Taro Tamura

Director of Institute for Human Diversity Japan / Chief Director for General Policy Planning of Post-Disaster Reconstruction

The larger the scale of a disaster, the longer it takes to reconstruct in the aftermath. It feels especially long, after society’s concern fades away. This timeline, while displaying an overview of the long path from the Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake, makes you realize how various events and activities have been continuously carried on, but with varied intensity overtime. This may give some hope to the people of Tohoku, who still have a long way to go.

Considering the future of the now completely abandoned suffering region, after all the enthusiastic attention and unceasing aid and supporters that had rushed in and left during the first year after the Great East Japan Earthquake, this timeline could be a source of hope for the Tohoku victims, demonstrating that various creatives in the field will continue to visit.

And the creators who could not jump on the bandwagon of the first frenzy, who were looking for ways to build down-to-earth relationships with the suffering areas, may be encouraged that now is their time to get involved in the reconstruction.

What is interesting also is that depending on the themes and fields, there are slightly different time lags in action. Developing various events and activities in different fields and themes for each period of time helps the number of visitors to increase, and encourages and revitalizes the devastated region. As someone who has been involved in the reconstruction of Kobe, I hope to see more creators getting involved with Tohoku region, and I am looking forward to seeing new activities added to the Kobe timeline as well.

< Back to the list