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Rikuzentakata, Iwate Prefecture, on March 6 | KYODO
Jiji Mar 11, 2021
Young people are increasingly working to help reconstruction efforts in the Tohoku region, hit hard by the disasters of March 11, 2011, by moving there and tackling challenges such as depopulation and regional revitalization.
Shunsuke Mitsui, 32, representative director of SET, a nonprofit based in Rikuzentakata, Iwate Prefecture, hails from Ibaraki Prefecture.
He established SET in March 2011, when he was a university student, and has engaged in volunteering activities for reconstruction. Upon graduating, he moved to the Hirota district of Rikuzentakata and served as a city assembly member for four years from 2015.
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Workers use gas burners at a glasshouse on Sept. 20, 2019, that opened in Minami-Soma, Fukushima Prefecture, after the Great East Japan Earthquake, tsunami and nuclear disaster. (Shoko Rikimaru)
The central government’s “reconstruction and revitalization period” for the Tohoku region is nearing an end and various infrastructure projects have been completed, but one thing remains missing in certain areas: people.
Under the post-disaster rebuilding period (fiscal 2016 to fiscal 2020), seawalls have been erected to protect the coast from future tsunami, projects are under way to promote new industries and shore up existing ones, and housing has been built for returning or new residents.