Today's print edition Home Delivery Thanks to a multitude of factors — the weak yen, inbound tourism and the proliferation of YouTube channels on the subject, to name a few — akiya are more prominent than ever in Japan’s cultural landscape Foreign interest in the country’s empty dwellings has never been higher and it is only likely to grow along with the number of abandoned properties which the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications projects will reach 4.7 million in 2030 Watanabe is one of many residents of Ishinomaki who arrived as a volunteer in 2011 after the Great East Japan Earthquake Having studied urban planning at university she had long been interested in placemaking and akiya-related issues she had visited other rural areas in Japan being revitalized through the creative use of their akiya as part of efforts to attract new residents no one in Ishinomaki seemed to have thought of repurposing the abandoned dwellings in the city to help house earthquake survivors and visiting volunteers In a time of both misinformation and too much information quality journalism is more crucial than ever.By subscribing Your subscription plan doesn't allow commenting. To learn more see our FAQ Sponsored contents planned and edited by JT Media Enterprise Division Your browser does not support JavaScript, or it is disabled．Please check the site policy for more information National Report Miyagi Prefecture--A teenager who survived for nine days trapped in rubble from the 2011 tsunami disaster later went into hiding from public view embarrassed by “miracle rescue” descriptions of his ordeal and his grandmother were found alive under a pile of rubble at their destroyed home eager for an uplifting story amid all the destruction and misery in the Tohoku region He felt that had he been wiser and followed the tsunami warnings to evacuate there would have been no need for the miracle rescue “I felt distressed because it felt like I was shutting my eyes to my own failure while being lauded as a hero,” Abe said discussed the issue in Ishinomaki with the senior police officer who had supervised the rescue and a newspaper reporter who used the word “miracle” in an article he wrote Abe was at his family home with his grandmother when the Great East Japan Earthquake hit on March 11 but Abe thought that he and his grandmother didn’t need to evacuate and they ended up trapped inside one room because of the rubble They survived by eating food that remained in the room until they were rescued by police on March 20 described the rescue as a “miracle that brings hope to disaster-hit areas” in its morning edition on March 21 When Abe saw the throng of news reporters arriving at his home he feared he would be criticized for choosing not to evacuate when he had the chance Abe said that during the period that followed he kept rejecting interview requests and tended to stay away from Ishinomaki was chief of the Miyagi prefectural police headquarters at the time His department kept finding bodies day after day following the disaster and many more residents remained unaccounted for “A depressing atmosphere weighed on us because we had no idea how many more bodies we would still have to recover,” Takeuchi said “The rescue meant so much to us police members because it sent light into the darkness we were in and led us to renew our pledge that we would give it another go.” who currently heads Kahoku Shimpo Publishing Co.’s editorial department covered the 2011 rescue of Abe and his grandmother “That was the first and last time in my career as a news reporter that I used the word ‘miracle’ in an article but that word came to me quite naturally,” Sato he said he developed concerns after learning that Abe was distressed by news reports about the rescue “My thoughts continue vacillating over whether the expression I used was too strong and whether I did the right thing,” Sato said Abe returned to Ishinomaki seven years ago He is currently a staffer with the 3.11 Memorial Network a public interest incorporated association His work involves passing down accounts of the tragedy so that people will learn lessons from his own “failure” of not having fled He planned the latest talk session as part of that effort Takeuchi reiterated the importance of evacuation citing the high number of bodies he found of people who did not flee in time Fourteen Miyagi prefectural police officers who were in charge of evacuation guidance for residents Bitter grief over their deaths has motivated Takeuchi to continue sharing lessons of his experience even after his retirement Sato said The Kahoku Shimpo has reviewed the way it covers disaster management because so many people died despite the newspaper’s previous efforts to raise public awareness about preparing for disasters “Labeling an event with the single word ‘miracle’ in news reports could make it difficult to share developments and backgrounds that are more diverse,” Sato said “I hope we will work to close the gap between ourselves and the people we cover as we continue with our reporting work.” 3/11 survivors evacuate to high ground following Tonga eruption Students trained in Miyagi for careers in disaster response Mourners mark 10 years since 2011 earthquake and tsunami Information on the latest cherry blossom conditions Please right click to use your browser’s translation function.) A series based on diplomatic documents declassified by Japan’s Foreign Ministry Here is a collection of first-hand accounts by “hibakusha” atomic bomb survivors chefs and others involved in the field of food introduce their special recipes intertwined with their paths in life A series about Japanese-Americans and their memories of World War II In-house News and Messages No reproduction or republication without written permission February 21, 2012JPEG February 21, 2012TIFF March 14, 2011JPEG March 14, 2011TIFF Google Earth - March 14, 2011 - February 21, 2012KML Ishinomaki once boasted one of the world’s largest fish markets the earthquake and tsunami destroyed about 28,000 of the port city’s houses and bare ground and urban areas range from blue-gray to pink-beige Ishinomaki is a mixture of agricultural fields Along the coast lies the Matsushima Air Field The Old Kitakami River snakes through the region draining into Sendai Bay east of the city center The biggest difference between these images is the retreat of flood water standing water swamps fields on both sides of the river Although Ishinomaki dried out in the year following the tsunami The coastal plain along Sendai Bay experienced some of the farthest-reaching tsunami waters Ishinomaki was one of the hardest hit by the March 2011 event Having experienced several tsunamis in recorded history Japan is better-prepared for such events than perhaps any other country Sea walls and breakwaters line almost half of Japan’s coastline and they could counter the roughly 4-meter (13-foot) walls of water from the kind of tsunami that strikes every 150 years or so But the March 2011 earthquake sent a 20-meter (65-foot) wall of water to the city Coastal forests that were planted to provide protection from the sea were instead transformed by the potent waves into thousands of battering rams rebuilding Japan’s coastal cities to withstand tsunamis remains a challenge See other images from the tsunami—including more imagery from 2012—in our feature slideshow: Tohoku Earthquake and Tsunami: Looking Back from Space NASA images by Jesse Allen and Robert Simmon, using ALI data from the EO-1 team, and data from the NASA/GSFC/METI/ERSDAC/JAROS, and U.S./Japan ASTER Science Team. Caption by Michon Scott View this area in EO Explorer these images document the recession of flood waters after the Tohoku tsunami a magnitude 9.1 quake struck off of eastern Japan triggering large tsunami waves that inundated Japan's coast and spread effects to the Americas and Antarctica This false-color image acquired on March 14 shows widespread flooding in tsunami-hit Ishinomaki the landscape near the mouth of the Kitakami river remains irrevocably altered A tsunami washed over the low-lying coastal resort region near Camaná,southern Peru The earthquake was one of the most powerful of the last 35 years and had a magnitude of 8.4 coastal residents witnessed a sudden draw-down of the ocean and knew a tsunami was imminent They had less than 20 minutes to reach higher ground before the tsunami hit Waves as high as 8 meters came in four destructive surges reaching as far as 1.2 kilometers inland and the combined earthquake and tsunami killed as many as 139 people we will continue to contribute to social welfare and education in Ishinomaki through initiatives like these Please view the main text area of the page by skipping the main menu. The page may not be displayed properly if the JavaScript is deactivated on your browser Japanese version Share your travel photos with us by hashtagging your images with #visitjapanjp —Can you tell us about your first experience in Ishinomaki and Onagawa Chia: My first contact with Ishinomaki was seven weeks after the tsunami The roads had been cleared by the Self-Defense Forces but there were still mountains of debris around and there were no places to stay did one day of volunteer work and then came back on a night bus while Onagawa is like an entirely new town with a bit of a European feel to it Ishinomaki City (©Miyagi Prefecture Tourism Department) —What was it about Ishinomaki and Onagawa that inspired you to explore more of Japan away from the tourist trail Chia: When I first came to Japan in 2008 as a college student I travelled around the country whenever I had holidays and have now been to all of Japan’s 47 prefectures I only went to the main tourist attractions and famous spots—and I was happy with that—but visiting Ishinomaki in 2011 was the first time I went to a non-tourist place and actually talked to locals that the local charm of any place lies in the locals not just in buying souvenirs and taking pictures of tourist attractions In places like Ishinomaki and Onagawa you experience the real Japan —Thinking of the area’s rebuilding efforts has anything been created that will help attract travelers Chia: We now have an international art festival called the Reborn-Art Festival in Ishinomaki and the Oshika Peninsula and because of that we have a few more international artists and visitors It’s been held every two years since 2017 in August and September and it combines art the slogan was “Texture of Life,” and they were trying to have people experience the 2011 disaster in an artistic way with an art installation project called “Peach Beach Summer School” artist Tohru Nakazaki used a school abandoned after the disaster to display art works that represented the voices of the people who used to be there An installation by Yayoi Kusama (©Reborn-Art Festival) Summer School” by Tohru Nakazaki (©Reborn-Art Festival) —What else do Ishinomaki and Onagawa offer travelers Chia: I think if you like nature and outdoor activities you can go on guided cycling tours where you get to meet locals There’s also a new coastal trail that runs from Aomori Prefecture down to Fukushima Prefecture called the Michinoku Coastal Trail the Oshika Peninsula also has a lot to offer; if you like trekking the whole the peninsula is mountainous and very wild I think it’d be great to camp there in summer they have marine activities like stand-up paddle surfing and sea kayaking Oshika Peninsula (©Miyagi Prefecture Tourism Department) —What regional food should travelers try in Ishinomaki and Onagawa Chia: The seafood in Ishinomaki and Onagawa is amazing The Sanriku coast is one of the three biggest fishing grounds in the world so they have all sorts of fish and seafood Ishinomaki has wakame (seaweed) shabu shabu through an organization called Fisherman Japan to see how the oysters are bred and try them fresh on the boat —Do you have any favorite restaurants there The owner moved in after the disaster and he deals directly with the fishermen and farmers there’s a small seafood restaurant called Okasei where they serve Onagawa-don a rice bowl topped with 12 types of sashimi —Is there anything you would recommend eating beyond the seafood Chia: Onagawa has a ramen shop called Yume Wo Katare (which means “talk about your dream”) There is only one thing on the menu—really good ramen—and you can choose to pay forward to the next person Anyone can come and get a bowl of ramen free the only requirement is that they have to talk about their dreams There’s also a cluster of food trucks in Ishinomaki that encourages young people to start their own food businesses There’s an organic truck there and a great Ishinomaki yakisoba (fried noodles) truck —Do you have any tips for travelers on how to get the most out of a trip to Ishinomaki and Onagawa Chia: There’s a place in Ishinomaki called Irori They call themselves “the lobby of Ishinomaki” and I always go there when I’m in Ishinomaki They are well connected to everyone else in Ishinomaki and the staff is very friendly and welcoming They have free Wi-Fi and pamphlets in English https://www.japan.travel/en/destinations/tohoku/miyagi/ https://2019.reborn-art-fes.jp/en/ https://www.soraumicycling.com/en-home https://www.hamaguridou.com/marine-activity-1/ http://triton.fishermanjapan.com/camp/ https://www.tripadvisor.jp/Restaurant_Review-g1023406-d7623380-Reviews-Imamura-Ishiomaki_Miyagi_Prefecture_Tohoku.html https://www.tripadvisor.jp/Restaurant_Review-g1120954-d7662208-Reviews-Osakana_Ichiba_Okasei-Onagawa_cho_Oshika_gun_Miyagi_Prefecture_Tohoku.html https://www.tripadvisor.jp/Restaurant_Review-g1120954-d15859508-Reviews-Yume_Wo_Katare_Onagawa-Onagawa_cho_Oshika_gun_Miyagi_Prefecture_Tohoku.html https://www.tripadvisor.jp/Restaurant_Review-g1023406-d7513878-Reviews-Common_Ship_Hashidori-Ishinomaki_Miyagi_Prefecture_Tohoku.html https://www.tripadvisor.jp/Hotel_Review-g1023406-d17693649-Reviews-Active_Life_YADO-Ishinomaki_Miyagi_Prefecture_Tohoku.html https://www.tripadvisor.jp/Restaurant_Review-g1023406-d13144342-Reviews-Irori_Plus_Cafe-Ishinomaki_Miyagi_Prefecture_Tohoku.html Browse the JNTO site in one of multiple languages Galvanized by the March 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake the manager of a kimono fabric store in the city of Ishinomaki began crafting kokeshi dolls in 2014 to promote his hometown dubbed his creations “Ishinomaki Kokeshi,” through which he hopes to “teach people about Ishinomaki and entice them to visit.”googletag.cmd.push(function() { googletag.display('div-gpt-ad-1499653692894-0'); }); His unusual kokeshi — simple wooden dolls with no arms or legs — are not confined to traditions Look out for your first newsletter in your inbox soon The best of Singapore straight to your inbox We help you navigate a myriad of possibilities Sign up for our newsletter for the best of the city By entering your email address you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy and consent to receive emails from Time Out about news Sign up for our email to enjoy Singapore without spending a thing (as well as some options when you’re feeling flush) Our newsletter hand-delivers the best bits to your inbox Sign up to unlock our digital magazines and also receive the latest news By entering your email address you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy and consent to receive emails from Time Out about news, events, offers and partner promotions. Singapore Sushi and sashimi might be top of mind when it comes to Japanese cuisine but this new diner in Guoco Midtown sets out to bring Japanese grilling techniques to the forefront of its menu Setsuri Ishinomaki houses an impressive grill section that showcases four traditional types of grilling in Japanese cooking – genshiyaki Perhaps the most undiscovered of the bunch is genshiyaki which sees ingredients skewered into bamboo sticks and then stuck into a base of mokuhai (wood ash) imported from Kagoshima This form of slow cooking coaxes out the natural flavours of the ingredients whether it's prawns slathered with the joint’s secret seafood sauce ($12 per piece) or a succulent slab of honey miso salmon ($24) Another primitive method of grilling you’ll find here is warayaki where remaining dry stalks from the autumn rice harvest in Kochi prefecture are burnt and used for grilling to impart a distinct smokiness to the dishes try dishes like the wagyu wara tataki ($48) and the hon maguro toro tataki ($48) Do note that these special forms of grilling also come with an extra waiting time so if you’re stopping by for a quick lunch the Shokado bento (from $38) might be a better option Thanks for subscribing! Look out for your first newsletter in your inbox soon! tiktokfacebooktwitteryoutubeAbout us Contact us These are links for moving within this page "Nippon Paper Industries) and Mitsubishi Corporation (President: Ken Kobayashi; hereinafter "MC") are pleased to announce that they have agreed to establish Nippon Paper Ishinomaki Energy Center Ltd an electric power generation business company that will construct and operate a thermal electric power generation facility using mixed fuel of coal and biomass in Ishinomaki City The new company will set up the electric power generation facility on the Hibarino site owned by Nippon Paper Industries' Ishinomaki Mill The operation and maintenance of the electric power generation facility will be contracted to Nippon Paper Industries and electricity will be sold to a Power Producer and Supplier (PPS: Specified-Scale Electricity Utility) The business is scheduled to commence in March 2018 was devastated by the tsunami that followed the Great East Japan Earthquake which is central to Nippon Paper Industries' paper business was also forced by the tsunami to suspend its whole operations its recovery work has been carried out by the end of August 2012 the facilities of Ishinomaki Mill were fully restored Nippon Paper Industries is working to transform its current business structure into a comprehensive global biomass business Developing other strategic growth fields in addition to the paper business the company is committed to expanding its energy business by utilizing locational advantages of its mills and its techniques in operating power generation facilities developed over many years as well as its advantages in the procurement of fuel and woody biomass both in Japan and overseas Ishinomaki Mill is now engaged in the recycling business Nippon Paper Industries adds this new business of electric power generation in Ishinomaki Mill and will assist in the stable supply of electricity as well as promoting forestry in the Tohoku area and contributing to local community development Since Great East Japan Earthquake of March 2011 MC has been providing support for recovery and rehabilitation in the areas affected by the disaster through the Mitsubishi Corporation Disaster Relief Foundation MC will draw on its expertise to ensure that this new project is implemented with full consideration for the host community and in a way that is environmentally safe over the long term while at the same time contributing to the revival of industry and sustainable employment generation in the region Operation and management of electric power generation facility and wholesale supply and sale of electricity Copyright © NIPPON PAPER INDUSTRIES CO. Miyagi Prefecture—Portraits of 6-year-olds who died in the Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami were presented to their families on Jan the victims would have celebrated their reaching adulthood on Jan the children were pupils at Hiyori Kindergarten here They were on a school bus when it was hit by the tsunami and caught fire Their deaths occurred just before the graduation ceremony at the kindergarten The bereaved families commissioned an artist to paint portraits of their children said she wanted to “see Airi in ‘furisode’ (long-sleeved kimono) began painting pictures of parents embracing their children in the stricken Tohoku region in 2012 Focused on those affected by the quake and tsunami who was described as a kind and gentle child who loved to make people laugh Kobayashi interviewed Mika about the origin of her daughter’s name The portrait features Airi wearing a navy blue and white furisode kimono and smiling gently The furisode was decided upon when Mika’s second daughter was looking through a furisode catalog with her mother “I think my sister will wear this,” Juri had said Mika said she could not imagine what Airi would look like had she survived Under a clear sky in front of the venue for the Coming-of-Age Day ceremony she received the painting from Kobayashi and gazed at it intently “I haven’t seen Airi since I sent her off to kindergarten I am sure she has grown up like this,” she said 3/11 survivor in Ishinomaki pens story to reunite with late sister new adults mark occasion in very grand style Man loses 10 family members in landslide in Ishikawa Nearly 14 years after the Great East Japan Earthquake struck on March 11 destroyed buildings that serve as reminders of the disaster are continuing to deteriorate Local governments looking to preserve the ruins to teach future generations about the destructive nature of the tsunamis that followed the temblor are struggling to maintain them as they erode over time.googletag.cmd.push(function() { googletag.display('div-gpt-ad-1499653692894-0'); }); Last December, a section of an exterior wall at the Okawa Elementary School Ruins in the city of Ishinomaki, Miyagi Prefecture, fell off. The tsunami that hit the school, which now forms part of the Ishinomaki Tsunami Ruins Miyagi Prefecture—Tohoku Electric Power Co 4 said it has shut down the recently restarted No 2 reactor at the Onagawa nuclear power plant because of unspecified troubles with equipment The company said no radiation has leaked to the surrounding environment at the plant located in Onagawa town and Ishinomaki city in Miyagi Prefecture 29 for the first time in 13 years and seven months It was scheduled to start generating electricity on Nov equipment was inserted into the reactor that to check if a detector that measures neutrons was normal But the inserted equipment stopped working in the middle of the process The equipment was manually pulled out and recovered The company said it shut down the reactor and will postpone power generation until the cause of the problem is determined in which a fission chain reaction can continue on its own Tohoku Electric had initially planned to start power generation on Nov But since inspections and other processes went smoothly Boiling water reactor restarted at Onagawa nuclear plant Kyushu Electric seeks 20-year extension for two nuclear reactors Mitsubishi Heavy to develop new nuke reactor with 4 utilities Safety costs for nuclear plants in Japan now stand at 6 trillion yen Kyushu Electric halts 2nd reactor after anti-terror deadline missed Former students of Okawa Elementary School in the city of Ishinomaki Miyagi Prefecture — where 84 children and staff lost their lives in the tsunami triggered by the March 11 Great East Japan Earthquake — are working to turn the site into a community hub head of the volunteer group Team Okawa: The Future Network says he wants to do more than just preserve the memory of the tragedy.googletag.cmd.push(function() { googletag.display('div-gpt-ad-1499653692894-0'); }); “I want to make this a place that connects us to the future,” he said The MARUHONmakiart Terrace, located in Miyagi, Japan, was built as part of the Ishinomaki Cultural Center’s revival efforts following the devastating Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami in 2011. Designed by Sou Fujimoto Architects the goal was to create a complex cultural facility that would symbolize Ishinomaki city’s recovery and serve as a catalyst for revitalizing the community The architectural vision encompassed various functional spaces all intended to be accessible and inviting to a diverse range of visitors images © Masaki Iwata + Sou Fujimoto Architects With the architectural plan for the MARUHONmakiart Terrace, the architects led by Sou Fujimoto embraced a simple and linear arrangement extending approximately 170 meters (560 feet) along a slender lobby the linearly arranged programs were segmented through the utilization of parallelogram volumes topped by gable-roofs This arrangement allowed for the integration of functions highly utilized by citizens the interlocking effects of various scales emerged further enhancing the segmentation within the linear lobby A meticulous approach was undertaken to ensure the overall space including furniture selection and placement as well as the density of signs and lighting fixtures facilitated citizens in finding a comfortable place within their daily lives The intention was to foster an environment where local students could study after school As these rooms and functions began to resemble huts within the lobby space small house-shaped and chimney-shaped volumes were placed on the lobby roof This design element brought in natural light and provided ventilation Through the incorporation of house-shaped and chimney-like volumes the MARUHONmakiart Terrace achieved a delicate balance between being a 13,000-square-meter large facility and a human-scale structure Its distinct identity evokes various impressions and meanings The intention behind this design approach was to create a building that would not impose a singular effect as a landmark but would embrace ambiguity and flexibility allowing individuals to share their own interpretations while maintaining a strong presence The row-like arrangement of house-shaped volumes pays homage to the memory of the buildings that once lined the former Kitakami River The large hall of the MARUHONmakiart Terrace was designed to respond flexibly to the balance between the number of seats and the type of performance The second-floor seats were divided with curtains enabling the utilization of the middle hall scale within the first floor as needed accentuates the presence of the stage and the audience seats fostering a sense of unity between performers and spectators the small hall features a flat floor style with rollback chairs catering not only to theatrical performances and music appreciation but also to exhibitions and shows Sou Fujimoto Architects approached the MARUHONmakiart Terrace with precision considering the programmatic requirements and the context of the site deciphering the interactions that would occur within the space Despite the architecture’s seemingly simple composition of subdivided and clustered scales the MARUHONmakiart Terrace represents a departure from conventional rural public complexes offering a new way to contemplate and engage with such spaces project title: Ishinomaki Cultural Center architecture: Sou Fujimoto Architects | @sou_fujimoto photography: © Masaki Iwata + Sou Fujimoto Architects AXOR presents three bathroom concepts that are not merely places of function but destinations in themselves — sanctuaries of style Archive Architecture Sou Fujimoto Architects has shared photos of the firm’s recent Maruhon MakiArt Terrace design in Ishinomaki The project sought to rebuild an important piece of the region’s cultural infrastructure that was destroyed by the devastating earthquake and tsunami which claimed the lives of more than 3,000 local residents there on March 11th Responding to a brief that called for a revitalizing centerpiece for the city of 147,000 the design team created a 140,000-square-foot building that plays host to two 1,254- and 300-seat theaters and learning spaces for a variety of different users A poetic linear arrangement is created as repeated gable ends combine with alternating “chimney-like” rectangular forms connected by a 170-meter (557-foot) long entrance lobby along the south orientation the program’s functions are organized with exhibition spaces and the small theater to the western side of the lobby entrance which includes a small foyer and is punctuated by a 98-foot fly tower form to its east A vivid white coating of corrugated metal side cladding finally gives the recovering community a sheening new centerpiece to signify the start of a new chapter in its optimistic ongoing turnaround The firm says its hope is that “the building will not be a landmark that imposes a single effect but something that is built on ambiguity and is flexible enough to allow various people to share their own impressions The roofline of the complex is meant to evoke the memory of past structures which once lined the nearby Kitakami River the Center doubles as an emergency shelter in a secondary context which enhances its intentions and importance to the local community SFA added its design “suggests a new way to think about rural public complexes.” The project was completed in 2021 in time for the ten-year anniversary of the tragedy, with Arup serving as engineering consultants during the 15-month construction phase The firm also recently completed its Hainan Sky Mountain pavilion and will finish work soon on a new coastal resort concept that’s set to debut later this summer on Ishigaki Island I marvel that a town of 147k could support such a center And I am quite curious how it will be used and how much I am reminded of Aalto's town hall in Saynätsälo the bulkhead door - how it speaks with both the window and the facade it is enough for someone to do something for the sheer pleasure of doing it and for his pleasure to become the pleasure of others: at that moment This center is suggestive on so many levels so subtly that I am reluctant to name them Are you sure you want to block this user and hide all related comments throughout the site Your comment will be visible once approved Prototype shelves by Marriott for the show in Tokyo It is being considered for production as smaller modular units that can be attached to each other.  'Fish Boards' by Torafu Architects designed as cocktail-party plates or chopping boards.  Michael Marriot in his London studio on a prototype stool for his On Toyota installation in Tokyo which was produced by Ishinomaki Laboratory A few international designers have also provided designs for the lab – most recently British designer Michael Marriott who presented a whole range of new product ideas hangers and even a DIY workbench was exhibited and auctioned in Tokyo late last year The more popular and easier to produce items will be added to the Lab’s catalogue later this year.There is good reason for the company’s rough-andready utilitarian approach Ishinomaki Laboratory developed out of the Ishinomaki Bench designed by CEO Keiji Ashizawa as seating for a temporary outdoor cinema set up following the massive Tohoku earthquake and tsunami in March 2011 Takahiro Chiba was actually planning to go to Rockland but started working part time at Ishinomaki Laboratory in October 2011 while waiting for his Green Card to come through When his application was finally rejected in 2013 he decided to go all in and started working full time making benches and stools that he would sell to cover his rent and provide a salary ‘I love their traditional modernist principles and workmanship,’ says founder Sheridan Coakley ‘The simplicity of their designs in cedar wood was what struck me.’In Japan the lab was still very much seen as a kind of non-profit organisation that had grown out of the 2011 disaster and the name Ishinomaki was associated with the earthquake and tsunami and it was the design that was getting the attention,’ Chiba says Chiba and Ashizawa decided to change the communication around the brand and to focus more on the lab being a new kind of DIY furniture company rather than simply a stop-gap operation in a disaster-struck town.‘The funny thing is,’ says Chiba ‘when we started to focus on us being a design company and toned down the story about the reconstruction of Ishinomaki we started getting quite a lot of complaints Customers started to complain about small scratches on the benches and our ad-hoc bubble wrapping of the products.’Many more designs have been added to the initial bench and stool by Ashizawa Torafu Architects’ ‘AA’ stool series from 2012 features as simple a trestle as you could imagine: just four pieces of wood Combine it with a piece of plywood and you can make a small table or put six or eight together and you have a small bench Koichi Futatsumata’s recent ‘Deck Chair & Ottoman’ is structurally one of Ishinomaki’s most complicated pieces but is still made using only thin boards and a few standard-issue studs Ishinomaki Laboratory takes pride in making it worth buying the original with maximum attention to finish and the use of special square-headed furniture screws as opposed to regular Pozidriv.A few textiles (tote bags cushion covers and an apron) by Drill Design have also been introduced and a shelving system by Singaporean Gabriel Tan is due later this year It would seem that what started out as an initiative to help rebuild a devastated town is now helping to put that same town on the international design map.As originally featured in the April 2017 issue of Wallpaper* (W*217) For more information, visit the Ishinomaki Laboratory website escapism and design stories from around the world direct to your inbox Jensen has been calling Japan his home for almost two decades Since 2014 he has worked with Wallpaper* as the Japan Editor he consults numerous business in Japan and beyond and designs and build retail residential and moving (read: vans) interiors In 2011 a tsunami engulfed Japan’s north-east coast survivors are still tormented by a catastrophic split-second decision Pain and anxiety proliferated in ways that are still difficult to measure, even among people remote from the destructive events. Farmers, suddenly unable to sell their produce, killed themselves. Blameless workers in electricity companies found themselves the object of abuse and discrimination. A generalised dread took hold, the fear of an invisible poison spread through air, through water – even, it was said, through mothers’ milk. Read moreThose who work in zones of war and disaster acquire aid worker or reporter can do their job if they are crushed by the spectacle of death and suffering The trick is to preserve compassion without bearing each individual tragedy as your own; and as a foreign correspondent and sometime war reporter “All at once … something we could only have imagined was upon us – and we could still only imagine it,” the journalist Philip Gourevitch once wrote “That is what fascinates me most in existence: the peculiar necessity of imagining what is The events that constituted the disaster were so diverse that I never felt that I was doing the story justice But for much of the time I experienced a numb detachment and the troubling sense of having completely missed the point It was quite late on, the summer after the tsunami, when I heard about a small community on the coast that had suffered an exceptional tragedy. Its name was Okawa; it lay in a forgotten fold of Japan I encountered many survivors and stories of the tsunami but it was to Okawa that I returned time and again Okawa elementary school was more than 200 miles north of Tokyo in a village called Kamaya two miles inland of the point where it flows into the Pacific Ocean was a notorious frontier realm of barbarians with close-cropped hair and an air of mild Every morning he made the 20-minute walk from his house to school with his nine-year-old sister Shiroe; a small celebration was planned at home that evening But otherwise it was an unremarkable Friday afternoon the children rode on unicycles in the courtyard and foraged for four-leafed clovers and a piercing wind came off the river – Tetsuya and his friends stood in a row with their hands in their pockets and turned their backs on it to keep the chill off their faces Lessons at Okawa elementary school finished at 2.30pm the school bus was waiting in the car park with its engine running; a few of the younger pupils had already climbed in But most of the children were still in their classrooms finishing up the last school business of the week the sixth-year class were singing Happy Birthday to one of their number It was in the middle of this song that the earthquake struck The room was shaking very slowly from side to side a man named Shinichi Suzuki was waiting for his son He watched as the water in the school fish tank slopped over its sides in waves the fifth year were getting ready to go home for the day we all took cover under our desks,” he said right away: ‘Follow me outside.’ So we all put on our helmets and went out.” The school building was evacuated with exemplary speed Scarcely five minutes after they had been crouching under their desks wearing the hard plastic helmets that were stored in each child’s locker the city authorities would compile a minute- by-minute log of the events of that afternoon based on interviews with surviving witnesses It conveys something of the atmosphere after a big earthquake Child: Everyone sat down and the register was taken and Miss Shirota and Miss Konno were stroking their heads and saying “It’s fine.” One of the sixth-grade boys was saying “I wonder if my game console at home is OK.” Child: It must have been a kind of “earthquake sickness” because there were little kids throwing up Child: My friend said: “I wonder if there’ll be a tsunami.” The alarm of the younger children was renewed by repeated, jolting aftershocks. At 2.49pm, while the vibrations of the mother quake were still jangling outwards across northern and eastern Japan, the Meteorological Agency issued a warning: a six metre-high tsunami was expected; everyone on the coast of north-east Japan should evacuate to higher ground the Meteorological Agency updated its warning: the tsunami was expected to come in at a height of 10 metres The teachers in the playground formed a huddle beneath the cherry trees and engaged in a discussion in low voices the operations of Okawa elementary school were governed by a manual covered everything from ethical principles to the protocol for graduation ceremonies The Education Plan was based on a national template which was adjusted according to the circumstances of each school teachers and children were following instructions to ascend up steep paths and cliff steps had been responsible for revising the Education Plan but he had left unchanged the generic wording of the template he found only these vague words to puzzle over: “Primary evacuation place: school grounds in case of tsunami: vacant land near school The vagueness of this language was unhelpful etc” made little sense out here in the countryside there was an abundance of that – the question was: where The school was immediately in front of a forested hill the children had gone up there as part of their science lessons to cultivate a patch of shiitake mushrooms This was a climb that the smallest among the children could have easily managed Within five minutes – the time it had taken them to evacuate their classrooms – the entire school could have ascended high above sea level beyond the reach of any conceivable tsunami later recalled one brief conversation with Ishizaka after checking for stragglers inside the school Should we run to the hill?’ I was told that it was impossible with the shaking.” But one of the survivors from the sixth year recalled a much more dramatic intervention His alarm was picked up by one of the students who made their own appeals to their sixth-year teacher the ground might split open and swallow us up The boys began to run in the direction of the mushroom patch the boys were ordered to come back and shut up and they returned obediently to their class Two distinct groups of people were beginning to gather at the school arriving by car and on foot to pick up children The second were local people from the village – to complicate matters further Okawa elementary was itself designated an official place of evacuation for the village of Kamaya was manifesting itself in the attitudes of the two groups wanted to get their children out and away as soon as possible and we told Mr Takashi that I was going home “The radio says that there’s a 10-metre tsunami coming.” I said “Run up the hill!” and pointed to the hill Most of the parents who came to the school were full-time mothers and housewives; most of the villagers offering their opinions were retired It was another enactment of the ancient dialogue Toshinobu Oikawa – a grey-suited man in his late 50s who worked in the local branch of the Ishinomaki town government – was in his office the first tsunami warning was received from the Meteorological Agency Oikawa and five of his colleagues were climbing into three cars mounted with rooftop speakers of their own and setting out to deliver the warning in person They were driving through the outer margins of Kamaya when Oikawa became aware of something extraordinary taking place two miles ahead of them the spit of fields and sand where a ribbon of pine forest grew alongside the beach swallowing up their pointed green peaks and tearing up the forest in a frothing surge foaming over the top of the trees,” he said “It was coming down over them like a waterfall And there were cars coming in the other direction and the drivers were shouting at us: ‘The tsunami is coming Get out!’ So immediately we made a U-turn and went back the way we’d come.” 1:22Television helicopter footage captures the tsunami as it devastates north-east JapanWithin seconds they were driving through Kamaya again But it was as if the entire village had fallen under a spell One of Oikawa’s colleagues was shouting through the car’s loudspeaker: “A super-tsunami has reached Matsubara “There were seven or eight people standing around the street I saw the patrol car parked in front of the village police box But the policeman wasn’t passing on the warning and we couldn’t clearly see the playground people were doing what they always did after an earthquake: tidying up Among them was a farmer in his 60s named Waichi Nagano who lived in a big house out in the fields “There was the loudspeaker car from the town hall going up and down Everyone in the village must have heard them A mood of bored resignation had established itself There was no sense of anything much happening or that anything was likely to happen very soon At 3.25pm Oikawa and the three loudspeaker vans drove past the teachers were preparing to burn wood in oil drums to keep the children warm an elderly man named Kazuo Takahashi fled his home next to the river until he became abruptly aware of the sea streaming over the embankment beside his house It seemed to be coming from below the earth as well as across it: metal manhole covers in the road were being lifted upwards by rising water; mud was oozing up between the cracks that the earthquake had opened in the road Takahashi directed his car towards the closest place of evacuation On the main street of Kamaya he saw friends and acquaintances standing and chatting He rolled down his window and called to them Get out!” He passed his cousin and his wife and delivered the same warning Takahashi parked his car next to the school he became aware of a large number of children issuing forth from the school in a hurry who had remained in the playground with his class Tetsuya and his friend Daisuke Konno were at the front of the group The traffic island was less than 400 metres away at the point where the road met the New Kitakami Great Bridge It was as he approached this junction that he saw a black mass of water rushing along the main road ahead of him View image in fullscreenDebris in a second-floor classroom at Okawa elementary school Photograph: Asahi Shimbun via Getty ImagesBarely a minute had passed since he had left the playground and a sheet of white spray above the black the direction in which the children had been ordered to move Some of those at the front of the line froze in the face of the wave turned at once and ran back the way they had come The rest of the children were continuing to hurry towards the main road; the little ones towards the back were visibly puzzled by the sight of the older children pelting in the opposite direction Tetsuya and Daisuke found themselves at the foot of the hill at the steepest and most thickly forested section of the slope Tetsuya became aware that Daisuke had fallen he looked back over his shoulder and saw the darkness of the tsunami rising behind him “It felt like the huge force of gravity when it hit me,” he said “It was as if someone with great strength was pushing I was struggling for breath.” He became aware of a rock and a tree heard and smelled something subtly different and the obstacles that the water had to overcome to reach you but quickly sucking and battering at legs and chests and shoulders Most disturbing of all were the sounds it generated as it collided with the stuff of the human world: the crunch and squeal of wood and concrete like the cloud of pulverised matter that floats above a demolished building whole towns were being placed inside the jaws of a giant compressor and crushed could see the whole scene spread out below them as the water swept in pulsing surges over the embankment and across the village and the fields which came on all at once and destroyed the houses,” he said “It was the voices of children,” said Hideko there was the crunching sound of the wave and the rubble and their voices became weaker and weaker.” blinded by mud and with the roar of the tsunami in his ears His limbs were immobilised by spars of debris and by something else – something wriggling and alive which was shifting its weight on top of him Kohei’s life had been saved by a household refrigerator It had floated past with its door open as he thrashed in the water ridden it like a boat and been dumped by it on his schoolmate’s back Beyond Kamaya had been a succession of hamlets the swaying curve of the river and finally the Pacific Ocean the fields and everything else between here and the sea was gone Tetsuya’s first thought was that he and his friend were already dead He took the raging water to be the River of Three Crossings Those who have led good lives cross the river safely by bridge; evil-doers must take their chances in the dragon-ridden waters rely on a kindly Buddha to make their passage and to protect them from the depredations of hags and demons View image in fullscreenThe devastated town of Minamisanriku Photograph: The Asahi Shimbun/Getty Images“I thought I’d died,” Tetsuya said But then there was the New Kitakami Great Bridge And so I thought this might be Kamaya after all.” the ill-fitting plastic helmet that he wore had twisted on its strap and dug brutally against his eyes His vision was affected for weeks; he could only dimly make out what was going on in the water below Kohei’s left wrist was broken and his skin was punctured by thorns Whatever was visible of the fate of his school and his schoolmates Only later would the full scale of the tragedy at Okawa elementary school become clear Of the 78 who were there at the moment of the tsunami many of the children’s parents were tormented by self-reproach for not rushing to the school to collect them they had followed the course of action that would have been most likely to secure their safety and survival Nowhere in Japan are precautions against natural disaster more robust than in state schools out of 18,000 people killed by the earthquake and tsunami in Japan only 75 were children in the care of their teachers All but one were at Okawa elementary school Katsura Sato’s daughter Mizuho was one of the children killed at Okawa and I became very suspicious about the circumstances in which we lost our daughter I knew that this was a great natural disaster and I assumed at the beginning that there must have been many other cases like this other schools where the same thing happened But why did I never hear of them?” In the nearby villages along the river as they began to catch their breath in the weeks following the disaster other parents were asking the same question The revelation of the truth about what had happened was itself the opposite of a tsunami A document exposing contradictions in the official account Every few months there was a new “explanatory meeting” at which the bureaucrats of the Ishinomaki Education Board submitted themselves to the anger of the parents their refusal to muster a human response to the grief of the families seemed at the beginning to be a collective failure of character the parents began to suspect another motivation – an obsession with avoiding anything that could be taken as an admission of liability The metallic tang of lawyerly advice lingered around many of the bureaucrats’ utterances They were happy to express grief and condolence and willing to abase themselves in general terms for their unworthiness But to acknowledge specific negligence on the part of individuals institutional failure – that was a step no one would take the Ishinomaki city government announced the establishment of something called the Okawa elementary school incident verification committee which would spend a year reviewing documents and conducting interviews Its findings were published in a 200-page report in February 2014 Read moreThe doors of the courtroom were opened How many hours I had spent talking to them over the years They had spoken to me about each stage of the lives of their children Grief was in their noses like a stench; it was the first thing they thought of when they woke in the morning and the last thing in their minds as they went to sleep at night and the community of families of which it was the focus They described the disaster and its unfolding and all at once the three judges – a young woman and two middle-aged men – were seated in their black gowns So I focused instead on the faces of the listening parents – there I would immediately be able to read the verdict They frowned in concentration; their features were blank and expressionless and the occupants of the court were standing up and filing out They exchanged no words or glances; they looked grave and even grim I thought I had been able to follow part of the judge’s ruling the part when he seemed to be ordering the defendants to pay what sounded like a very large sum of money I stepped out into the corridor where the Japanese reporters were huddled The Okawa parents had won their case – they had been awarded more than £11m Ghosts of the Tsunami by Richard Lloyd Parry (Vintage Publishing, £9.99). To support The Guardian and Observer, order your copy at guardianbookshop.com Follow the Long Read on Twitter at @gdnlongread, or sign up to the long read weekly email here We use cookies to improve your experience on our site. Learn more. (President: Fumio Manoshiro; hereinafter "Nippon Paper Industries") announces the completion of a large-scale cellulose nanofiber (CNF) production facility at the Ishinomaki Mill (Ishinomaki City The large-scale CNF production facility at the Ishinomaki Mill The large-scale CNF production facility at the Ishinomaki Mill is able to produce CNF that is completely nano-dispersed with uniform fiber widths of 3 to 4 nm from wood pulp that is chemically treated by TEMPO catalytic oxidation method (see Note 1) TEMPO-oxidized CNF is characterized by its transparency and has possibility of the addition of various functions Based on the basic research and development undertaken in the "Nanotech Advanced Component Utilization Research and Development" project (for 2007 to 2012) of the New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO) Nippon Paper Industries has been developing technologies with demonstration facility for production installed at the Iwakuni Mill (Iwakuni City the CNF sheet that was produced by adding antibacterial and deodorizing functions to TEMPO-oxidized CNF for the first time in the world was used in the commercialization of adult diapers called "Hada Care Acty" by Nippon Paper Crecia Co. a group company of Nippon Paper Industries the CNF sheet with antibacterial and deodorizing functions is also used in a range of skin care products such as light incontinence pads called "Poise" by Nippon Paper Crecia Co. using a sheet with antibacterial and deodorizing effects that is produced by putting TEMPO-oxidized CNF into practical use TEMPO-oxidized CNF is expected to be put into practical use for a wide variety of industrial applications such as functional additives and nano-composite materials in addition to functional sheets As the operation of the large-scale production facility at the Ishinomaki Mill has commenced Nippon Paper Industries will accelerate the commercialization process.In addition this year Nippon Paper Industries will launch the operation of a demonstration facility for the production of CNF reinforced resin (see Note 2) at the Fuji Mill (Fuji City Shizuoka) in June and the operation of a large-scale production facility of CNF that is to be put into practical use as food and cosmetics additives (see Note 3) at the Gotsu Mill (Gotsu City As a comprehensive biomass company shaping the future with trees Nippon Paper Industries will instantly establish the manufacturing technologies of CNF suitable for various applications and the system for commercial supply and create the markets for new materials and CNF.Moreover the Ishinomaki Mill commenced the operation of the production facility of "CfFA" (Carbon-free Fly Ash) in December 2015 in addition to the production of printing/business communication paper which marked the start of the recycling business The electric power generation facility using mixed fuel of coal and biomass are now under construction and are scheduled to commence operation in March 2018 The commencement of the operation of the large-scale production facility as the basis for the production of CNF should further strengthen the foundation as the core mill of Nippon Paper Industries We will contribute to better living and cultural progress in the future.(Note 1) A chemical denaturation method for cellulose by TEMPO catalysis developed by Professor Akira Isogai et al of the Department of Biomaterial Sciences Graduate School of Agricultural and Life Sciences at The University of Tokyo Using this method pulp is easily defibrated and it is possible to obtain nanofiber with uniform width.(Note 2) CNF reinforced resin is produced by mixing CNF into resin resulting in additional strength.(Note 3) Microfibril cellulose with a fiber width of several to dozens of nanometers produced from wood pulp that is chemically modified by using the manufacturing technology of carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC) that is already sold as food additives 2011 Disaster Miyagi Prefecture--This coastal city has been transformed courtesy of a massive injection in government reconstruction spending following the 2011 earthquake and tsunami disaster that reduced it to ruins But the 1.9 trillion yen ($17.9 billion) pumped in to rebuild the northeastern city facing the Pacific did little to reverse the course of decades of social change that has afflicted numerous rural communities around Japan Ishinomaki was mauled more than any other municipality by the magnitude-9.0 Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami that struck on March 11 The figure represents about 20 percent of all fatalities around Japan from the disaster that also triggered a nuclear accident in Fukushima Prefecture were either totally or partially destroyed Tsunami in excess of 10 meters swept into the city That is the reason the city is now protected by coastal embankments close to 10 meters in height that extend for about 56 kilometers along the coast making it impossible to see the ocean unless viewed from higher ground central Ishinomaki is pockmarked with vacant lots about one-third of the buildings that used to stand before 3/11 have been replaced by empty plots or parking spaces All but one of the eight merchants’ organizations in the area have folded it used to be quite lonely,” said the 59-year-old operator of a long-established outlet forced to close its doors a year ago “But there were even fewer customers after the disaster and we simply could not carry on.” Ishinomaki government officials sought to make their rebuilt city a showcase for the entire world but were soon faced with the dire need to provide housing for thousands of residents “In the limited reconstruction period that we had we did not have the luxury of figuring out ways to revitalize the city,” said a section head in the city government “We had our hands full just trying to overcome the awful situation we faced due to the disaster.” was put in charge of an eight-member team at the Ishinomaki city government tasked with putting together the city’s reconstruction plan Hoshi felt it was a golden opportunity to resolve a host of problems facing rural communities such as a declining population and a hollowing out of the city center Ishinomaki is the second largest city in Miyagi Prefecture behind the prefectural capital of Sendai It flourished as a key shipping center linking the Tohoku region with what is now Tokyo during the Edo Period (1603-1867) Ishinomaki had a population of about 190,000 in the late 1980s but the figure had fallen to 160,000 before the disaster “We wanted to create a city that was an advanced model but all we ended up doing was dream big dreams,” said Hoshi now a member of the Ishinomaki city assembly With local residents moving in droves to Sendai and elsewhere city government officials did not have the luxury to envisage a “city of the future.” there was a sense of crisis that the outflow of residents might push Ishinomaki to the brink of extinction a former city government official recalled some residents converged on the mayor’s office to demand that new homes be built as soon as possible Hoshi recalled a visit to Ishinomaki in 2012 by a Finance Ministry bureaucrat who asked him how much money was needed for reconstruction the city government's annual budget was about 60 billion yen but Hoshi said he thought as much as 500 billion yen would be required “You will not be able to carry out all the projects that would be financed with such a large budget,” the Finance Ministry official said the total amount spent on the rebuilding and reconstruction of Ishinomaki came to 1.2 trillion yen The massive reconstruction projects involved moving entire neighborhoods to the suburbs The new residential areas did stem the pace of residents leaving the city but not the overall decline in population With so many new communities in the suburbs the city center resembled a ghost town of shuttered businesses But more problems are in store for Ishinomaki The city government's annual budget ballooned to about 200 billion yen a year due to the injection of funds from the central government But that will change from fiscal 2021 starting in April when the city government budget reverts to pre-disaster budget levels of about 70 billion yen The city will have to pay for the maintenance and upkeep of the various infrastructure paid for by the central government with a smaller budget in the future But Ishinomaki's situation is anything but unique the Machikata district of Otsuchi in Iwate Prefecture had a pre-disaster population of about 4,500 which accounted for 30 percent of the town population But the tsunami and subsequent fires triggered by the earthquake killed 659 residents envisaged concentrating the district into an area half of its previous size and redesigning the community into a checkerboard pattern 771 plots of land were completed in less than five years Normally a project of that size would have taken two decades But as of 2020 only about 60 percent of the plots had been occupied Some residents could not wait for the project’s completion and moved elsewhere was defeated when he ran for re-election against a candidate who promised an even faster pace of reconstruction “Even if the infrastructure was constructed according to schedule residents will not return unless we complete the work in the time they have given themselves to wait,” said Ikarigawa the infrastructure ministry established a panel of experts to assess the reconstruction process after a natural disaster One proposal that emerged from the lessons of the past decade is to consider thinking about reconstruction even before a disaster strikes That emerged from panel members who felt that if communities already losing population are hit by disasters in the future there would be almost no chance for reconstruction It's an ominous prospect for areas the central government deems vulnerable to a Nankai Trough earthquake that experts warn will likely strike within 30 years such a quake would claim as many as 230,000 victims This compares with the more than 22,000 people who perished or remain unaccounted for after the Great East Japan Earthquake and the tsunami it generated stretches off the coast of Shizuoka Prefecture to Kyushu over about 700 kilometers The town of Minami in Tokushima Prefecture on the island of Shikoku faces the Pacific Ocean and has been warned it could face tsunami as high as 24 meters if the Nankai Trough quake hits residents have already begun preparing for reconstruction They searched for areas on higher ground where homes now built near the harbor could be relocated to Priority was placed on “forming a consensus about the future.” If residents have a road map for the future money and time will not be wasted when the need for reconstruction arises would guarantee the continued existence of the community (This article was compiled from reports by Susumu Okamoto Tanaka-signed baseball turned life around for tsunami victim New details shed on botched Futaba Hospital rescue mission Artist trudges 5,000 km with ‘house’ on his back after 3/11 Ashes of dog who lost owner on 3/11 taken back to her hometown graffiti artists join hands to revive Fukushima town App for disasters rooted in ‘Evangelion’ a big hit in Japan Merging British and Japanese design and craft sensibilities the collection features work by 12 contemporary designers including chairs Marking the tenth anniversary of the Great Eastern Japan earthquake and tsunami (in the aftermath of which the Japanese workshop was founded) the collection celebrates the long-term collaboration between founder Keiji Ashizawa and SCP founder Sheridan Coakley The collaboration between the two companies has continuously evolved since they first met in 2014 with SCP becoming the first company to make Ishinomaki Laboratory products outside of Japan SCP produces Ishinomaki Laboratory in its specialist Norfolk workshop using Japanese techniques with local materials.  Industrial Facility’s Sam Hecht & Kim Colin The brief given by Coakley and Ashizawa to the group was simple: to design a piece of furniture or object from stock board widths in Western red cedar Designers worked within the constraints of the Ishinomaki Laboratory guidelines all pieces in the collection can be easily reproduced by any global Ishinomaki Laboratory partner Each designer brought their aesthetic sensibility to the project resulting in an eclectic collection that merges different languages under the harmonious aesthetic of the Ishinomaki craft the pieces feature simple compositions and compact forms and consider contemporary living as well as the needs of public and hospitality spaces – each interpretation offering a diverse point of view on the material and construction techniques The collaboration features a wide range of pieces that respond to the demands of flexible living and compact spaces.  The collection is part of SCP’s ‘All Our Working Lives’ dubbed ‘an exploration of human-centric design and new ideas about our working lives’ VIEW GOOGLE MAPS Rosa Bertoli was born in Udine she has been the Design Editor of Wallpaper* where she oversees design content for the print and online editions she has written extensively about all areas of design Rosa has been speaker and moderator for various design talks and conferences including London Craft Week Rosa has been on judging panels for the Chart Architecture Award the Dutch Design Awards and the DesignGuild Marks She has written for numerous English and Italian language publications and worked as a content and communication consultant for fashion and design brands The scenery of olive trees bearing green and black fruit in November is getting familiar to residents of Ishinomaki in the northeastern Japan prefecture of Miyagi which typically sees sub-zero temperatures in winter months I wondered if we could do it successfully in such a cold area like here," Shoetsu Chiba which was started to help rebuild local people's lives after devastation by the quake and tsunami disaster in 2011 dozens of residents join people from local agricultural producers' corporation called Minori Growing consumption of olive oil in Japan owing to its health benefits and culinary versatility has prompted more municipalities and companies to venture into olive cultivation Ishinomaki is regarded as the "northern limit" for olive production in Japan Although Ishinomaki does not have a Mediterranean climate suitable for growing olives Major olive producing countries such as Spain Greece and Italy have a warm climate with low rainfall and mild winter and harvest a few million tons or more annually according to agriculture ministry's latest available data where the island of Shodoshima known for its olive-growing history of over a century is located accounted for 358 tons thanks to relatively mild weather in the region Japan imported about 58,000 tons of olive oil last year according to the government's foreign trade statistics But Ishinomaki government officials say there was more to growing olive than just finding a new way to make a living "We chose olives because the trees are relatively easy to take care of it's a symbol of peace," said Tomoyuki Hino chief of the city's agriculture and forestry section Local people came up with the idea of growing olives when discussing ways to utilize residential areas inundated by the tsunami The cultivation started in 2014 after Arai Olive Co. accepted the city's request for technical cooperation The number of olive trees in the city has increased from 30 in the first year to 1,665 which four agricultural corporations including Minori are looking after at 4.76-hectare groves entrusted by the city has planted more than 1,300 olive trees so far The tsunami in 2011 washed away Chiba's home in Ishinomaki which stood near a river and the Pacific Ocean and devastated 4 hectares out of his 5-hectare paddy fields but many elderly farmers around him did and entrusted their rice fields to him As Chiba established the corporation in April 2013 to manage the fields the city sounded him out on joining the olive growing plan the following year (Olive grove near areas once inundated by tsunami following the March 2011 earthquake in Ishinomaki.) He began to believe the project would work in 2015 when he learned that the city's initial 30 olive trees survived the first winter about 100 kilograms of olives were harvested across the city increasing from 83.6 kg last year but falling far short of an initially estimated 500 kg due to damage caused by Typhoon Hagibis But olive farmers in the city had something to cheer about this year Ishinomaki's first olive oil production facility with an Italian-made oil press was completed in November Farmers can now complete the entire process of production within the city "Long-distance shipping of fresh-picked olives lowers the oil quality," said Nobumasa Arai "So having an oil press near the groves is essential to produce high-quality oil." "I'm full of emotion as we finally completed literally 'Made-in-Ishinomaki' olive oil," Arai said as he tasted oil just squeezed at the brand-new facility chief executive officer of olive producing firm Arai Olive Co. instructs local people how to use the oil press installed in an oil producing facility in Ishinomaki.)  (Oil press installed in a newly-built oil producing facility in Ishinomaki.) All of the oil extracted in November worth several liters will be used to conduct questionnaire surveys as the city prepares to start sales to general customers directly and through department stores next year Ishinomaki farmers hope their products will stand out among other home-grown olive oil when more western Japan farms in a warmer climate are setting about olive cultivation in response to growing demand The number has grown to 14 in 2016 including prefectures with a relatively cold climate such as Fukushima and Gunma olive growing was chosen to utilize abandoned farm lands chief researcher at the Shozu Olive Research Institute of Kagawa Prefectural Agricultural Experiment Station the harvest amount of 13 prefectures except for Kagawa has increased only a little The government data in 2016 showed that growing grounds in those 13 prefectures totaled 221 hectares accounting for more than a half of the 423 hectares across the country Shibata says newcomers to olive growing typically have young trees which tend to have small yields Some of them struggle to increase production due to a lack of experience and climate unsuitability Now that Ishinomaki farmers have overcome the difficulty of growing olives in a cold climate Chiba believes their success will depend on how they can pitch their products and build a strong brand it might be a good way to serve visitors local products like sliced raw sea bream with our olive oil which would mean I can contribute to my hometown by growing olives," Chiba said To have the latest news and stories delivered to your inbox Simply enter your email address below and an email will be sent through which to complete your subscription Please check your inbox for a confirmation email Thank you for reaching out to us.We will get back to you as soon as possible The Great East Japan Earthquake of March 11 leaving more than 15,000 people dead and over 2,500 still missing Most were victims of the mammoth tsunami triggered by the earthquake The port city of Ishinomaki in Miyagi Prefecture was one of the communities devastated by the disaster which killed more than 3,000 residents and left its key fishing industry in shambles Ishinomaki’s cityscape has undergone major changes with new tourist facilities and shops appearing along major new roads One of the best spots for a sweeping view of the reviving city is Hiyoriyama Kōen a park situated on a rise of ground in the city center A view from Hiyoriyama Kōen of the Kyū-Kitakami River winding its way through the city Hiyoriyama Kōen has a long history and has been cited by such personages as the seventeenth-century poet Matsuo Bashō (1644–94) and the early twentieth-century poet and writer of children’s stories, Miyazawa Kenji (1896–1933) the park was originally a lookout point for fisherfolk to check on weather conditions before launching their boats At the time of the Great East Japan Earthquake many people evacuated to the park to escape the tsunami’s onslaught Witnesses say the tsunami almost totally engulfed the surrounding terrain transforming the hilltop park into a small island of refuge The receding waters revealed a scene of shocking devastation—whole houses and office buildings had been swept away leaving nothing but piles of rubble and sediment The view from the park is very different today encompassing a patchwork of new buildings and vacant plots that testify to the long time it is taking to recover (© Shoepress) Ishinomaki on April 1 Located on the banks of the Kyū-Kitakami River the Ishinomori Manga Museum is dedicated to manga artist and author Ishinomori Shōtarō situated at the mouth of the Kyū-Kitakami River where it flows into Ishinomaki Bay is dedicated to manga artist and author Ishinomori Shōtarō a native of Miyagi Prefecture with ties to the city Ishinomori holds the Guinness World Record for the most manga published by one author based on a design proposed by the famous author houses many of his original drawings from such well-known manga series as Cyborg 009 and Kamen Rider The museum was submerged up to 6.5 meters by the tsunami of March 11 and all the displayed items on the first floor were swept away began work to restore the building just 10 days after the waters receded The fully refurbished structure was reopened on November 17 the Ishinomori Manga Museum serves as a highly visible symbol of Ishinomaki’s revival The museum attractions include a theater on the first floor showing original anime productions and a gift shop selling exclusive A sloping passageway takes visitors to the second floor where Ishinomori’s most famous works are on prominent display The Cyborg 900 exhibit at the Ishinomori Manga Museum On the third floor are displayed numerous autograph cards submitted by Ishinomori’s fellow manga artists and writers There is also a section where visitors can try their hand at creating their own original anime and a library of more than 6,000 manga Fresh Ishinomaki farm produce and fish Ishinomaki Genki Ichiba opened in June 2017 the culmination of the combined efforts of local food processing companies and restaurants The market offers a varied selection of fresh fish and processed marine products as well as farm produce and local craft items visitors can enjoy reasonably priced sashimi and sushi made from freshly caught fish landed at Ishinomaki Port a center of the Sanriku coast’s fishing industry A Kinkasan fish and rice bowl dish named after Kinkasan Island On the second floor of the Ishinomaki Genki Ichiba is a large food court with a sweeping view of the river estuary into Ishinomaki Bay visitors can enjoy specialty food items made from fresh Sanriku fish and marine products Especially popular is the Kinkasan fish and rice bowl full of more than 10 varieties of fresh seafood including shrimp The delicious bowl is so large it is recommended that it be shared by two people Another favorite is a savory pasta dish with a creamy sea urchin sauce Seapal Pier Onagawa in front of the JR Onagawa Station If you’re coming in to Ishinomaki from Sendai another port town nearly totally destroyed by the Great East Japan Earthquake You can get there with a 25-minute leisurely train ride on the JR Ishinomaki Line Disembark at the newly rebuilt Onagawa Station and find the spanking new Seapal Pier Onagawa a large mall right in front of the station with its numerous shops and gourmet eateries demonstrates the extent to which the port town has rebuilt itself A brick-lined road cuts through the mall to the sparkling sea beyond (Banner photo: The view of Ishinomaki from Hiyoriyama Kōen Our employees also participated in the event and despite the unseasonably hot temperatures of nearly 30 degrees Celsius they ran the goal under the slogan “Ganbarou Ishinomaki” as they aimed for the goal Japanese version seaside town along the northeast coast of Japan where the local delicacy is oysters the size of your hand and the prominent landmark is a space-ship shaped Manga Museum the community here experienced one of the most painful events in the history of Japan this coastal town with a population of roughly 140,000 suffered the greatest loss of life in an enormous tsunami that followed one of the biggest recorded earthquakes in the history of seismology Around 4,000 townspeople lost their lives that day and after taking her students to safety was caught in the tsunami while trying to get home.   I first found Taylor’s story through a book, “Live Your Dream” 夢を生きる (2021). It was published by the Taylor Anderson Memorial Fund (TAMF) on the occasion of the tenth anniversary following the March 11, 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake Perhaps because Taylor was roughly my age when she was swept away by the rage of the tsunami wave I was also moved by the warm humanity of so many people as Andy and Jean Anderson sat in their kitchen in Virginia in early March 2021 and had a chat with JAPAN Forward via video call.  I saw the faces of the Andersons light up as they remembered their daughter her father Andy fondly recalls the quirks that she had I heard of how Taylor was always a keen reader and how her world was opened up when she was in middle school and he taught the kids about Japanese language and culture his enthusiasm was infectious: out of the 13 students in that class the history of the country” said Jean Anderson Even before entering university, Taylor was set on going to live in Japan to teach English. After majoring in Asian Studies and Political Science at Randolph-Macon College, Taylor finally fulfilled her dream of coming to Japan as part of the Japan Exchange and Teaching Program (JET) Taylor taught in several schools in the town of Ishinomaki We heard how she would cycle fearlessly even in windy weather One heartwarming tale was shared by her former student who in the book “Live Your Dream” recalled how Taylor helped him stand up to bullies in school and overcome his insecurities As the magnitude 9 earthquake struck at 2.46 P.M. she helped evacuate all of the children to a safe place perhaps she thought that the worst was over and she tried to bicycle home to retrieve her cell phone It was on the way home that she was caught by the enormous force of the tsunami What must it be like waiting sleepless nights for a call from your daughter The immediate aftermath of the tsunami revealed that the once quaint seaside town of Ishinomaki was destroyed and unrecognizable Entire coastal sections of Ishinomaki had lost water and power Whole roads and sections of the city had been swept away Communication with the outside world was nearly impossible there was much discussion on whether JETs would try to come home We were sure that Taylor would want to stay.” Embassy in Japan about a week after the disaster: they had found Taylor’s body.   Andy recounted going to Japan to recover her body ten days after March 11 encountering an atmosphere which he described as “the fog of war.” “There was so much to take in It was already at this stage that Taylor’s parents started thinking about how they could help the local community “What Taylor would want us to do is to help students and the schools recover In the immediate aftermath of the tsunami, Taylor Anderson’s former high school, St Catherine’s School in Richmond (Virginia) was instrumental in gathering donations for disaster relief starting just ten days after the disaster and managed to put together ￥40 million Japanese yen (about $370,000 USD) in a short time the next question was how to make sure that the money would get to those most in need?  It was one of the biggest events that I encountered during my 43 years of diplomatic life.” who was the Japanese Ambassador to the United States in 2011 who made time to speak to JAPAN Forward in mid-February 2021 Fujisaki recalled how the connection with Taylor started a few days after 3.11 were at home in the Ambassador’s Residence in Washington and at the time it was still unknown what had happened to Taylor The interviewer pointedly asked whether she was upset that her daughter had gone to Japan and we were just happy that she could live her dream,” replied Jean It left a strong mark on the Japanese Ambassador who took the opportunity to reach out to the Andersons The Fujisakis sent a car to pick up Andy Anderson when he came back to the U.S Andy Anderson decided he wanted to create an NPO on the Japanese side to deliver help to students After Ambassador Fujisaki’s Washington assignment ended and he returned to Japan the Taylor Anderson Memorial Fund (TAMF) was formally established in 2013.   despite suffering the loss of losing their daughter found the strength to help people in Ishinomaki who had lost everything at the hand of the tsunami I learned how this was made possible by those bridging the U.S such as the former Ambassador of Japan to the United States Ichiro Fujisaki and his wife Yoriko and amazed at the many collaborators and NPOs on the ground who worked tirelessly as volunteers to bring help and inspiration to those most in need and individuals like Shinichi and Ryoko Endo the list of achievements which touched the lives of so many goes on in an array of ways to help those who Taylor would have cared most about: the students Looking at it now it seems surreal to picture what happened ten years ago and carefree children laugh and play in the front garden But in the schools where Taylor used to teach tucked into lush warm wooden shelves is a “Taylor Reading Corner,” dedicated to that energetic American young woman stocked with books in English to impart to others her infectious love of reading The Taylor Reading Corners are now dotted throughout schools all over the city and in March 2021 were even introduced to schools in the neighboring towns of Onagawa and Ohara which also suffered severe human loss in the tsunami of 2011 The bookshelves were built by Shinichi Endo who had three children at the time of the natural disaster Endo’s children were all at home in their house a stone’s throw from the coastline the father left to check on another relative All three children were swept away by the wave His wife Ryoko told us how deeply the tragedy affected both of them in the aftermath Shinichi still found it in himself to help others In July 2011 when he was first asked to build the Taylor Reading Corners partly because his own children had all been students of Taylor’s in school.   “I thought that maybe my children would be happy if I produced bookshelves in memory of Taylor,” he reflects in the book Live Your Dream helping out local NPOs such as Kokoro Smile with his projects Taylor’s father Andy Anderson speaks about Endo with affection saying that “We’ve been through the same thing together I call him my brother from another mother.” it is no exaggeration that I think I found meaning in my life by making the bookshelves for the Taylor Reading Corners.” there was a time when I was unsure of how I was going to live But through the production of the bookshelves I came to believe that creating something that would make the children of Ishinomaki happy also provides evidence that my own children had lived.” Throughout this whole experience of interviewing those affected by 3.11 what struck most was the incredible humanity of people here and how even when the worst tragedy took place they still managed to find it in themselves to help each other suggesting that healing is neither a linear nor an easy process For the first two years after the earthquake I didn’t understand the value in coming here We were sitting in a rickety shipping container a temporary feature just inland of Ishinomaki’s north coast It's on a site about the same location as where Endos house had been before the coastline was destroyed and the landscape changed Flattened in the immediate aftermath of the tsunami the area has since been deemed safe to live “People are too afraid,” said Ryoko.  beginning a couple of years after the earthquake she started helping her husband at events on the property Ryoko recounted how the words of a friend particularly resonated with her but one can create new positive memories,” the friend said She also acknowledged that the actions of Taylor’s parents have left a deep impression on her “I thought it was amazing that they wanted to fulfill the dream that their daughter had the traditional Japanese garment whose fabric was used in the project In that same shipping container along the coast of Ishinomaki a group of eight women between the ages of 40 and 80 began to meet regularly to recycle old kimono into greeting cards it’s hard not to be mesmerized by the beautifully patterned fabrics cut so neatly to fit into the folded paper cards.  “It all started when Jean [Anderson] came here and showed me her shawl made of recycled Kimono fabric ‘why don’t you do something like this?’  The idea developed into creating greeting cards which are easier to manage than scarves and shawls thanks to an initial grant from TAMF.     and by receiving increasingly beautiful kimono in donations Ryoko explained how the cards were even ordered by the American Embassy in Japan including the National Gallery of Art in Washington DC The core group of eight ladies have created a community since coming together as a group and now have a sense that they are doing something new to give back after the tsunami they never thought that they would be a bridge to the U.S They thought that it had nothing to do with them ‘It’s like my grandmother is traveling all around the world.’” The shipping container on the devastated site has become a center which attracts neighbors and where the community gathers for special occasions The once-flattened area is inviting again to children some children whizzed through the door asking gleefully if they could have some colorful markers for drawing was adamant when explaining the impact of activities in Taylor’s memory: and look at how they have been really affected,” he explained fervently the organization has gone in various directions to reach the groups that Taylor would have been most passionate about helping There have been donations to Kodomo Shimbun, a project born from the efforts of Michiko Ota and the local newspaper Ishinomaki Hibi Shimbun, to help give a space for the thoughts and voices of children The newspaper received donations from TAMF from 2017 to 2020 the Andersons were interviewed by child journalist Sae Saito in 2019 Financial support was also extended by the Taylor Anderson Memorial Fund to local NPOs such as Kokoro Smile, which works mainly with children and parents dealing grief in the aftermath of the earthquake Looking back over the span of ten years since the disaster what was most moving was the resilience of humanity in the face of disaster As Ryoko Endo reflected: “I think that people are amazing: thinking of different ideas and staying in touch with us for ten years There are still people to this day who contact us and say,  ‘is there anything I can do?’ It’s thanks to them that we have finally managed to start looking forward.” Ishinomaki and TAMF have become part of their lives since they lost their daughter to the tsunami Jean Anderson told us: “We're just so thankful for everybody's help and it's greatly appreciated that they not only supported us but got us through some tough times.” And her husband commented with warmth: “Yes “Live Your Dream” 夢を生きる (2021) was published in bilingual format by the Taylor Anderson Memorial Fund in March 2021 Find articles related to this story in the series, 3.11 Earthquake: Rebuilding You must be logged in to post a comment ' + scriptOptions._localizedStrings.webview_notification_text + ' " + scriptOptions._localizedStrings.redirect_overlay_title + " " + scriptOptions._localizedStrings.redirect_overlay_text + " Japan was struck by its strongest ever-recorded earthquake off the coast of northeastern Tōhoku It caused a devastating tsunami which swept away everything in its path the area saw many innovative initiatives aimed at restoring the lives of those impacted In Ishinomaki, one of the hardest-hit cities, Keiji Ashizawa equipped an empty shop with tools and lumber as a space for people to rebuild their community together. The success of Ishinomaki Laboratory inspired him to convert his initiative into a company by the same name The Great Tōhoku Earthquake and subsequent tsunami of 30-foot waves left more than 15,000 residents dead with over 2,500 still missing The natural disaster also triggered one of the world’s worst nuclear accidents in Fukushima This “triple disaster” caused immense damage not only to the economy of Japan – estimated to be around USD 300 billion – but also to the lives and livelihood of the millions of people affected While the situation prompted a considerable amount of direct financial support from the international community Japan was primarily responsible for the reconstruction of the afflicted areas aiming to restore the living conditions of those impacted by the disaster These post-disaster activities developed as a means to create economic value in the face tragedy Some companies began creating jewelry from pieces of ceramic found in the rubble while other companies began offering services dedicated to finding personal belongings lost during the disaster who was focused on the restoration of local shops and restaurants quickly recognized a growing desire among the local people to rebuild a sense of community.  He equipped an empty shop with several tools and large planks of donated western red cedar and decided to call the space "Ishinomaki Laboratory" Not long thereafter people began to show up to learn how to build basic furniture Ashizawa found out that one of his projects This prompted him to visit the site in order to assess possible solutions with his client Ashizawa noted three circumstances which would influence his decision to implement Ishinomaki Laboratory: he determined that the best way he could provide assistance to the areas affected by the disaster was to teach the locals how to rebuild their own community an American manufacturing company that produces office furniture and home furnishings sent their own team of volunteers to the region the company collaborated with Ishinomaki Laboratory to run DIY (Do-It-Yourself) workshops for the local community with the items constructed to be offered for a small fee or even free of charge The concept of DIY is fitting for Ishinomaki Laboratory as the main objective of the initiative was to allow regular individuals in a communal workspace to create whatever items they deemed necessary for their own situations Common usage of DIY exists in home improvement activities as well as various other small craft or maintenance activities Cost saving is often the main motivation for DIY projects by individuals certain companies have been taking advantage of the concept behind the DIY method as a selling point Companies use DIY as an appeal to creativity such as the toys sold by the Danish company Lego or simply as a way to cut down on assembly costs such as products sold by the Swedish company IKEA which provides numerous types of products that must be assembled by the customer One difference between the prior examples of companies implementing DIY and Ishinomaki Laboratory is the Japanese company’s founding objective to empower individual customers as well as instill a communal sense of utility and meaning DIY was an opportunity to focus on the experience of bringing an idea to life while at the same time attaching a social value to that creation Designers from all over the world have collaborated with Ishinomaki Laboratory in the development of its unique lineup of furniture and related goods Participation in various furniture exhibitions as well as increased recognition of the company’s quality designs by local and regional design magazines generated interest in the company by a broader public Ashizawa was able to apply the project’s goodwill into a brand under same name and Ishinomaki Laboratory became a way to market the company’s products beyond the city of Ishinomaki This interplay between the original social aspects of Ishinomaki Laboratory and the successful development of a company brand would culminate in the company’s “Made in Local” initiative the company shares its know-how and brand with established partners in various areas inside Japan as well as partners overseas These partnerships allow local companies to manufacture Ishinomaki Laboratory products to the company’s quality standard making an impact on the local artisanship of the participating communities Ishinomaki Laborary receives a small royalty fee Such an initiative provides for a win-win scenario in which Ishinomaki Laboratory is able to assist local communities while further strengthening its brand in markets that might otherwise be inaccessible for a small-sized company Although the DIY approach of Ishinomaki Laboratory might seem antithetical to the average business model the company has effectively established its brand I thought a simple design would be best - a logo where by just looking at it without need for further explanation The open-ended frame around the characters represents how our concept at the time was for Ishinomaki Laboratory to be accessible to the public we established consistency in our team and clarified our mission In December 2018, the JPO granted the registration of the trademark (JPO Registration No. 6107149) Ishinomaki Laboratory focused its initial efforts on the immediate demands of the local population impacted by the disaster The situation required designs that corresponded directly to the needs on the ground such as stools and benches that could be swiftly incorporated into communal spaces This approach would ultimately shape the company’s product lines of clean and minimalist designs Ishinomaki Laboratory is able to protect its established brand This is especially important given the company’s expanding “Made in Local” initiative through which the company’s know-how and brand are licensed to partners around the world When the Great East Japan Earthquake and subsequent tsunami hit Ishinomaki a small city in northern Japan in March 2011 more than 3900 people lost their lives – comprising an estimated 20% of the earthquake’s total fatalities and struggled to access health-care services after the disaster the residents had had strong social connections with their neighbours and could get help accessing medical care when needed people were dispersed to live in temporary shelters which cut off their social connections and negatively impacted their health “As the earthquake destroyed communities and reduced social capital became increasingly isolated and distanced themselves from healthy lifestyles,” said Dr Junichi Cho the late director of the Ishinomaki Care Center as well as the loss of community and disintegration of families As a medical doctor who had formerly served in rural clinics and the Saku Central Hospital in Nagano Prefecture Dr Cho decided to relocate to Ishinomaki in 2011 following the earthquake dedicating his late career to rebuilding and transforming the health system there Dr Cho was a champion for transforming the role of medical professionals to not only care for individuals when they are sick but to also work hand-in-hand with local communities and other sectors to transform communities in order to protect and promote health Dr Junichi Cho decided to relocate to Ishinomaki Japan in 2011 following the earthquake to dedicate his late career to rebuilding and transforming the city's health system The Western Pacific Region has one of the largest and fastest growing older populations in the world There are more than 245 million people aged 65 years and older in the Western Pacific Region and this number is expected to double by 2050 As part of the Regional Action Plan on Healthy Ageing for the Western Pacific WHO is working with Member States to transform societies receive tailored community support and contribute meaningfully to society throughout their lives health system transformation is needed to accompany people throughout their life with a greater emphasis on preventative health and strengthening communities to provide integrated services and support tailored to the individual needs of older adults “The health sector should strive to establish closer proximity to communities and individuals and actively engage with other sectors,” said Dr Hiromasa Okayasu Director of the Division of Healthy Environments and Populations at the WHO Regional Office for the Western Pacific “Dr Cho’s community initiatives in Ishinomaki which harnessed the power of health care to address not only health problems but also all the life and socioeconomic issues affecting residents can serve as an inspiration for many other communities in the Region Countries should reorient their health systems from focusing solely on sickness to prioritizing population health and well-being while collaborating closely with communities.” To rebuild community health in post-earthquake Ishinomaki Dr Cho and his team started meeting regularly with individuals to discuss their health and social concerns Health and social workers conducted needs assessments provided geriatric health education and implemented interventions aimed at enhancing the functional ability of older persons the team’s approach focused on addressing the health issues of individual residents; however they quickly discovered that many of the evacuees living in temporary residences were struggling with alcoholism post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and social isolation – issues that could not be resolved solely by the health-care system To address the various non-medical factors associated with these and other health issues within the community Dr Cho believed it was an opportunity for the health-care system to engage the local community and work together to rebuild a healthier and more vibrant city Dr Cho worked with the community to organize support gatherings where older adults could network and receive help to navigate complex social welfare systems interdisciplinary teams − comprising not only health-care professionals but also those involved in supporting people with disabilities and parents in need of childcare − collaborate to address the needs identified by community members This includes support to tackle often overlooked social and personal care needs such as providing companions for people who may be dealing with loneliness To continue to meet the needs of the community Dr Cho believed that ongoing participation was needed by all key stakeholders local residents and civil society organizations “I have actively participated in various city-based events and activities fostering relationships not only within my professional capacity but also beyond Recognizing that many residents had volunteered to rebuild their community post-disaster Dr Cho believed in the importance of empowering local residents to continue to support one another without relying solely on public support and in the need for the health-care system to collaborate closely with these networks “There is value in not only providing health care but also in creating communities through health care,” said Dr Cho Dr Cho’s initiatives in Ishinomaki are an example of how the health sector can revitalize communities through developing and enhancing health systems and coordinating and integrating community efforts across sectors Having inter-professional teams with knowledge not only of geriatric issues and the ageing process but also of various socioeconomic factors is particularly valuable for community interventions Disclaimer: This story includes the photos and words of Dr Junichi Cho The use of his photos and interview has been permitted by his family members As part of the Regional Action Plan on Healthy Ageing for the Western Pacific Ageing and health in the Western Pacific There is no immediate sign of the destruction the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami caused here and in dozens of other cities Small groups of Christmas revellers spill out of restaurants on to icy pavements the monotony of shuttered shops is broken by statues of cartoon characters – a nod to a nearby museum dedicated to the works of the manga artist Shotaro Ishinomori It is only when viewed from a nearby hilltop that the full extent of the destruction wrought on Ishinomaki, in Miyagi prefecture, becomes apparent. The city centre is no more. All that is left is a huge swath of flat land, reduced to rubble by the tsunami that struck on the afternoon of 11 March More than 4m tonnes of debris left in the tsunami's wake has been removed Reaching as high as 20 metres (66ft) in places the waves destroyed or damaged more than 50,000 buildings the worst affected of all the tsunami-hit communities will take at least 10 years and cost more than 1 trillion yen (£5.8bn) That process will begin with repairs to the shattered port roads and bridges and other infrastructure About Y100bn has been earmarked for new public housing and Y120bn to relocate the 15,000 residents still living in temporary housing Almost three years on from one of the worst natural disasters in Japan's history it is tempting to conclude that little has changed since then But there are signs that some semblance of civic life is returning with the momentum provided by local residents frustrated by bureaucracy and political dawdling Tsunami defences are seen amid sea mist, over a painted wall along the coast in Ishinomaki, in 2012. Photograph: Kim Kyung Hoon/ReutersThe Ishinomaki Genki Fukko [happy recovery] Centre opened in June 2012 to provide a handful of shop owners and restaurateurs with temporary premises while they attempt to rebuild their livelihoods and this grew out of a determination to get back to work as quickly as possible," says Yumi whose seafood store sells readymade dishes using locally caught fish "We were supposed to move out once our permanent premises had been rebuilt We receive food orders from Tokyo and other places but it's nothing like on the same scale as before the tsunami." Other initiatives include adventure playgrounds, a library, cafés and bars, cheap accommodation for visitors, walking tours and a business "laboratory" that serves as a small-scale manufacturing hub Tadaima ["I'm back"] Ishinomaki sells bags purses and other items made by women living in temporary housing many of whom have no other source of income but we didn't get much of a response so we decided to go ahead and open the shop ourselves," says employee Wataru Horikomi and getting local people involved in the business gives them something to look forward to." The lack of employment opportunities is a recurring problem along the north-east coast of Japan a region already in economic decline before the 2011 disaster The tsunami destroyed thousands of jobs in Ishinomaki and now there are two jobseekers for every opening in the city "Young people are leaving because there isn't enough work," Horikomi says "The fishermen have been hit particularly hard but only a fraction of the number that were here before They're doing their best but because of the subsidence caused by the quake the port goes underwater every time it rains heavily The disaster broke the people's connection with the sea." A hilltop view of Ishinomaki through a Shinto torii gate Photograph: Justin McCurry for the GuardianThe scale of the task facing Ishinomaki's planners becomes apparent as soon as Kenichi Horiuchi spreads out a map detailing the city's decade-long revival plan deputy head in the reconstruction division of the Ishinomaki municipal government points to a long strip of land – once home to about 7,500 people – nearest the sea that has been condemned as too dangerous to rebuild on Farther inland are areas where new houses have been built though only enough for a small proportion of the thousands of residents left homeless "Many of the people who lost their homes were living near the coast and along the river tributary," he says "They can't move back to the same place so now we have the problem of deciding where to put them." The city hopes to have 4,000 new homes ready by March 2016 but at the end of last year only about 150 had been completed Horiuchi concedes that the slow pace of reconstruction "We expect to have problems along the way but we will at least try to get the population back up to the pre-disaster level of 163,000." Construction blueprints quickly get caught up in a tangle of red tape that can hold up applications for planning permission by many months Local officials complain that actual costs inevitably rise above budget allocations as delays allow construction firms drive up their estimates "We then go back to the central government to ask for more money and the response is: 'But we've already given you money," Horiuchi says While the official response creaks into action, the gap is being filled by myriad private organisations comprising urban planners, architects, builders and financial experts. Among the many groups attempting to revitalise Ishinomaki's small and medium sized businesses is Architecture for Humanity With funding from the Prudential Foundation which was active in the aftermath of hurricane Sandy and the Haiti earthquake invited local firms in the region to submit business plans and selected the best eight from more than three-dozen applications "The situation here is very different from that after the Kobe earthquake in 1995 – but however you look at it the reconstruction process is slow," says Akinobu Yoshikawa a graduate student of engineering at Tohoku University who belongs to the group the recovery effort is being hampered by a lack of co-ordination an assistant professor in the urban studies department at Tokyo University "There is a lot of grassroots activity in Ishinomaki but all of the wheels are turning at different speeds," he says They seem to be doing their own thing." A man stands on the flooded street in the quake-hit area in Ishinomaki, in 2011. Photograph: Xinhua/Gamma-Rapho/Getty ImagesDimmer, who helped produce an online reconstruction projects map of the entire tsunami-hit coastline believes displaced residents would benefit from clearer more user-friendly explanations of the authorities' plans for the city "The technocratic process is very slow," he says "People want to know what these plans mean in reality … how it will impact their lives." The towering tsunami of three years ago exposed existing seawalls as woefully inadequate Now residents are locked in debate with the local authorities over the location size and cost of their mooted replacements vulnerable areas will be protected by an outer wall positioned in the ocean then a taller wall at the edge of the coast The land behind will be reserved for commercial properties with a raised road – another line of defence against tsunamis – situated in front of residential areas Public buildings such as schools and hospitals will be located even father inland "The problem is that if you have a new seawall in one area you have to rethink the position of seawalls elsewhere," Dimmer says How much consensus do you need before you go ahead and build It will be years before all of Ishinomaki shares the air of normality evident near its railway station But the destruction has presented it both with an opportunity and a huge planning headache The movement of large groups of residents into temporary housing has created new communities whose makeup differs dramatically from the pre-disaster days "I expect that in many ways the new Ishinomaki will be very different from the old one," Yoshikawa says "People from different parts of the city have become mixed up in temporary housing which in turn have become new communities in their own right Will they want to stay together when they leave or will they have to break up again?" A house damaged in the tsunami sits on top of a bridge in Ishinomaki Photograph: Kim Jae-Hwan/AFP/Getty ImagesAs things stand the official "takeoff" period for the rebuilt city looks hopelessly optimistic jobs and the practicalities of preventing Ishinomaki from once more being swallowed up by the Pacific Ocean it's easy to overlook the quiet progress being made on the city's streets "After almost three years people's efforts are coming into view and that has galvanised the local population," says Dr Michio Ubaura a specialist from the department of architecture at Tohoku University who is advising the local government "But even if you manage to build attractive homes on a brand new city you still have to persuade people to go and live in them." A nuclear reactor in northeastern Japan damaged by the 2011 tsunami and earthquake disaster has cleared the last hurdle to resume operations after getting the green light Wednesday from local officials 2 unit of Tohoku Electric Power Co.'s Onagawa plant in Miyagi Prefecture is the first of the reactors damaged in the disaster to win final approval with local consent to restart The unit is the same boiling water reactor as at the crippled Fukushima Daiichi power plant that caused one of the world's worst nuclear disasters Yoshihiro Murai and the mayors of Onagawa and Ishinomaki the two municipalities hosting the facility gave their consent at a meeting after the unit cleared national safety screening in February stable supply of electricity in a nuclear plant and the plant can also contribute to the local economy," Murai said at a press conference after the meeting in Ishinomaki A Tohoku Electric official told Kyodo News the utility will "continue to do its best to ensure safety" in plant operations Tohoku Electric says it plans to restart the No 2 reactor at the earliest in fiscal 2022 after work on safety and disaster prevention measures is completed such as the construction of an 800-meter-long seawall at the plant The Onagawa plant is the closest nuclear plant to the epicenter of the magnitude-9.0 earthquake that struck nine years ago The central government has been pushing for reactivating the reactor to ensure a stable power supply with trade minister Hiroshi Kajiyama seeking Murai's consent in March It also aims to bring greenhouse gas emissions to net zero by 2050 Chief Cabinet Secretary Katsunobu Kato said at a press conference that gaining local consent marks an "important" step Onagawa and Ishinomaki's assemblies had already given their consent the leaders of most of Miyagi's 35 municipalities agreed at a meeting to support the decisions of Onagawa and Ishinomaki Part of the reason for local approval is the money generated by hosting the reactor with Onagawa having received from the central government around 27 billion yen ($256 million) in grants in the past as well as hefty property taxes from Tohoku Electric chairman of the town's chamber of commerce lobbying local leaders to support the restart "We are getting closer to the end of disaster-linked infrastructure development projects," adding it is now "absolutely necessary to restart the reactor to get the town's economy going." saying concerns linger over whether evacuation plans can actually be implemented in the event of a nuclear accident The 825,000-kilowatt boiling water reactor won approval to restart from the Nuclear Regulation Authority earlier this year becoming the second disaster-damaged reactor to pass stricter safety standards since the Fukushima nuclear disaster The other disaster-hit reactor to clear the screening is the Tokai No While it won the regulator's approval to resume operations in September 2018 A massive earthquake and subsequent tsunami hit northeastern Japan on March 11 a nuclear disaster with a severity level rated on a par with the 1986 Chernobyl accident at maximum 7 on an international scale It caused all of Japan's 54 reactors to halt at one point nine units at five plants in the country have restarted following regulatory and local approval all three reactors -- the same boiling water reactors as at the Fukushima Daiichi plant of Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings Inc -- shut down but the underground floors of the No after the facility was hit by a tsunami of up to 13 meters more than 800 people were listed as killed or missing As the plant's emergency cooling system functioned normally there was no meltdown of the type that occurred at three of the six reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi plant The utility has decided to decommission the Onagawa plant's No while it is considering whether to request a review by the authority to restart the No Japan Art and Homage to Hosui: New Light of Shinto (Ishinomaki) Sawako Utsumi is a contemporary Japanese artist She was born in Ishinomaki (Miyagi Prefecture) this part of Japan was hit hard by the devastating Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami of 2011 she is paying homage to Yamamoto Hōsui (1850-1906) a new color scheme emerges that contrasts dramatically with the original by Yamamoto Hōsui Yamamoto Hōsui was born in the last period of the Edo Era his art belongs to the modernization period of the Meiji Period (1868-1912) his Bunjinga roots flowed naturally with the circle of artists and intelligentsia friends he met in Paris a sense of elitism emerges throughout his life the adage of the Shinto shrine by Utsimi provides a sense of continuity a delightful spiritual dimension emerges following Utsumi’s religious beliefs Utsumi’s dramatic mountain backdrop and color scheme – contrast dramatically with the original by Yamamoto Hōsui the Shinto dimension and dramatic color differences combine to create a stunning art piece by Utsumi https://fineartamerica.com/featured/shinto-and-color-fusions-homage-to-yamamoto-hosui-sawako-utsumi.html – Shinto and color fusions: Homage to Yamamoto Hosui by Sawako Utsumi https://fineartamerica.com/featured/the-magical-mountain-village-inspired-by-sekka-sawako-utsumi.html – The magical mountain village inspired by Sekka – by Sawako Utsumi http://fineartamerica.com/profiles/sawako-utsumi.html – Sawako Utsumi and where you can buy her art individuals can contact her for individual requests http://sawakoart.com Modern Tokyo News is part of the Modern Tokyo Times group http://moderntokyotimes.com Modern Tokyo Times – International News and Japan News http://sawakoart.com – Sawako Utsumi’s website and Modern Tokyo Times artist https://moderntokyonews.com Modern Tokyo News – Tokyo News and International News https://twitter.com/MTT_News Modern Tokyo Times http://facebook.com/moderntokyotimes The city of Ishinomaki was ordered to pay 1.44 billion yen (US$13 million) to the children’s parents A city in Japan is to appeal a court order to pay 1.44 billion yen (US$13 million) to the parents of 23 children who died in a tsunami that struck the country’s north-east coast seven years ago The deaths of 74 pupils and 10 teachers at Okawa elementary school is one of the most harrowing episodes of the March 2011 triple disaster, in which almost 19,000 people died. Teachers kept the school’s 108 pupils in the playground for about 45 minutes before escorting them to higher ground near a riverbank rather then up a nearby hill. Minutes later, rising waters swept most of the children to their deaths. Only 34 pupils and three members of staff survived. Read moreAt the end of last month, a high court upheld a 2016 ruling ordering the city of Ishinomaki, which operated the school, to pay damages to the 29 parents involved in the legal action. The court said the school and the prefectural authorities had not made proper evacuation plans, adding that the children’s deaths could have been prevented. “The school should have been able to forecast before the occurrence of the quake that a tsunami would reach the school,” Japanese media quoted the judge, Hiroshi Ogawa, as saying. “The school had an obligation to clarify evacuation areas and evacuation routes in its risk management manual but it failed to do so.” This week, local councillors in Ishinomaki voted to appeal to the supreme court. The prefectural government is also expected to appeal. said city officials could not have predicted the scale of the disaster which struck after a magnitude-9 earthquake triggered a huge tsunami along the north-east coast Holding teachers and education officials responsible for the children’s deaths was “unreasonable,” he added The decision to appeal was greeted with anger by the victims’ parents “The lives of our children are not pawns,” Hiroyuki Konno accused the city’s government of “talking about the tragedy like it’s someone else’s business” a ship bound for San Francisco during the Gold Rush era was unearthed during construction in the financial district of San Francisco in the 1970s Near the excavation site at the intersection of Clay street and Sansome street there stands a small plaque recounting the history of the Niantic ship we adorned the reception area of our Niantic Tokyo office with a logo crafted by artisans in Ishinomaki City that incorporates materials salvaged from the San Juan Bautista replica was a galleon ship and a cherished exhibit in Ishinomaki for many years it was dismantled due to damage from the Great East Japan earthquake and aging We have positioned this logo at the reception of the Niantic Tokyo office to share its story to visitors and promote disaster preparedness all in an effort to preserve the memory of the Great East Japan earthquake and uncover the narratives of communities diligently rebuilding “The tsunami is coming!” The warning cry of a neighbor set Chieko’s family in motion following the immense earthquake that shook their Ishinomaki home on March 11 so Chieko’s husband hoisted him on his back Chieko looked back to see the roiling ocean spilling toward them They ran to a nearby apartment building where top-floor residents invited them inside “We’re so thankful that we ran on foot because our car was washed away,” says Chieko by e-mail “It was so hard to be this helpless – my heart was racing so fast as I watched the water rise.” Nozomi Project founder Sue Takamoto met Chieko at the school bus stop shortly after the disaster moved from Kobe with their four adopted children to provide aid to the coastal community of Ishinomaki considered one of the areas most severely affected by the 2011 Tohoku earthquake and tsunami Takamoto created a company that crafts jewelry from the broken pottery scattered about Ishinomaki She enlisted women she met at the bus stop to be her first employees they had no sense of what their future might hold as a family All except one of them was homeless,” says Takamoto “[Chieko] was so shy I almost didn’t reach out to her and we are going to try this gathering tomorrow.’ She just looked at me like I was crazy and the next morning at 7:45 she called me and said she would like to come The Nozomi Project launched six years ago with a handful of local women cutting grinding and shaping broken shards of pottery into necklaces bonuses and time to spend with their families “Being in a place where I could share my experiences I found I could release all of the fears and memories stuck in my heart from that terrible day The sense of community was a great gift to me.” Nozomi Project jewelry has been shipped to customers in 40 countries wore a Nozomi Project necklace during a meeting with America’s First Lady “The first three years we were just trying to survive as a business Now it’s how can we survive and be competitive in the jewelry market.” The Nozomi Project line of keychains is named after Chieko’s son Chieko thought her family was cursed because of Daiki’s autism Through her work with Nozomi (Japanese for “hope”) she now views it as a privilege to raise her son who himself has become more comfortable around Chieko’s co-workers ‘thank you so much for coming.’ It was a strange feeling who financially supported her family after her husband’s office was washed away The sense of community was a great gift to me.” More information at nozomiproject.com JAPAN Forward visited Ishinomaki to see how much the city had transformed.  We sat down with Seitaro Omori, the general manager of Machizukuri Manbow Co Ltd, the organization which manages the Ishinomori Manga Museum Omori was working at the museum when the tsunami hit in 2011 and was a key figure in the city's rebuilding following the disaster.  Read the first part: INTERVIEW | The Tohoku Disaster, 12 Years On: How One Manga Museum Brought Hope to the Community How does one begin to rebuild a community?  the majority of employees at the Ishinomori Manga Museum lost their jobs most of them decided to stay to clean up the facility.  They came to help in the cleanup every day like nothing had happened," reflects Omori.  It was then that the staff at Ishinomori Manga Museum started thinking about what they could do to help their community.  Prior to the disaster, the museum had a yearly tradition of hanging "koinobori," large fish windsocks used to decorate for Children's Day which is celebrated at the beginning of May Omori describes how many people in the museum were hesitant to resume the tradition.  "It was a time when people across the country were canceling events to show solidarity with those affected by the disaster So people here [in Ishinomaki] had misgivings about whether we should be holding an event in the place that suffered the most."  Omori argued that it was key for the community "We thought that from the perspective of our mental wellbeing and helped hang koinobori over a rope that was 500 meters (547 yards) long But we managed to put up something which was so colorful," Omori reflects.  A local football player came to show support The nearby theater Okada Gekijo was destroyed in the tsunami but the staff agreed to organize an open-air screening of a Kamen Rider film.  irrespective of the number of people attending We thought it was important to send a message from here." almost 4,000 people attended the event and thanked the organizers for what they had done It was then that Omori understood: the community needed this type of event more than anyone else.  The Ishinomori Manga Museum reopened its doors in 2012 it has returned to its former splendor.  Machizukuri Manbow is an NPO that developed in Ishinomaki out of the reconstruction efforts Its mission is to create a sense of community through the Ishinomori Manga Museum "It's not all about the manga museum and [Shotaro] Ishinomori's works Using different ideas and working with local businesses Looking at the philosophy behind the organization Omori explains that it takes inspiration from manga.  The characters for "manga" are 漫画. But to express the diverse nature of manga where the first character 萬 (man) means 10,000.  "Ishinomori Sensei used to say that manga is a form of art," says Omori "The manga of Ishinomori is all about possibilities." Now, Machizukuri Manbow hopes to be an integral part in bringing visitors to Ishinomaki and revitalizing the wider area. The museum has seen a drop in visitors since COVID-19 but Omori is optimistic that relaxed traveling restrictions will bring people back to Miyagi Prefecture Interview by: Shaun Fernando Additional information by Arielle Busetto You must be logged in to post a comment (President: Fumio Manoshiro; hereinafter "the Company") today held a completion ceremony for the biomass mixed combustion power generation facility at Ishinomaki Hibarino Power Plant operated by Nippon Paper Ishinomaki Energy Center Ltd (President: Yoshiomi Todo; hereinafter "Nippon Paper Ishinomaki Energy Center") which had been engaged in unit trial operations since September 2017.The power generation facility has commenced business operations as of March 1 the facility permits mixed combustion using wood biomass The Company seeks to contribute to the preservation of domestic forests (a key issue in recent years) by using unused woody materials mainly from Tohoku the Company will collect wood pellets from Asia and North America to increase the biomass blending ratio 　Ishinomaki Hibarino Power Plant　　　　　　　　　　　Completion ceremonyThe Company is advancing diverse business operations that utilize nationwide mill facilities and land resources as well as technology know-how and human resources developed over many years; with the aim of contributing to better living and cultural progress The Company's energy business operations are one aspect of these efforts which contribute to the stable supply of electric power to society.In addition to the stable supply of electricity Nippon Paper Ishinomaki Energy Center seeks to contribute to industrial in Ishinomaki and the promotion of the use of wood biomass as well as the stable supply of electricity; and will maintain the operation of its biomass mixed combustion power generation facility in safety first Masahiro Oka was warned to expect the worst A friend had told him that the scene at Tsukihama beach in the port city of Ishinomaki With the roads cut off by the massive tsunami Oka arrived on foot in his hometown on March 12 a day after the devastating Great East Japan Earthquake The sight before him was as promised: destruction all around "I thought that at least something would be left," said Oka "All the homes were gone except for the foundations of the buildings." he walked through the ruins of Kitakami district So he clutched her tightly in his arms and sobbed inconsolably Thinking "she must be cold" but unable to move her body to shelter Oka removed his own sweatshirt and slipped the garment onto his dead granddaughter Oka took refuge at a temple and went to retrieve Kokoro's body the following day But her face somehow looked different from a day earlier "I don't think I wanted to believe it...I thought this really can't be Kokoro." a relative who thought of Kokoro like a daughter is that really Koko (Kokoro's nickname)?'" Okuda replied the bodies of Kokoro's 1-year-old younger sister Iroha and their mother The five family members other than his wife are believed to have died after evacuating to the city's Kitakami General Branch which was a designated evacuation center in Tsukihama engulfed and destroyed by a huge wave It had been Oka's daily routine to receive a boxed lunch made by his wife and leave the house early each morning for his job as a construction worker Oka could no longer find meaning in going to work He took a leave of absence and instead started searching for the three missing family members "I couldn't move on without any trace at all of their remains." Not only did he search Tsukihama but also all of the surrounding flooded areas He returned to work after around six months but continued his search on his days off And he was still searching in the summer of 2015 He participated in search activities across the Kitakami River from Tsukihama where 84 children and teachers were killed Oka understood that even if he found something the chances were slim he could recover any remains of family members Oka was able to move from a temporary housing unit to post-disaster public housing built on elevated ground in Tsukihama It was close to where he had found both his granddaughters "I wanted to feel that I was by their side," Oka said about his desire to move into the new housing complex "I stopped my search right around this time," he said More than 2,500 people still remain missing in the affected areas from the 3/11 disaster "But the number of unaccounted-for people in newspapers has stopped decreasing I don't think (finding remains) is a possibility anymore," he said Oka's feelings of resignation have gradually intensified while he also had to confront the reality of being on his own when he left temporary housing and settled into his new life but I thought that now I have no choice but to go on living alone." Oka makes an offering of freshly cooked rice at his family's Buddhist altar each morning while offering his greetings to the departed he then makes himself an "onigiri" rice ball before leaving his apartment Such is a day in the life of a man who lost six family members to the 2011 Tohoku disaster The atmosphere was lively when his family was still around When his eldest granddaughter Kokoro would complain about not wanting to eat her rice Oka would beckon her to follow him into the kitchen and Kokoro would roll it into bite-size pieces She would break into a wide grin once she tasted it "Little kids like to make things themselves," Oka fondly recalled Oka cherishes these memories of his grandchildren Although he had waited nearly five years to move from the city's temporary housing to his current residence "I wanted to spend the rest of my life in my hometown so I wouldn't forget a single memory of where my family and I shared our time." While Oka tries to hold on to his pre-disaster memories he has no post-disaster memories to speak of and time has flown by as he plays out his daily existence "'It's okay to go easy.' I've also come to terms with living alone." whose name in Japanese means "kind heart," would have turned 20 this year if she were still alive We might even have drunk together," Oka said Asked if she would still feel close to him She'd probably be like the kids today calling me 'old man.'" he often opens the sliding door of the connecting Japanese-style room and gazes at the photos of his grandchildren arranged in front of the Buddhist altar from the living room the same color as the clothes his eldest daughter Hiromi liked to dress her and her youngest daughter Iroha in "I went all out," Oka said with a bashful smile an episode he often recalls is when Kokoro ate sashimi (raw fish slices) for the first time Oka knows that Kokoro tried sashimi as a toddler but he is unsure when it actually occurred or maybe 5 years old?" He finds himself losing track of the clothing his grandchildren used to wear even though he chose the blue color for the altar himself "Immediately after the disaster I had such vivid memories but they have grown hazy his feelings for his family are the one thing that has not deserted him I have no choice but to drink till I can settle down." Japan starts alert system for quakes off northern Pacific coast FEATURE: Gathering helps brighten lives of problem drinkers of 2011 disaster Japan marks 11 years since quake disaster, Fukushima crisis We sat down with the center's director Richard Halberstadt, a British national who calls Ishinomaki "home." He was working in Ishinomaki as an English teacher when the earthquake struck. Despite the British Embassy's advice to return to the United Kingdom he chose to stay and help his friends in any way he could.  What initially drew Halberstadt to Japan was his knack for foreign languages. He learned Japanese at college, then enrolled in the Japan Exchange and Teaching (JET) program a teaching exchange program for young foreigners.  "At the time it was the 1980s and so Japan was really economically a powerhouse then I thought it might be good for employment opportunities," he explains Halberstadt was assigned to a school in Yamagata Prefecture, where he delighted in the rural environment and natural scenery "But I couldn't get Japan out of my mind," he recalls So he got a teaching position at a university through a friend's referral and moved to Ishinomaki in 1993 "March 11 is engraved in everyone's memories here," Halberstadt says solemnly so teachers could stay at home if they wished to which he would later discover was a stroke of luck "It's a sturdy building and there were other people around which gave us some electricity despite the fact that all the power was out around." After the disaster Halberstadt couldn't return home because the city had been flooded He slept on the university floor with other staff and students for two nights Then he moved to the Ishinomaki Grand Hotel owned by Halberstadt's good friend Mr Munenori Goto "So many people just fled into the hotel that he contacted City Hall and had them make it a designated shelter which meant they got deliveries of supplies and so on," Halberstadt explains Mr Goto kindly told Halberstadt to stay at the hotel until he was able to return to his apartment Halberstadt was hit by the immensity of the disaster "The city was completely devastated," he remembers but it just looked like a post-apocalypse movie … There were lots of cars literally upside down I saw a car thrust into the window of a second-floor building." "It really made you feel that this was the end for Ishinomaki and there was no way that we could rebuild." Halberstadt was overwhelmed to see his friends alive "No one in Ishinomaki has not lost someone the British Embassy advised all British nationals in Northern Japan and Tokyo to evacuate A charter jet would take them back to the United Kingdom for free But Halberstadt couldn't make up his mind: "I was thinking my friends are in the worst time of their lives and this is not the time to just leave them to just get on with it." After saying provisional goodbyes to his friends in Ishinomaki, Halberstadt spent a sleepless night in Sendai Halberstadt decided to go back to Ishinomaki to support his friends during the worst of times "The one thing I could do was just be with them and stand together with them."  Halberstadt is grateful for his friendship with Mr Goto, the owner of Ishinomaki Grand Hotel. "Everything that happened around the tsunami changed our relationship from really good friends to almost family," Halberstadt says Mr Goto has even expressed his wish to have Halberstadt interred in his family grave when he dies "I'm worried about how all the dead ancestors are going to feel about British guys suddenly mixing up with them," Halberstadt laughs Halberstadt had always wanted to change careers after spending the majority of his adult life in English language education The experience of the tsunami gave him the nudge he needed.  I'm sure I can cope with anything," he admits It was then that the Ishinomaki City Hall contacted Halberstadt with a unique job offer at the Ishinomaki Community and Info Center a facility to inform and educate visitors about the ongoing reconstruction efforts across Ishinomaki Halberstadt was eventually promoted to director.  but the city decided to convert the ruins of Kadonowaki Elementary School into an information center and exhibition space The school building had been badly damaged by the tsunami all the students managed to escape to a hill directly behind the school Halberstadt was again hired as the director of the facility Halberstadt found that his experience of public speaking as a teacher and his language skills all came together He explains, "It's pretty close to the Pacific Ocean about 700 m [2,300 ft] away from the coast There are lots of other tsunami-damaged facilities around the disaster area but I think this is the only one that actually had the fire as well." there is a wide "spectrum" of how people feel about the disaster: "You've got the people who were already saying that we're going to rebuild the city are still suffering from trauma and feelings of guilt." For about five years after the disaster Halberstadt couldn't talk about his experience without crying he says Ishinomaki is "definitely looking a lot better." New roads and buildings have been constructed throughout the city While reiterating that the tsunami was a tragedy Halberstadt also claims that it "enabled the city to redevelop in a much more extreme way than it could have done if there had not been a tsunami But there are signs throughout the city that the place had once been razed to the ground the outlines of buildings and houses can still be discerned but I don't think the economic situation of the city has gotten back to pre-disaster levels Halberstadt says that Ishinomaki is worth a visit precisely because it is an ordinary city where visitors can see the lives of regular Japanese citizens: "Everyday life is really easy to see here." The city is also famous for its natural scenery. Halberstadt says, "You've got the ocean, you've got some mountainous areas and the whole river is really beautiful as well He adds that a trip to Ishinomaki will also have educational value "You actually get the chance to see the disaster area and maybe come to where I work and see tsunami-damaged buildings and see what it was like." Interview by: Shaun Fernando Additional editing and information by Miruka Adachi You must be logged in to post a comment This story is part of an Oregon Public Broadcasting series on how well the Northwest is prepared for the magnitude 9.0 earthquake that scientists say will hit along the Cascadia Subduction Zone just off the Pacific Coast In this report, OPB’s Ed Jahn follows Jay Wilson of the of the Oregon Seismic Safety Policy Advisory Commission, paleo-seismologist with Oregon State University Chris Goldfinger and geotechnical engineer Allison Pyrch to learn how a hospital withstood a magnitude 9.0 quake with nary a broken window. Read the full series: Unprepared: Will We Be Ready for the Megaquake? Vans deliver a stream of patients to the front door of the Ishinomaki Red Cross Hospital 402-bed hospital functions today just as it did before during and immediately after the 2011 earthquake and subsequent tsunami that struck the east coast of Japan The massive building rises like a beacon on a short incline in Ishinomaki City which was severely affected by the tsunami; homes and businesses were reduced to rubble The hospital was constructed in 2006 to replace another that used to be located along the waterfront Experts concluded that the old hospital was vulnerable to a tsunami Ishinomaki Red Cross Hospital was out of reach of the 2011 tsunami and withstood the 9.0 earthquake while Ishinomaki City’s old hospital flooded to the first floor a wall of water and debris destroyed nearly 46 percent of Ishinomaki City which had been converted to a nursing school was inundated to the ceiling of the first floor Many are still undergoing treatment for lingering psychological trauma from the earthquake that killed more than 3,000 in the Ishinomaki area alone Kaneda makes it clear to Wilson that he only has time to talk for the 30 minutes he’s allotted in his schedule But the doctor — who was on duty at the hospital on the day of the earthquake — is eager to tell Wilson a success story from the tragedy 2011 the hospital shook hard for about three minutes Video from that day shows staff bracing against desks as doors swing back and forth and windows rattle uneasily “No staff were hurt and none of the important medical equipment was damaged,” said Dr No flooding from the tsunami that stopped miles from the hospital’s doors The hospital wasn’t wrapped in a magic bubble — its emergency water supply proved inadequate and its emergency generators provided only half the electricity staffers were accustomed to the intact building was accepting patients and acting as a refuge for throngs of survivors who’d lost everything The Ishinomaki Red Cross hospital treated nearly 4,000 patients within the first seven days after the disaster the hospital treats about 60 patients a day “If you are expecting the same kind of tsunami disaster we experienced you have to build medical facilities in the areas the tsunami can’t reach,” Dr He added that the building was engineered with large earthquakes in mind leads Jay Wilson of the of the Oregon Seismic Safety Policy Advisory Commission paleo-seismologist Chris Goldfinger and geotechnical engineer Allison Pyrch down the stairs to the basement The building floats above the basement on spring-like structures It’s as if the building is balancing on over a hundred massive pogo sticks The hospital building sits on a series of spring-like structures an engineering feat known as base isolation support “This is geotechnical engineering…” Pyrch hesitates before going for the word It’s a feat of engineering called base isolation After a series of technical exchanges with Abe Prych explains that the system provides shock absorbers that cushion the five-story hospital above “The ground motions actually don’t reach the structure The building has a much calmer movement,” Pyrch said This is not the way hospitals are built in Oregon Abe shows Pyrch a large metal stylus suspended from the ceiling that reaches down to a metal plate bolted to the basement floor “It bounced horizontally 26 centimeters and the other side also moved about the same distance,” Abe said The stylus rendered in graphic form the ease with which the hospital weathered a 9.0 earthquake that ripped apart the surrounding countryside Engineers estimate the hospital can sustain several more earthquakes of equal magnitude without needing to replace the base isolation “springs.” explains the base-isolation “springs” beneath the hospital Oregon’s Earthquake Standards Far Weaker than Japan’s a member of an American Society of Civil Engineers group that examines seismic engineering throughout the world says there’s nothing like the Ishinomaki Red Cross hospital in Oregon That’s because current state seismic standards only require new buildings to be safe enough for occupants to escape after an earthquake Japan’s long history with earthquakes has created a different culture “They design to make sure that the infrastructure is useable afterwards” Pyrch said even so-called seismically engineered buildings may have to be torn down if they sustain even one earthquake as large as the one that shook Ishinomaki “When I drive through Japan and I see all the bridges and overpasses I’m like “I see something that’s up and running and standing And that’s not the case when you drive through Oregon.” has absorbed this engineering show-and-tell in his own quiet way He’s used to talking in terms of great tectonic plates He beats the drum of preparedness in Oregon because he knows the underlying science tells us we’re due for a big quake He was in Japan during the 2011 earthquake and knows what it’s like to be caught in a building as it shakes for what he says were four long minutes But in the basement of the Ishinomaki Red Cross Hospital he is surrounded by humankind’s answer to that natural phenomenon “I work on earthquakes in my office … and it’s a bit abstract You see exactly how the earth interacts with people and that’s where it departs from the science and becomes a societal issue,” Goldfinger said How prepared is Oregon for a magnitude 9.0 quake? Read the full story: Japan Earthquake Holds Lessons For Oregon Coast And view the rest of the series, Unprepared: Will We Be Ready For The Megaquake? Ed Jahn is a producer for the “Oregon Field Guide” on Oregon Public Broadcasting © 1996 - 2025 NewsHour Productions LLC PBS is a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization Subscribe to Here's the Deal with Lisa Desjardins