In this modern age, there is still an analogue communication method alive and active in a residential area. ‘Kairan-ban’ which literally means a ‘circulation board’ is the one.
Kairan-ban is a clipped board to circulate within the community carrying non-business, local-based information and announcements such as notice of the community work and events, request for a donation and crime alert.
To keep the freshness of the information, members are encouraged to pass it to the next recipient as soon as possible.
The order of the circulation is usually the order of the location of the house; it comes from your next door and it should be passed to the other side of your next door.
The reach of the Kairan-ban is only within a relatively small group of the neighbourhood since the circulation should not take much time to complete, thus each group has to be compact.
Chonai-kai？
Those groups are the small sections of the ‘Chonai-kai’ － ‘community group’.
Chonai-kai is formed as per the area which shares the same area name of the address.
Members are expected to know each other, help and support each other.
The group is run partly as a subsidiary of the local government led by the committee whose members are annually elected.
The committee members hold regular meetings to share and discuss the local issues for the betterment. The meetings are often held in the evening for the convenience of nine-to-fivers.
Having such background, Kairan-ban is prepared and circulated.
A piece of sheet with the column into which the member will stamp own Inkan/Hanko (personal seal) or fill their signature to indicate that the Kairan-ban was received and checked comes along so that no one can be missed to be informed.
For Example
circulation
Please be careful of monkeys.
A monkey was seen in the neighborhood.
Please tell your child about the danger of the monkey.
Elderly people also need attention.
More than 20 parent and child monkeys have been found around the water tank.
Japanese monkeys are very ferocious and aggressive.
