Sendai Girls Lead Post-Disaster Reconstruction Initiative – Japan Disaster

Osaka – Sunday, December 18, 2011




It is over 9 months since the Japan disaster of earthquake and tsunami hit Tohoku district on March 11 this year. There are yet so many wreckages that need to be removed, people living in temporary housing, and so forth. Large-scale post-disaster reconstruction is about to start. The journey of the reconstruction, a nation-level issue, will be a long one.



In such a situation, Christmas Live Charity Events http://kitekesain.com/evtdisp.php?id=3905 have been held in Sendai, an important central city as the hub of Tohoku district that was hardly hit by the Japan disaster, in the afternoons of this weekend on 17th and 18th.



1. Who are the girls?



They are 8 members in early teens of a Japan pop group/idol unit called “Michinoku Sendai ORI☆HIMETAI” http://orihimetai.com/. The girls are all from Sendai, Miyagi prefecture; i.e. they are the victims of the Japan disaster. “Micninoku” is a Japanese word that means “Tohoku”, the North Eastern Japan.



“Orihime” literally means a female weaver but in this case, ORIHIME is the legendary Princess Weaver for whom Sendai holds famous Star Festival called “Tanabata” festival. According to the legend, ORIHIME meets the prince she loves called Hikoboshi once a year on July 7. The day is called “Tanabata” day and on this day people write their wish on Origami papers and put it on a bamboo tree, which is decorated like a Christmas tree. 4 famous festivals are held in Tohoku in summer and Tanabata festival the one held in Sendai, often called “City of Trees”.



2. Who produced Michinoku Sendai ORI☆HIMETAI?



It was a company called Muratac http://muratac.com/ based in Sendai. The company originally started its business from designing, manufacturing and supplying unique T-shirts upon request for events etc. and indeed it is the designer and supplier of the T-shirt for “24-Hour TV Programme” that has become a nationwide TV programme broadcasted every August. The events are also held aligning with the programme in major places/cities throughout Japan and the T-shirts are worn by the MCs and all staff members of the programme and the events.



The company has expanded the business to overall apparel such as stage costumes and festival costumes, and to planning and hosting events/stages including promotions (promotional goods, human resources for the events/stages).



With such business expansion, the company recently has entered scouting, developing and utilizing models and TV stars as well. For this reason, the company already had core competencies of producing and promoting a Japan pop group of Michinoku Sendai ORI☆HIMETAI.



3. What has Michinoku Sendai ORI☆HIMETAI been doing and why?



Since the group was produced in August, the members, although still amateurs, have been practicing hard to sing and dance day in day out so that they can deliver smile and courage to the people in the area where the progress in reconstruction has been slow through their stage event activities as well as reaching out to reconstruction-markets and visiting temporary houses.



With the earthquake and tsunami, everyone from adults to children has suffered from unprecedented damage, devastating them all. Everything from houses, schools and everything washed away and flattened.



The group wants to support areas which still face many hard-to-solve challenges in not only Miyagi but also Iwate and Fukushima. They also want to extend their gratitude to all people who sent money and goods from Japan and abroad for the sake of disaster victim children ever since immediately after the disaster outbreak.



They are determined to continue supporting not only disaster from victim children to elders side by side in the disaster-hit areas through their volunteer activities. Taking the advantage of their location, Sendai, they aim to send out information on not only the disaster but also wonderful charm of Sendai, Miyagi and Tohoku district to people around the globe.



They will be happy if readers of this blog post find people here in Tohoku forward-looking, cheerful and strong through ORIHIMETAI as seen in the lyric of ORI☆HIMETAI reconstruction supporting song “I’m Home” – “Once I was a bird I could not fly. But now no tear no time to cry. Believing you, it's nice to know you'll standby me〜”



It was with such a background that the Christmas live events performed by the group have been held in Sendai this weekend.



4. What are the author’s final thoughts?



The company and the group members must have overcome mental hardships as well as physical ones to have started this kind of initiative. It is because the author assumes that the victims of the disaster had been (or still are) mentally damaged and that there are so many things they would not really want to think or say about the disaster.



The author, just like many other people, feels it was with the characteristics of Tohoku people who are known for their patience that there has not been violence, chaos etc. even if the reconstruction process has been slow. If it had been in Kansai (western Japan), for example in Osaka, it probably had been quite different because Osaka people are known for being rather short-tempered.



The author is very much impressed with the initiative originated from Sendai by the company based in Sendai and their girls and that the initiative is planned to be spread to Iwate and Fukushima. Large-scale post-disaster reconstruction initiative is about to start and she believes there are things that each one of us around the globe can do to help drive such an initiative.





Resources:-

When post-disaster reconstruction has been slow, Muratac, an apparel company based in Sendai (an important city as a hub in Tohoku region, hardly hit by the Japan disaster in March 2011), produced Michinoku Sendai ORI☆HIMETAI, Japanese pop group of 8 girls in early teens from Sendai established in August to deliver smiles and encouragement through singing, dancing and visiting temporary housings. Large-scale reconstruction is about to start. Each one of us has something that we can do to help such an initiative.