Adventures in the leaf trade

Here’s a story about how a small town in Japan made tons of money by selling leaves. In the book titled, “Leaf-Selling – How It Saved a Small Town, and Restored Its Pride,” Tomoji Yokoishi, the author and head of Irodori, a leaf-selling company, talks about how inspiration struck when he was at a sushi restaurant, where leaves tend to be used as garnish. He ended up not only licking the economic downturn by achieving an annual sales of 260 million yen, but also restoring pride in the hearts of farmers, many of them who were in their 70s. Mr. Koji Chikatani, TranNet's senior agent, calls the book, “a fun and deeply moving read.”