Communal Ties Built from Culture and Heritage

Copyright 2018 Sendai City All Rights Reserved.

Tohoku Fukko Nikki (Tohoku Reconstruction Diary), a weekly feature in the Tokyo Shimbun newspaper, delivers news and stories on reconstruction efforts in the communities devastated by the 2011 earthquake and tsunami. The articles are written by the JKSK Yui-Yui Project, an initiative to support survivors of the 2011 disaster. This time, we present below an article about local culture and heritage leading to communal ties between residents.

Wakabayashi-ku is the smallest ward in the city of Sendai, having an area of about 50 square kilometers and a population of about 136,000. More than half of the ward flooded when the earthquake and subsequent tsunami hit in March 2011. Over 300 precious lives were lost in the disaster and the area was severely damaged.

Wakabayashi-ku is also the area where Date Masamune, a prominent samurai warrior whose 450th anniversary of birth was celebrated in 2017, resided in his last days. The area had one of the richest natural environments in Sendai, the City of Trees, and was deeply steeped in tradition and history. Looking out over the coastal area now, however, the Fukanuma beach, once popular as the only swimming beach in Sendai, is empty and deserted, and only a trace of the once beautiful pine groves remains.

Prefabricated temporary houses for evacuees once numbered about 1,500 in the city, but by the end of 2016 had been dismantled and removed. New lives and communities are now being built in post-disaster public housing at 13 locations and at six disaster-preventative group relocation sites.

Things are not all going well though. Many people who evacuated from the cities and towns of Miyagi prefecture and Fukushima prefecture still live in private temporary housing. The earthquake struck instantaneously across a huge region, but the unevenness of the pace of restoration and reconstruction weighs heavily on people's minds. Even though people are successfully rebuilding their homes and livelihood, there is still a lot of emotional healing that needs to occur. Each disaster victim faces a different situation in the reconstruction process, and I am reminded again that the reconstruction process is tremendously long.

In the Rokugo-tobu district where reconstruction is underway, a Furusato Matsuri (literally, 'hometown festival') was held for the first time since the disaster. Kuroshio Taiko drumming, an instrumental performance of Japanese drums, had been a tradition at the now-closed Higashi-rokugo elementary school. This tradition is now carried on by the neighboring Rokugo elementary school, and the powerful performance by the students at the festival moved people to tears and smiles.

After the disaster, the word "kizuna," meaning communal ties, has drawn attention. A true kizuna is formed by people in the community. To do so, it may be necessary to review the power of culture and traditions inherited from the old days, such as festivals, Shinto dances and Taiko drums. I believe that an important mission of ours is to share with people the value of these important traditions.

Yurie Shirakawa
Mayor of Wakabayashi Ward, Sendai

'Kodomo-Takushoku' Food Delivery Partnership a New Safety-Net Concept for Low-Income Families in Bunkyo City, Tokyo

Kodomo-Takushoku website.

The "Kodomo-Takushoku" project launched in 2017 as a food home delivery service to provide a safety net for child-rearing families living on tight finances in Tokyo's Bunkyo City. It delivers five to seven kilograms of food to needy families once every four to eight weeks. A major goal of the project is to prevent social isolation by checking in on families and children during the food deliveries and helping them get assistance before any possible problems get more serious.

The project is also attracting attention as a new business model. It is operated by a consortium including the municipal government and five organizations working together to solve social issues. It is funded by the national "Furusato Nozei" program (hometown tax) program launched in Japan in 2008, which gives gift items and tax deductions to taxpayers who make a donation to their own local municipality for designated programs. Qualifying families that wish to receive food home deliveries can subscribe using the popular LINE smartphone app. There is no form to fill out and no need to go to an office in person.

In 2017, the first year of this project, donations in Bunkyo City exceeded 80 million yen (about US$708,000), far above the initial target of 20 million yen (about US$177,000), and 150 families were served. In April 2018, the deliveries reached all 450 families that had applied.

Through this project, the city is actively working to conduct regular research using surveys and collects data aimed at reaching out to financially-strained families, a group that has traditionally been difficult for the government to reach. The city hopes its efforts will help identify new issues and better solutions.

Agriculture and Environment Ministries Create Educational Materials to Cut Food Loss in Japan

Image photo.

The Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (MAFF) and the Ministry of Environment (MOE) of Japan released educational materials for food loss reduction on April 17, 2018. Trials had found that having the materials displayed in stores helped consumers understand the messaging, raised the awareness of store staff about food loss, and helped reduce food waste rates and price discounting in the stores tested.

In Japan, a large amount of food is wasted even though it may be still safe to eat, resulting in significant "food loss." In fiscal 2015 food loss was estimated at 6.46 million tons across Japan. The Distribution Economics Institute of Japan convened a working group to examine business practices for food loss reduction with the participation of retailers, as part of a FY2017 project subsidized by MAFF. To develop effective materials about food loss for use by retailers, the group prepared the materials, conducted in-store trials, and compiled the results as a report.

To support efforts to reduce food loss, MOE also created materials that local governments can use with their own names added. The materials are available for download on the MAFF and MOE websites.

One of the actions recommended for consumers for food products they plan to consume right away is to purchase items in the order presented on store shelves, rather than the items with the longest best before date or expiration date.

The ministries plan to reach out to retailers and local governments to promote the use of these materials.

Fukushima-SIOME Brand Cotton Products Reaching Global Customers

Copyright 2018 Iwaki Otento SUN Enterprise Cooperative All Rights Reserved.

Tohoku Fukko Nikki (Tohoku Reconstruction Diary), a weekly feature in the Tokyo Shimbun newspaper, delivers news stories on reconstruction efforts in communities devastated by the earthquake and tsunami that struck Japan in March 2011. The articles are written by the JKSK Yui-Yui Project, an initiative to support survivors of the 2011 disaster. Here, we present an article reporting the activities of the Fukushima Organic Cotton Project, whose products are building a growing customer base worldwide.

Invited by Lush, a British cosmetic manufacturer and retailer that sells our product, Fukushima Organic Cotton cloth, we members of Fukushima Organic Cotton Project traveled to London to attend the company's Lush Summit in mid-February 2018.

The summit was an exhibition open to interested businesses and the general public, and there we talked with many people. One person commented: "We get so little information about Fukushima in the UK, so it's great to hear your story. We really hope your project will help people in Fukushima get back on their feet after the nuclear accident."

The summit offered talk events and other programs on issues including the environment, resources, and human rights, which stimulated participants to think about future actions.

One thing we realized at the summit was that, ultimately, it is only the accumulation of individual choices that makes the world a better place. We also realized that Fukushima organic cotton and Fukushima-SIOME brand products could be among those choices.

Our relationship with Lush Japan started in 2015, when they agreed to use our cloth for their product Knot Wrap (square cloth for wrapping). The product was launched globally in 2017, which was our dream come true.

This month, Lush UK launched sales of a Japanese-style washcloth as part of its Knot-Wrap lineup. The decision serves as a recognition of our careful work and the superior functionality of our Japanese-style washcloth, and of Japanese culture. It brings us joy just imagining our products being used by many people around the world.

The spring of 2018 marks seven years since the Fukushima Organic Cotton Project started. We want to take our achievements to the next level this year. With the weight of responsibility but even more a sense of positive excitement, we have the feeling we're about to take a big step forward.

Yuta Sakai
Director of Organic Cotton Division
Iwaki Otento SUN Enterprise Cooperative