11/01/2025
Lively LLC is pleased to announce an upcoming experiential animal welfare education program, taking place on Saturday, November 15, 2025. The program is titled “Exploring the Future of Food for People and Animals through Embodied Knowledge × Science at Unshelled.”
This event is co-hosted with IDEAS FOR GOOD, an online media platform operated by Harch Inc. that introduces creative ideas and solutions from around the world. It will be held as the third installment of IDEAS FOR GOOD’s experiential series, which invites participants to visit food producers and supply chains and engage more deeply with the value of food.
Participants will tour Unshelled, a next-generation animal welfare model facility for laying hens at Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology (TUAT). Together with IDEAS FOR GOOD editors Motomi Soma and Tomoko Ito, Tomomi Miura, Co-CEO of Lively LLC, and Professor Tsuyoshi Shimmura, a leading expert in animal welfare, participants will come together to reflect on a better future for the food system.
Today’s egg production systems support a stable food supply by meeting society’s needs for efficiency and reliability. At the same time, there is growing interest in how food production can also consider animal welfare, human health, and environmental impact—topics that are increasingly discussed in relation to the future of food.
To explore these perspectives within today’s food system, Lively, together with Professor Tsuyoshi Shimmura, has been delivering experiential animal welfare education programs at the model facility “Unshelled,” completed in January 2025 at TUAT. This event is held as the second collaborative program with IDEAS FOR GOOD, a sustainability-focused media platform that shares ideas from around the world related to addressing social and environmental challenges.
Inside Unshelled are four dedicated housing areas representing different systems for egg-laying hens—conventional cages, enriched cages, multi-tier aviaries, and free-range/barn systems. These areas are normally viewed through windows from a central observation room. During this event, participants will be given special access to enter the housing areas themselves, offering a rare opportunity to observe hens up close and gain insight into their behavior and emotional responses.
Event Name: Exploring the Future of Food for People and Animals through Embodied Knowledge × Science at Unshelled
Date & Time: Saturday, November 15, 2025, 17:30–19:30
Venue: Unshelled & Insect research facility at the Fuchu Campus of TUAT (3-8-1 Harumi-cho, Fuchu, Tokyo)
Host Organizations: IDEAS FOR GOOD、Lively LLC
Facilitators: Motomi Soma (IDEAS FOR GOOD), Tomomi Miura (Lively LLC), Professor Tsuyoshi Shimmura (TUAT)
*This event has already taken place.
Timetable
17:15 Reception & Registration
17:30 Opening & Ice break
17:45 Observing Hen Behavior: Animal Welfare Mini Workshop
18:10 Introduction to Insect-Based Feed and Circular Systems (Professor Takeshi Suzuki, TUAT）
18:30 Egg Tasting Experience
18:40 Sharing & Q&A
18:55 Closing
〜19:30 Networking
*The egg tasting experience is not available to participants with egg allergies.
*Due to biosecurity reasons, participants who have traveled overseas or visited other farms within the past seven days are not permitted to take part in activities within the hen housing areas at Unshelled.
Facilitators
MotomiSoma (IDEAS FOR GOOD Editorial Team)
Born in 1996 in Yokohama, Kanagawa, Motomi studied piano at the Tokyo College of Music and completed graduate research in accompaniment. She joined Harch Inc. in 2020 and has since worked on sustainability topics for IDEAS FOR GOOD and Circular Yokohama, while also supporting corporate sustainability programs and community initiatives. In 2023, she spent six months in Ireland for language study and reporting. In June 2025, she visited Unshelled and wrote a feature article on the facility. (Read the interview article on Unshelled here.)
Tomomi Miura (Lively LLC, Co-Founder & Co-CEO)
Tomomi has been interested in the diverse world of living beings since childhood. She co-founded Lively to create environments where animals are treated with care and can live alongside humans. After graduating from university, she gained experience in international logistics and IT companies in a global business environment. She holds an MBA and is currently pursuing a Master’s degree in Global Environmental Studies. At Lively, Tomomi leads consulting and joint research projects in the fields of environment and biodiversity, as well as social engagement initiatives.
Professor Tsuyoshi Shimmura (the Graduate School of Agriculture at Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology)
Professor Shimmura joined Lively because he shared its vision of giving back to animals through collaboration. He has pursued research in animal welfare and animal behavior since his student years and holds a PhD, currently leading his own research group. Guided by the belief that the welfare of animals, humans, and the environment is interconnected, he works toward the realization of “One Welfare.” At Lively, he supports animal-related projects from a scientific perspective.
“Unshelled” is a rare facility where visitors can see and experience firsthand how eggs—an everyday part of our diet—are produced. Through interviews and ongoing dialogue, we were deeply drawn to Lively ’s sincere and open approach to animal welfare: one that does not reject diverse perspectives, but instead seeks to gently open conversation from this place. It was this shared attitude that led us to co-host this event together.
At the event, participants will have the opportunity to come into direct contact with the hens that lay the eggs we eat every day, helping to bring food closer on a physical and sensory level. By combining these experiences with scientific insights into animal care and behavior, we hope to explore together what a society where both people and animals can live well might look like.
For IDEAS FOR GOOD, this program is also part of our ongoing journey as a media platform. Beyond simply sharing information, we aim to create spaces for dialogue with our readers—spaces where we can think about the future we want, together, and take small steps toward co-creating it. We warmly invite you to take part in this experiment and learning process with us.
We are honored to have the opportunity to hold this second collaborative event. In this program, participants will, for the first time, be invited to enter the hen housing areas and scientifically experience animal welfare assessment methods by observing hen behavior up close.
The program will also include a visit to an insect facility that utilizes food by-products to produce insect feed for hens in a circular way. By visiting facilities that are not usually open to the public, participants will have the opportunity to learn about the connection between animal welfare and the circular economy from both scientific and practical perspectives.
The event will take place on a special day when the TUAT is hosting its annual campus festival, creating a lively atmosphere across the campus. We hope that Unshelled, located on the green and open Fuchu Campus, welcome participants such as families and friends, and serve as an opportunity to reflect on a future of food where both people and animals can thrive.