A Second Chapter of Life That Began With a Personal Realization: Insights Gained From the SMiLE Business Contest
In our daily lives, we often feel a sense of inconvenience or unease—those moments when we think, "If only this were a little better." SMiLE, a social-issue-solving business plan contest launched in 2022 and hosted by Seven & i Holdings, was born from the desire to eliminate these everyday “frustrations” and create more smiles in the world.
SMiLE is an acronym for "Seven & i Mirai innovation Leading Engine," expressing the ambition to drive the future innovations of Seven & i. For participating employees, it serves not only as a place to discover the seeds of new businesses and services, but also as an opportunity to broaden their business skills and perspectives throughout the journey.
In this edition of "A Crossroad to the Future", we welcomed Hiromi Watase—creator of the wedding magazine Zexy and the head judge of SMiLE—along with Izumi, a 2025 semifinalist, and Ura, winner of the 2024 SMiLE Excellence Award. Together, they shared insights on what they gained through taking on the SMiLE challenge.
Meet the Guests Featured in This Edition of Crossroads
Izumi
Operations Field Counselor (OFC*)
Tsukuba District Office, Fukushima-Ibaraki Zone
Operations Division, Seven-Eleven Japan
*OFCs provide management counseling and support to Seven-Eleven franchise owners.
Ura
Seven & i Holdings
Corporate Planning Department – New Business Development
Watase
President & Representative Director, Alea Co., Ltd.
Chairperson, SMiLE Judging Committee
The Challenge Began With a Personal Realization
Watase
Today, I’d like to hear from both of you about what inspired you to take on the SMiLE challenge and how the experience has changed you.
Izumi, you’re a semifinalist this year, correct? How are you feeling right now?
Izumi
I’m feeling both nervous and excited!
I usually work as an OFC in the Ibaraki area, so I rarely have opportunities like this to speak with everyone. I’m not very used to it, but I’m hoping to enjoy the experience.
I even ended up buying a new outfit because I couldn’t decide what to wear!
Ura
For me, I was simply excited to have the chance to talk with you, Watase, and with Izumi.
Ever since I joined SMiLE, I’ve been able to connect with so many different people, and those encounters have been incredibly inspiring.
Watase
Thank you both.
Actually, today it’s not just the two of you—members of the SMiLE secretariat, who support the entire program, are also here with us.
Could I ask you all to give us a brief introduction to SMiLE?
The SMiLE Secretariat team from Seven & i Holdings. From left: Tsukikawa, Ikemoto, and Obayashi.
Ikemoto
Thank you, Watase!
SMiLE is a business contest that welcomes not only individual participants but also teams—including members from outside the company. It’s a platform where employees can freely submit their ideas.
Since anyone can apply regardless of title or department, we hope this article helps more people learn what SMiLE is all about.
Tsukikawa
It’s not just about submitting ideas. The ten finalists who pass the screening will have the opportunity to present their business proposals at an event called Challenger’s Pitch, which will be held on December 4, 2025.
Company presidents from across the Group, as well as external judges, will be there to listen. The event will also be streamed online, so anyone can watch.
Obayashi
At Challenger’s Pitch, you’ll get to experience the passion and commitment of the finalists firsthand.
If it sparks your interest, we encourage you to apply for SMiLE 2026. We offer seminars, workshops, and other programs to help first-time participants get started.
And of course, Watase and all of us on the Secretariat team will be here to support you every step of the way!
Watase
Thank you to everyone from the Secretariat. I really hope this article inspires people to think, "Maybe I’ll give SMiLE a try."
And with the two of you sharing your experiences, I’m sure even more people will feel encouraged to apply.
So, let’s get started—Ura, could you tell us what motivated you to apply for SMiLE?
Ura
Given the flow of this conversation, that’s quite a bit of pressure!
Nowadays, many people leave their hometowns to work in urban areas and don’t get to return often. When they finally do, they usually visit their family graves.
I’m from Wakayama myself and the eldest son, so the issue of "having no one left in the family to tend to the graves" has always felt very close to me.
I began thinking about whether we could leverage Seven-Eleven’s regional network to help address these kinds of social challenges. That led me to the idea of creating a vacant home and gravesite management service.
Izumi
My motivation came from my first parental leave, which I took in 2023 when my eldest daughter was born.
While making her baby food, I suddenly found myself thinking about "food safety" and "the environments where our crops are grown."
I wondered what I could do to ensure that my daughter would continue to have delicious and safe foods in the future.
That led me to consider whether Seven-Eleven’s franchise system could be applied to agriculture as well.
Watase
So for both of you, it all began with something very personal—that’s wonderful. Would you say that realizing you could leverage Seven-Eleven’s strengths was something made possible because of SMiLE?
That said, participating in SMiLE while handling your regular duties must have been quite a challenge.
I’d love to hear how you managed to get through it.
Beyond Determination: How Human Bonds Make the Difference
Izumi
Just because you come up with a new business idea doesn’t necessarily mean you’re heading in the right direction.
So I needed to validate whether my thinking was off the mark, and even more fundamentally, whether there was any real demand for a franchise model in agriculture.
To do that, I had to interview farmers. Finding the time for that—let alone finding the right people to talk to—was quite a challenge.
Ura
Through participating in SMiLE, I realized that there’s a limit to what determination alone can achieve. Like Izumi, I also faced challenges finding the right people to connect with. In those moments, the support of my wife and the senior colleagues who had previously participated in SMiLE made all the difference.
Izumi
I also received support from the franchise owners of the stores I oversee.
When I talked to them about my idea, they introduced me to farmers they knew.
It made me realize that connections between people are built exactly through moments like these.
Ura
Support from the people around you really is essential, isn’t it?
In my case, my wife tapped into the local moms’ network, and thanks to her, our neighborhood connections have grown quite a bit.
Watase
There were two important points in what you both just shared.
The first is personal strength. The reason so many people were willing to support you is because you yourselves grew through the SMiLE process.
The second is that you paid attention to the people around you who were struggling.
Even though this is a business contest, what truly matters is having the heart to want to help those people.
Izumi
Hearing you say that really means a lot to me.
Watase
By the way, Ura, you participated as a two-person team, correct?
You ended up achieving the excellent result of winning the Excellence Award, but were there any moments when your opinions clashed during the process?
Ura
Even now, we often disagree! But when that happens, there are three things I always keep in mind.
First, I go back to the original question of why we wanted to start this new business in the first place.
Second, I reflect on why I hold the opinions I do.
And third, I make sure never to lose respect for the other person.
By focusing on these three principles, it’s possible to turn disagreements into productive, meaningful discussions.
Watase
That’s wonderful. You were already very passionate about SMiLE from the beginning, but it feels like your thinking has become even more refined over time.
Since we have the chance, could you also share what you feel was the single best thing you gained from participating in SMiLE?
A Wider View, A New Approach to Work
Izumi
Before joining SMiLE, I couldn’t fully grasp the connection between my day-to-day work and the broader society.
I didn’t quite feel that "I’m also a member of this society."
Yet, even if we don’t always notice it, we’re all working within the same society.
Through my experiences in SMiLE, a sense of personal involvement and responsibility gradually began to grow within me.
Ura
Before applying to SMiLE, I constantly struggled with the question, "Am I really on the right path?"
So I read a lot of books and went to meet independent creators to hear their stories.
Looking back, I think I felt like the world I was in was too small.
Through SMiLE, I met many different people and encountered a wide range of values and passion.
Those experiences changed me as well.
Watase
Your perspective on society has changed, and you’re now able to see things you couldn’t see before.
It’s also changed the way you approach your work, hasn’t it?
Izumi
Exactly. Until then, as an OFC, I mainly focused on numbers—sales, profits, and other metrics.
But now, I’ve become more attentive to the personal circumstances of the franchise owners and their families, and I’ve started to consider the stories and feelings behind those numbers.
Those realizations have motivated me to take on new challenges, and I feel like my work has gained a sense of warmth that I didn’t notice before.
Ura
What changed the most for me was how I view failure.
With the motto "Fail Often, Fail Better," I kept challenging myself, failing, and trying again.
Through those experiences, I developed the mindset that failure is simply a way to discover the next issue and improve upon it.
Izumi
Failure is really just proof that you challenged yourself, isn’t it?
I didn’t make it to the finals this time, but I gained valuable insights for the next SMiLE.
I definitely want to try again next year.
A Place Where New Connections Are Woven
Watase
Thank you both for sharing such wonderful stories.
Lastly, could you tell us how you plan to move forward from here?
Izumi
The people around me in life have completely changed.
It feels as if the curtain has risen on the second chapter of my life, and I’ve been excited ever since.
If I hadn’t taken on the SMiLE challenge, I probably would have stayed in the mindset of "I don’t have time, so I can’t do it," and nothing in my daily life would have changed.
Because I challenged myself through SMiLE, I was able to discover three things: a new version of myself, new connections, and new possibilities for the future.
With this experience as my foundation, I want to continue moving forward in life with a positive outlook.
Ura
SMiLE is an incredible place for discovering your own strengths and core beliefs.
Being in an environment where I could truly face myself has been one of the most valuable experiences I’ve ever had.
Right now, I’m working on expanding the network of people I connected with through SMiLE.
I believe that innovation is found in encounters we haven’t yet experienced.
That sense of possibility is something I treasure deeply now.
Watase
You both truly shine. What you’ve shared here is exactly what SMiLE aims to create.
When people connect through shared passion, it’s like vertical and horizontal threads weaving together into a piece of fabric.
Over time, that fabric grows large enough to embrace society itself—shaping each participant’s life while also influencing the world around them.
I hope this article inspires someone to take on a new challenge.
Starting from a personal feeling, facing yourself, and moving forward little by little while supporting one another—
what awaits at the end of that path is surely a version of yourself you haven’t met yet.
SMiLE is a place where such new connections are discovered. That was the feeling this conversation left with me.
This text has been translated using an automatic translation tool.
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