person who did a good deed will not lose anything and will have a positive impact on the community.

Q:What kind of episodes did you have in mind?

Mr. Yamamoto:
Of course there were many messages to friends of the tenants, but there were also more thank-you messages to the housekeepers than I expected, and there were also messages to the sales staff who were in charge of the viewing. It was unexpected.

I of course passed on the messages I received to the staff, and they were pleased to hear how encouraging they were.

The other messages were from people who we don't usually have a chance to talk to, but who always greet us when we pass by each other, or who open the entrance door for us when we are carrying heavy luggage, etc. The appreciation for the residents who volunteer to keep the common areas spotless on their days off was also impressive. I was very impressed.
There are many episodes that make my heart warm when I read them when I am tired (laugh).
(*The actual episodes are listed at the end of this article.)

We want to establish a culture of gratitude on a daily basis: What is the future development of 100Thanks?

Q:What is the destination of the 100Thanks initiative?

Mr. Yamamoto:
We hope that a culture of being grateful to someone or something on a daily basis will take root .
100Thanks is held once every six months, and this frequency is also meaningful. If we hold it once a year, it will remain a transient event, and if we hold it once every two or three months, it will become too frequent to be noticed.

Since 100Thanks is only a means to an end, I would like to see a culture of gratitude take root on a daily basis, and I would like to see a culture of gratitude toward those who are not usually in the spotlight. To put it simply, I want kind people to be rewarded (laughs). I would like Social Apartment to be a community where that kind of culture can be built.

Q: How do you plan to develop the 100Thanks project in the future?

In the future, we would like to make the story of the recipients visible after they have expressed their gratitude. With the current system, we cannot see how people express their gratitude. Therefore, we are considering the idea of carefully selecting a larger number of applicants and asking them to write articles about how they gave thanks and how the recipients reacted.

I believe that people are creatures that are influenced by others, so by making gratitude visible, those who are doing "good things" behind the scenes will not lose out. And that gratitude (positivity) will propagate to those around them. I thought that with these two things, it might be possible to create a culture where gratitude becomes a habit in a community without administrators.
I believe that this culture has already been established, but by making it more visible, we, the organizers, and the people who see it will feel even warmer and the chain of positivity will spread.

(Reporting and writing by Hayashi / Photography by Uchida)

Actual posted episodes

4️⃣20s Female：Social Apartment Hanakoganei
To: Housekeeper
When I showered in the morning, I left my room key on the hook and went back to my room. As the time for me to leave for work approached, I realized that I did not have the key to my room. I couldn't delay my departure and I was in a hurry as I looked all over the room and couldn't find it anywhere. I had to leave in 3 minutes or I would be late, but I had to look for something other than my own room. When I opened the door, the housekeeper was there and I asked him if he had the key, but he had already found it and had it with him and was looking for its owner. I thought to myself, "Wow! I'm glad you found it! Have a safe trip!" I was very happy to hear that. Of course, I expressed my gratitude to him, but I couldn't forget that he was even happier than I was, so I decided to post this. Thank you very much!

5️⃣20s Female: Neighbors Motoyawata
To: sales staff
　I retired from my job and moved to Kanto to work as a Disney Cast Member. It was my first time to live alone in the Kanto area, and there were so many things I didn't understand. I was a bit confused because the property I was looking at was close to the station, which was a bit different from my requirements, but Mr. K, who was in charge of e-mail communication and the viewing on the day, carefully told me about the property, the surrounding facilities, and the social apartment where he actually lives, so I could live in the property now with peace of mind. I am now able to live in my current property with peace of mind. Now I go out with my friends in the social apartment and have a lot of fun in my daily life. If the person in charge had been a jerk, I am sure I would not have chosen the apartment I am living in now, so I am very grateful to Mr. K for introducing me to him! Thank you very much!

9️⃣30s Female: Neighbors Higashinakano
To: Residents
This is the first time in my life that I've lived in a shared apartment, and I was extremely nervous, but on the day of my preview, you spoke to me in the lounge and said you were looking forward to moving in! I am still grateful to everyone who spoke to me in the lounge on the day of my preview and said, "I'm looking forward to moving in! I was very happy to be greeted with smiles, and although it would be two months before I moved in, at that time I was filled with the desire to move in as soon as possible!
And everyone who invited me to a party on the second day after I moved in and created an atmosphere that made it easy to get to know each other.
When I moved in, I was a little scared to go to the living room at first, and I wondered if I should say hello to other people when I met them... I was so shy, but they invited me to a party where everyone gathered, and I was really happy to be able to talk to them about various things there, I was really happy and grateful to be able to talk with them!
Thank you for the warm Higashi-Nakano people!

Male 🔟30's：Social Apartment Urayasu
To: Resident
Thank you for always washing the cloths in the lounge and taking out the garbage proactively. Thanks to you, all residents can use the lounge comfortably. Also, thank you for regularly organizing events that everyone can enjoy, such as Halloween parties and Christmas parties. I had a great time interacting with members who I don't usually see very often. Let's make many more memories in the future. We hope you will continue to enjoy living together at Social Apartment Urayasu.

*Some typos and omissions have been corrected in the episodes we received.