Chagamaran, Youtube Stars of Kochi

By K. Nakatake

Kochi is one of the most rural areas in Japan. Children are decreasing, and older adults are increasing. In other words, Kochi faces an aging society with fewer children.

Nature is breathtaking, and people are very kind. However, young people are decreasing. They want to go to some city like Osaka or Tokyo because there are many more opportunities than in Kochi.

Many local people wish they could do something to promote Kochi and let the outside world know just how wonderful this place is. Five young men are trying an activity to promote Kochi through the use of Youtube.

Friends from their student days at Kochi University of Technology, their birthplaces are Okayama, Hiroshima, Kumamoto, and Kochi.

Their group name is Chagamaran, (which translates roughly as “won’t give up” in the local dialect). They introduce the Niyodo river, the Katsurahama aquarium, and other sightseeing spots mainly. Also, they drink alcohol made in Kochi in their videos, so they promote Kochi’s famous or popular places for people all over the world.

“It is necessary to have an action for Kochi. The young people like us have to do that because even the senior is thinking of a way to increase the population in Kochi,” the five young men said. They think about the future of Kochi seriously. Kochi cannot stop depopulation.

They do a lot of things every day, for instance, to take many videos, think about youtube, Kochi’s developing and the viewers who always watch their videos.

But they do not only youtube, so they have each occupation now. Two men work outside Kochi, and one guy works inside Kochi. Also, two men who the central member in this group have a part-time jobs.

As you can imagine, it is difficult to gather all of the members because their life is different, so their schedule does not match.

Why can they continue this activity although it is difficult to gather? The reason is many fans make it worth doing. When you find them, you can get a chance to talk to them and support. This makes them happy.

“We can be happy to hear a story about our videos. Our worth doing is vocal support from local people.” the member mentioned this.

They have made a lot of videos and some of their favorites are below. Each video has many good memories.

Report of Tsukimiyama park (athletic activity).

Muroto aquarium made from closing school in 2018.

Drinking alcohol while playing a TV game

Part 2

Chagamaran wants to try to various activities in the future, for example, leisure, renovation and recovery of old houses in Kochi. They would like to produce Kochi’s famous places and introduce some spots where they recommend. Also, they hope many people to entry to their channel to know Chagamaran for many people. Also, they hope to take a video with Masanao Ozaki. He is a prefectural governor of Kochi.

They have a definite goal to spread Kochi’s merit using youtube that name value become well known these days suddenly as a locally-based group YouTubers.