Motoki Kinuebuchi lives a life in which he thoughtfully balances Tokyo's urban pace with Nagano's landscapes. Through his work with the Chikuma City Wine Grape Research Association and on his family’s farmland, he supports local revitalisation. Having embarked on a journey that has taken him from corporate strategy to rural viticulture, he tested the Sage Roll Pack as a companion — a versatile tool for a life driven by purpose. When he's not working on the farm, he advises a Japanese trading company on ESG projects, reflecting the same commitment to transparency and functional progress as our values at QWSTION.
What led you to what you do today?
For the past 20 years, my work has been shaped by experiences across European and American brands — and they led me to focus on sustainability and corporate communications, where decisions connect across the whole business. I’ve worked in product development, merchandising, and HR, with marketing and CSR consistently forming the backbone of how I approach business. It’s been a cross-functional path.
One of the most influential chapters was at a European brand founded on strong social philosophies — gender equality, zero fashion loss, and full transparency across the product life cycle. Working in that environment taught me that sustainability isn’t a separate initiative; it becomes meaningful when it is built into everyday decision-making. It also showed me how responsible practices can be integrated into business long before the SDGs were established in 2015.
Today, within Corporate Strategy Planning , I lead Sustainability Promotion (Sustainability Office) and oversee Corporate Communications , helping steer our group’s sustainability strategy and implementation. My responsibilities include shaping our sustainability policies, setting performance indicators and numerical targets, running PDCA cycles, managing sustainability disclosures (including CDP and TDFD) , measuring and disclosing GHG emissions, responding to ESG-related inquiries from stakeholders, and overseeing international certifications — from obtaining them and managing audits to renewals.
I also plan and lead collaborations with NPOs and NGOs, working to turn sustainability commitments into concrete action. This is the work I try to do with care.
What do you care about in life?
I try to live with respect and gratitude for the environments around me — people, objects, and nature. I’m mindful of neutrality and balance. I value being healthy in both mind and body, and I try — as much as I can — not to make choices that feel overly one-sided. And I believe in keeping things in circulation. What I receive from the environment, society, and the people around me — support, knowledge, care, opportunity — I want to return in some form, so it can continue moving forward rather than stopping with me.
How do you address this in your work?
In my work, I start from a clear premise: now, and in the future, I want to keep doing work that is grounded in my values — including the sustainability work I do today. Alongside that, I also take on advisory work (on a project basis). Here, I try to focus less on compensation and more on how I can apply the knowledge and experience I’ve built over the years — in ways that can benefit the environment and society. The same applies to what I do in Nagano. I stay involved with a simple question in mind: how I can be useful to the local environment and community — and how that can help keep things in circulation.
What do you look for in things you buy?
When I buy something, I think about the impact it may have on the environment and society — and I also look for a good balance between quality (design and craftsmanship) and price. Transparency matters to me, too: where it was made, and how it was made. Because of that, I try not to choose products that are extremely cheap, or products where the manufacturing process and country of origin are unclear — so that what I buy can feel part of something that stays in circulation.
