We’ve been running a project called “OtoKoto Hiroba” since May 5, 2005.
It’s a project that provides a space for children to collaborate on creating music online, transcending generations and geographical boundaries.
Eight years have passed since then, and just the other day, CANVAS received an email.
“I’d like to help out with workshops on art, music, and other topics.”
It was Nana-chan, who won the grand prize in a contest held during OtoKoto Hiroba’s first year!
Nana-chan, who was in sixth grade at the time, has returned as a college student!
It really pays to keep at something, even if it’s just a little bit at a time.

“OtoKoto Hiroba” has since been renamed “OTOKOTO” and continues to this day, organized by CANVAS.
I’ll repost here a column I wrote back in May 2005.

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Kicking off on Children’s Day, May 5, 2005, “OtoKoto Hiroba” launched online.
Words and melodies come together online to create music. This is a unique initiative co-organized by the Music Producers Association of Japan and the nonprofit organization CANVAS, born from the desire to build a community that transcends regions and generations centered around music, and to help children feel more comfortable with “music”—a field that is often perceived as intimidating.

■What Is “OtoKoto Hiroba”?
“OtoKoto Hiroba” is a songwriting and composition contest for elementary and junior high school students.
However, it’s a little different from a typical contest. As the title suggests, the project aims to create an online “plaza” where “sound” and “words” come together to give birth to numerous songs.
Therefore, although it is called a contest, it is not a competition based on musical knowledge or technical skill. Rather, it encourages participants to enjoy the process of creating lyrics and melodies together with friends and to share their creations widely with the world.
Specifically, first, through the website, we invite elementary and junior high school students to express their everyday experiences through “lyrics.”Next, we’ll post the collected lyrics on the website and recruit people to compose music for them. Finally, we’ll organize an event at a live music venue where the lyricists and composers will meet face-to-face for the first time and perform their collaborative songs.
We plan to have professional musicians collaborate with the participants during these sessions.We also plan to hold workshops led by professional musicians during the contest period to provide children with a variety of musical experiences.

■ Feature 1: “Lowering the Barrier to Music”
“OtoKoto Hiroba” has three main objectives.
The first is to “lower the barrier to music.”
We want to make music creation—which has traditionally been a form of expression limited to a select few—something anyone can participate in. Think of drawing with crayons or making sculptures with clay. Compared to those activities, I believe the barrier to entry for music is much higher. Playing an instrument requires a lot of practice, and at some point, composing became the exclusive domain of experts with specialized knowledge. We want to make it accessible to everyone again.
You can submit just lyrics or just a melody. For lyrics, it can be about someone you like, a book you read today, a movie that moved you—anything at all. As for the melody, it’s fine if you tried playing it on a harmonica, sang along while playing guitar, or came up with it while playing the piano—and even a hummed tune that popped into your head is perfectly acceptable.Just record the melody and send it to us—that’s all it takes. You can even call the office and sing it for us, and we’ll record it for you. Written sheet music is also welcome. You can form a band, perform your original song, and send that in, too.
“I don’t know anything about music!” This forum exists for kids who feel that way, too. Whether you’re walking home alone from school, having a blast shopping with friends, or just humming a casual tune that slips out naturally—we’re looking for those casual melodies and the words that spring to mind.

■Feature 2: From “Something to Enjoy” to “Something to Create”
Our second goal is to shift the focus of music from simply listening to and performing it for enjoyment to actually creating it yourself.
We live in an era where each individual creates content, shares it with the world, interacts with others, and collaborates. Content is evolving from something “to be enjoyed” to something “to be created.”We want participants to experience firsthand what it’s like to create and share their own work through music. That is why this contest focuses on “creating” poems and songs, rather than simply “performing” them.
As mentioned above, we accept all submissions without restriction, but there is one condition: plagiarism is not allowed. Above all, we want you to create something yourself.
During the contest period, we aim to provide as many opportunities as possible to work alongside professionals through workshops and live performances. We hope participants will be inspired by professional musicians and experience firsthand both the challenges and the joy of creating and expressing themselves.

■Feature 3: “Providing a Space”
The most distinctive feature is the creation of an open online community where anyone can participate.
The “OtoKoto Hiroba” website publishes all submitted entries, but it functions not only as a platform for sharing information—such as work announcements and bulletin boards—but also as a “space” where communication among project participants flourishes.
A fourth-grade boy living in Hokkaido sent us some lyrics: “My tooth fell out, my tooth fell out!” A girl living in Tokyo, who was instantly inspired by them, composed a melody for them on the melodica. After hearing the song created by these two, a middle school boy on Ishigaki Island in Okinawa added a percussion rhythm and sent it back to us. That’s how it works.
With the internet, you don’t necessarily have to create everything on your own. You’ll likely find someone to set your lyrics to music, or even someone to write lyrics for your melody and sing it. By using the internet, your lyrics and melodies might take on all sorts of new forms.
The essence of the internet is not a “road” for transmitting content created by others, but rather a “public square.” Our goal is to bring this public square to life within the world of children’s music. “OtoKoto Hiroba” provides a space where people with shared interests—who might never have crossed paths in the real world—can meet, inspire one another, and collaborate.And children will bring information together, exchange it, share it, and create new ideas and value.

■ In Closing
I hope children will express the things they feel in their daily lives honestly.
I hope they’ll turn the images that well up inside them into melodies with sincerity.
I hope that this place, where anyone can freely express themselves, will give rise to new forms of musical expression never seen before.
I hope that collaborations will emerge between children from all over Japan and children from around the world.
Furthermore, with music as the central focus, I expect communities to form that transcend regions and generations, leading to the spontaneous emergence of children’s music creation activities across the country in the future.
By harnessing the power of digital technology, we may pioneer new forms of expression unlike anything we’ve seen before. The process by which music is created may also change.
CANVAS promotes various activities across the country—and at times in collaboration with the global community—where children create, express themselves, and share their work online.
Digital technology still has a long way to go as a means of expression.
However, when it comes to connecting the world, digital technology excels. I hope that children around the world will connect with one another, pioneer new forms of expression and communication, and build a new society.