A leaflet that provides readers with a deep understanding of Aogashima has been completed

Members of Aogashima's meeting produced a leaflet that provides information about the attractions, lifestyle, and values of Aogashima, with the aim of creating core fans who will value the unique aspects of the island.

To produce the leaflet, they formed a special team that includes a local designer who was born and raised on the island and who is also a member of the meeting, as well as a specialist in advertising and public relations. The team designed the leaflet to provide plenty of tips that would allow visitors to explore the island on their own using the leaflet as their guide. This was especially important because of the current situation during the COVID-19 pandemic, which makes it difficult to offer guided tours or otherwise engage in face-to-face communication with visitors.

From the end of 2020 to January 2021, the team gathered ideas from island residents about information to include in the leaflet. They received responses from about 30 people, including members of youth groups, town hall staff, schoolteachers, and children.
Some of their ideas included recommended spots on the island, walking routes, nature-based activities such as playing in the sea or collecting insects, traditional performing arts, food culture, and other information residents thought that many people would enjoy. Some people also suggested including the history and traditional stories of the island's origins, as well as rules and warnings that visitors should abide by while on the island. These were all ideas that only the locals could have come up with.

After the production team discussed these suggestions, they decided to introduce the island's attractions based on four themes: "Feel the power of nature found nowhere else but here," "Learn about the entrance to the island," "Meet the kamisama (deities) of Aogashima," and "Local island foods."
They also decided to add a page called "A Year in Aogashima" which describes annual events, seasonal fish, seasonal flowers, and other information about what can be enjoyed on the island during each season, which will encourage visitors to return to the island at different times of the year.

The leaflet is targeted at visitors to the island, and members intend to have it be distributed at accommodations and other facilities when people visit the island. They used an A5-size booklet format that would allow visitors to easily carry it around in a bag or backpack during their stay.

Teachers from the island's elementary and junior high school were invited to a follow-up meeting held in early March. Members sought their perspective as residents who had moved to Aogashima from off-island, and asked them to provide their opinions on the draft version of the leaflet.
The teachers provided positive feedback on the leaflet, saying that they "enjoyed learning once again about the island's attractions." They affirmed that the leaflet could be used not only for visitors, but also as a tool to help residents deepen their understanding of the island.
Another comment from the teachers was that "there are no signs providing tourist information on Aogashima, so it would be great if the leaflet could be used in place of such signs." In order for the leaflet to take over the function of tourist signs, members were reminded of the need to ensure the accuracy of the information contained in the leaflet.

Members are also thinking of a mechanism to collect feedback from visitors about how they used the leaflet to explore the island and what information they found useful. Some ideas on how to collect feedback from the visitors have been raised, such as using the back page of the leaflet to ask visitors to share their memories of their trip to Aogashima by tagging social media posts with the hashtag #helloaogashima.