“During the harvest season, I spend weekends picking apples with my children, and making and labeling the juice. It’s the kind of life I always wanted.”
Yuki Munakata used to live a short distance from Tokyo in Japan’s busy Saitama Prefecture, but applied to move north to Nagano Prefecture and become an area employee – an employment concept in Japan that enables employees to stay within the region they live in. After transferring, Munakata was given permission to work from her new home, balancing her countryside lifestyle with her job at LIXIL. As a result, she was also able to fulfil her dream of raising her children surrounded by nature.