ISHINOMAKI, Miyagi Prefecture Yuto Naganuma has long felt uncomfortable with how he is described in the media.
The 26-year-old serves as a storyteller to talk about his community and his former school, Okawa Elementary School, where 84 pupils and staff members were killed or went missing in the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami.
But every time he is interviewed, Naganuma says, he is introduced as “a former Okawa Elementary School pupil” or as “a bereaved family member.”
He developed a sense of awkwardness toward this description when he was a senior high school student.
In one interview back then, he thought the media outlet wanted to do a sports-related story. As the captain of the school’s baseball club, he was prepared to discuss the team and the games.