Kuroishi City Kids' Hello Work

By President and CEO Riyako Namiki

Let's find your dream for the future through work experience!

Last October, Kuroishi City in Aomori Prefecture held the "Kuroishi City Kids' Hello Work" event, where elementary school students had a chance to experience local companies’ jobs. Since 2021, Kuroishi City has held the event for fifth-grade elementary school students as part of its career education program, providing hand-on experience for elementary school students, who are the future leaders of the city, as an opportunity for them to gain an interest in their own future and the local community.

I also participated in this event for a day, learning with the local children and introducing our company at our booth. It was very enjoyable to see the children interacting with us through quizzes and earnestly answering our questions.

There were a variety of occupations at the event, including broadcasting, design, nursing, restaurant services, finance, nursing care, construction, and real estate. I felt it was a very valuable opportunity to learn about the jobs of the future. I myself experienced being a police officer and operating an endoscope. Our company was very popular, with crowds of children!

Our Kuroishi factory manufactures small motors.

Visitors were able to touch communication robots that use our motors, and experience nail polishers. Especially popular was a miniature car race powered by a manual generator.

To my surprise, just for this occasion, Orbray’s engineers handcrafted a miniature car racing circuit. Each car contained one of our own motors, and the motors picked up electricity from the track, which was powered by a hand-cranked generator! I am always amazed by what Orbray’s workforce can accomplish, but I take my hat off to the engineers who can build anything like this.

The children were surprised to learn that the company headquarters is located in Tokyo and that products are shipped from Kuroishi to overseas markets. Children seem to wonder about work. Perhaps they have an image that working is hard.

Activities in the local community are connected to other parts of Japan and the world. If you can sense that, even a little, you may start to see your world differently, especially areas where you felt there was nothing to see before.

I aim for Orbray to be a company that attracts children back to their hometowns in the future.

I would like to continue learning with the local children and working to contribute to the community.