We are team “Wa” by about 100 the junior high school
student and high school students of the Tohoku district
stricken by the Great East Japan Earthquake of Japan on
March 11, 2011. Many of we are in an earthquake disaster,tsunami, and a nuclear power plant disaster, they lost thehouse and the area, parted from the family or the friend,and have experienced many pain and sadness till today.
We concentrated to the OECD Toohku school, studied
many things about the area or the world, were connectedwith many friends, and have fought for revival of the area.
And the event which will advertize a northeastern charmin the world on August 30, 2014 and 31 under cooperationof Paris and many people living in Paris centering on Parc
du Champ de Mars in Paris will be held. It could tellwonderfulness of believing the future, while telling ourthought in this event.
This Logo mark of Team “WA” represents the unity of 15
local areas toward their future.

OECD Tohoku School team “Wa” Sato Riku

nisiar

It is an honour to embark on this ʻMission: Possibleʼ with you. YouPdlmroorfwuekhothootTlfaoepmpr
Aahcthehave experienced the tragedy of the Great East Japan Earthquakeand rebounded with such courage and determination. We have a
lot to learn from you. It is through the lifelong process of learningthat we conquer our future and have access to new horizons. As
students of the OECD-Tohoku School, you are ambassadors,
appealing to the world to discover your imaginative and creativeeﬀorts in the recovery of your beautiful region and country.

Overcoming the Earthquake Disaster,
Toward Creation of New Education

Learning has no borders; it is a gateway to the world.
Barbara Ischinger,Director, Directorate for Education

OECD 東北スクール
OECD Tohoku School

http://www.oecd-tohoku-school.com
General Project manajer

Hiroki Miura(Professor Fukushima Univ.)

OECD Senior policy Analyst Miho Taguma(OECD Paris Headquarters)
2, rue André Pascal - 75775 Paris Cedex 16
Tel: +33 1 45 24 92 65
Email: miho.taguma@oecd.org

Secretariat Oﬃce Takayuki Nanashima
Zip-code 960-1296 1 Kanayagawa Fukushima City, Japan
Tel: ＋8124-503-3803
Email: tohokuschool@gmail.com

At the OECD Tohoku school, I am receiving the contribution from you forworking-funds reservation.
Contribution is transferred to the account only for the OECD Tohoku school established in Fukushima University.
Information:http://gakujyutu.net.fukushima-u.ac.jp/category/cat-id15/
Tel:+8124-503-3803 Email: tohokuschool@gmail.com

http://www.oecd-tohoku-school.com

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Starting with the idea, “We must change.”

As they are the largest team with 30 members, they playa role as the engine of OECD Tohoku School. The chief
leader and 4 thematic leaders are all from this team. They
work on the recovery of regional damage from the tsunami
and from harmful rumors.

After the 3.11 earthquake, Fukushima was hit by a tsunami, radioactive contamination, health hazards, andmore. We were overwhelmed by various kinds of fear. But now our life appears to be coming back to thenormal one that we had before the earthquake.

provided that we can live peacefully. But in fact, the radioactive contamination problem remains unsolved.
To me, it looks like people are living day-to-day life with confused feelings even now.
Then, I had a chance to join “OECD Tohoku School” , which enabled me to make friends with those fromother prefectures who had suﬀered from the disaster. I couldnʼ t hold back my tears while listening to theirtalks. Their experiences were more than I could imagine. For all that, they have been trying their hardest toIwaki Student-Body Summit TeamThe sale of fruits, which are their local specialties, dropped
dramatically due to the harmful rumors caused by the nuclear
accident. We hit upon an idea to develop a fruit jelly working withthe local oﬃce of Japan Agriculture, and this idea has been realized.
The fruit jelly will be actually sold commercially. A famous
confectioner in Paris tasted it and said, “Itʼ s delicious.”

accept and overcome the situation that they have now. I ﬁnd they are strong spirited people.
We, the people of Date City, are ﬁghting against the radioactive contamination that other aﬄicted
prefectures donʼ t have. People worry, maybe sometimes too much, about unfounded rumors because noone can tell when it will stop.
Elderly people, who once had enjoyed working on their farms, seem to have lost their hearts.

Okuma Junior High School Team

Even so, we must make a stand against the surging problems which might become more serious in years tocome. Fukushima Prefecture has always produced a wide array of vegetables, fruits and other foods. We
must restore what was lost.
“Tohoku School” is, for me, the starting point of the idea, “We must change” . I could do nothing but justwatch troubled parents and people around me. Is there anything we can do? What do we have to do for ourdearest Fukushima? I want to think of the best that we can do with the help of many people we meetthrough this Tohoku School.

Adachi High School Team

Not to be knocked down by the enemy named “DISASTER” .

A Student of Yanagawa Junior High School, Date-city, Fukushima
Yurina Sato

We are members of Natural Science Club.
Although our region is far from the nuclear
power station that had the accident, we haveplaces that were contaminated by radiation.
And the rumors are a serious problem. We
study the radiation in scientiﬁc way toovercome those rumors. Itʼ s our objective inthe Tohoku School. We also work as thecommunication team and are in charge of thelogo mark design and the homepage.

Date City Joint TeamWe are all Junior High School 3rd graders (2013).
We lost our home region after the tsunami and had
to evacuate to Aizu-Wakamatsu City, which islocated inland. Since we donʼ t have our homeregion now, we video-tape and edit ourself-documentary and sending out letters tocompanies to ask for help. We are planning to
make a short ﬁlm with the theme of Yae Niijima.

Soma High School TeamWe are Broadcasting and Drama Club
members. After the Earthquake, wewrote a ﬁlm script about a high school
girl aﬄicted by the damage from theearthquake and nuclear accident andhave performed it on the stage. Manypeople have shared the same feelingwith us. Soma regained hope byholding the historical Soma Nomaoi
Onagawa Kogakukan Team
Festival right after the earthquake.
W e a r e f r o m a c o a s t a l a r e a Our dream is to show the festivalʼ sdevastated by the tsunami. We makeknight procession to people in Paris.
art pieces out of rubble, collaboratingwith people from NPO. We havemade candles out of wasted oil andused them for events to promote thelocal shops. Weʼ d like you to get afeeling for what has been going on inthe damaged areas.

Otsuchi TeamOn 11 March 2011 along the eastern coastline of Tohoku region as many as 20,000 lives were lost.
By contrast, along the same coastline, many times as many lives were saved.
It was the borderline of life and death.
Change the borderline of despair into that of hope.

The center line of this symbol, named “Leaf Vein of Life,” shows the coastline of the Tohoku region hit by the tsunami.

South Sanriku Tokura Area Team
Our town was wiped away by tsunami. Our
local specialty, oyster, was also seriously
damaged. We have collaborated with thelocal ﬁshermenʼ s union and have restored
an oyster market for the recovery of ourregion. We want to work together withpeople in Japan and in Paris for people toenjoy our oysters.

Team Kesennuma
At the 3rd Intensive School, the number ofmembers doubled. Our region is busy withﬁshery, including products such as sea urchinsand shark ﬁns. We want to let people know
Kesennuma is blessed with sea food. A kitecalled “Tenbata” is locally the symbol ofrecovery. We want to ﬂy it in the blue sky ofParis.

Everything was washedaway in tsunami. In
our region, high school
students are playing a
big role in preserving
the traditional
performing art that has
a long history in
Otsu chi . We, ju ni orhigh school students,
are planning to hold an
exhibition to show
Otsuchiʼ s “Past,Present and Future” .

OECD 東北スクール

Though we remain hurt and feeling empty in our hearts, many are trying to accept this circumstance,Iwate Prefecture

Mr. Andreas Schleicher from OECD talked withDate Joint Team members. The team developed ajelly with local fruits, collaborating with the local JA
to overcome harmful rumors.

Otsuchi-cho

Kesennuma
Minamisanriku-cho

Miyagi Prefecture■About OECD Tohoku School●Local School

Onagawa-cho

DateSoma
Nihommatsu
Okuma-machi

Fukushima Prefecture
Iwaki●OECD Tohoku School Organisation
Management andOperation Division

Scenario Team

Industry-GovernmentAcademia Coalition
TeamStudent-Leader
運営事務局
Group

Empowerment
Partners (Supporters)
Students
Outside Tohoku（プロジェクトマネージャー・事務局長、スタッフ）

Communicationand PR Team

Self-Documentary
Team

Studentsin ParisHigh Level Roundtable Conference(MEXT, MOFA,OECD,Permanent Delegationof Japan, Fukushima University)

Secretariat Oﬃce

Project Manager,

Secretary-General, Staﬀ

●Cooperation Division

Student Division

Coaching Division

Universities,
Researchers
Enterprises
NPOs
Educational
Administration, Schools

Collaborators in Japan
Collaborators in Paris
OECD Directorate for

Local-Leader Meeting

Mentor Team

(Leaders from each local(Enterprises, Facilitators,team, Thematic Leaders)Expert Collaborators)）

Education and Skills

Advisory Board
Meeting

Thematic Activities
Scenario TeamWeʼ re working on the arrangement for the ﬁnal event in Paris. We collect event
plans from local teams and compile them into one splendid story, collaboratingwith many professionals.

Industry-Government-Academia
Coalition TeamCommunication
and PR Team
Self-Documentary
TeamWe connect people who support OECD Tohoku School such as companies, municipality andindividual persons. We introduce this project and have talks about the concrete ways ofcooperation. We try our hardest to help this project to move forward smoothly.

Weʼ re in charge of preparing an environment for communication and making thehomepage and posters to get it publicly known. From now we try to activate ourcommunication using iPads.
Our goal is to videotape the activities of Team “WA” , edit the ﬁlm and appeal topeople. With a video camera in one hand, we go on recording tours in damaged
areas with the help of experts.

On 11 March 2011, the entire Tohoku region was hit by a powerful earthquake, followed by a massive tsunami. Thisdisaster caused an enormous amount of damage and left an estimated 20,000 people dead or missing, mainly in the coastal
areas. On top of that, there was a hydrogen explosion the following day at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant,operated by Tokyo Electric Power Company, leading to the largest nuclear accident ever to occur in Japan.
In April of that same year, the Secretary General of OECD (Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development,
headquartered in Paris) came to Japan and made a commitment to support the recovery eﬀorts in Tohoku. In cooperation
with Japan's Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology (MEXT) and Fukushima University, theycreated the “OECD Tohoku School” (an education recovery project commissioned by MEXT).
OECD Tohoku Schools is a two and a half year project, in which 100 junior high and high school students from disasterareas in Fukushima, Miyagi, and Iwate Prefectures come together for a programme of study at Intensive Workshops andLocal Schools. Through this project-based learning, the students will produce an event in Paris in 2014 to appeal thewonders of Tohoku to the world.
Support for the project comes from MEXT, local boards of education, NPOs and related organisations. The secretariat
oﬃce is located at Fukushima University. In addition, there is an advisory board to provide guidance for various aspects ofthe programme. The project is managed by Fukushima University. The OECD Oﬃce for Education incorporates previous
education and recovery examples from other countries, and, building on them, designs the core curriculum.
This project is not limited to recovery; we are also thinking about the "new Tohoku, Japan's future," including business andeconomic revitalisation in the Tokhoku region, and development of human resources needed for innovation. To accomplish
that, we are engaged in various projects to encourage children to be independent, to help them think about the region'srecovery and put their thinking into practice, and to foster innovative ability. For example, in children we work to develop
the abilitiy to lead, to make plans, to be creative, to think critically about construction projects, to put ideas into practice, tonegotiate, to work well with others, and to be internationally-minded. In our present-day global, diverse, knowledge-basedsociety, we call these the "OECD key competencies for the 21st century." In order to foster the perseverance which people
will need for a long-term recovery, this will not be just a one-time event, but learning through a two and a half yearprogramme.

■Main Flow Until 2014
OECD Tohoku School will conduct the following activities
and events:●Intensive Workshops..... Hold ﬁve workshops (eachabout one week long), with lecturers from a wide rangeof backgrounds, hands-on workshops, and discussions.
These general meetings are for all participants, withparticipants from each region and school attending asa team, headed by the adult leaders from the region.
●Local Schools..... In the time between IntensiveWorkshops, Local Schools will be held in each region
to plan and enact projects for recovery, according to
the local situation. The Local Schools will, in part,consist of weekend activities and general study, andafter school activities to be held about two times amonth.
●Thematic Activities..... To ensure the success of the Paris
event, we will conduct dynamic inter-regional activities
to focus on the following topics: "scenerio,"" c o o p e r a t i o n w i t h i n d u s t r y, g o v e r n m e n t , a n d
academia," "communication and PR," and"self-documentary."●2014 Event.....The ﬁnal goal of the project is an event toappeal the recovery of Tohoku to the world. Our aimfor this is to have a wide variety of people cooperate inthis event and on their own, plan the content of theevent, conduct fundraising and publicity activities, andkeep a record of what they do.

March 2012 OECD Tohoku School #1 (Iwaki)
Thematic Activities

Local School

August 2012 OECD Tohoku School #2 (Iwaki)
Thematic Activities

Local School

March 2013 OECD Tohoku School #3(Kesennuma)
May 2013

Pre-event visit to Paris

Thematic ActivitiesLocal School

August 2013 OECD Tohoku School #4(Tokyo)
Thematic Activities

Local School

March 2014 OECD Tohoku School #5
Thematic Activities

Local School

August 2014 Pre-event in Japan

August 2014 Tohoku Appeal Event in Paris

OECD 東北スクール

Tohoku School Participating
Municipalities（As of April, 2013）■Intensive School #1 - The Birth of Team "Wa"
80 junior high and high school students gathered in Iwaki. These young people were thinking seriously about the recovery of their regions
and what they could do. They were eager to study many things and gain an international outlook in order to take on that task. Even with thesadness and suﬀering that came from losing friends and family, and even whole regions in one night, there was no hint at all that the students
wanted people to feel sorry for them. High school students from Tokyo and Nara also joined as "empowerment partners" and broadened thecircle of friendship.
At the opening ceremony, Barbara Ischinger, OECD Director for Education, gave a description of the overall goal of the project, “MissionIkegamiʼ s workshop

The Birth of Team "Wa"

Making a poster

Possible: August 2014 in Paris, event to promote Tohokuʼ s attractiveness to the world,” and the long two-year journey began.
At many of the workshops, it became apparent that a change was needed in their way of thinking about the project. The words, "Don't justsit there worrying. Get up and think!" left a deep impression, and were engraved on the minds of every student.

Recreation surround a ﬁreAt the workshop led by Gad Weil (international event producer), all attendees came together in one big circle to discuss a name for thewhole group. The name chosen was "Wa" (ring). The name came from the thought of all the participants, from disaster areas and non-disasterareas, coming together in a circle with the goal of recovery. In an extremely moving scene, all of the members, standing shoulder to shoulder,shouted “Wa~” together.
"Until now I thought I was the one suﬀering most, but getting together with people from other regions, and seeing how hard they wereworking, I gained courage." On their feedback forms, many of the students wrote comments like this. Through forging relationships in this way,
new possibilities can be born.

Uchidaʼ s WorkshopPresentation■Intensive School #2 - We Knew Nothing
The main purpose of the second OECD Tohoku School was to discuss the event ideas from the ﬁrst School and to narrow them down to thebest ones as Team “Wa” . To achieve the objectives, we need to keep discussing patiently without taking anything personally, and to thinklogically and decide correctly, always returning to the original purpose.
Since we did not make much progress in the discussions, we were not able to put everyone's ideas together in the time allowed. If we can't
make decisions in time, we won't be able to hold the Paris event. Then students raised a voice, “Please give us time. We donʼ t need free time
at night. Since we canʼ t make any decision in this form, please let us bring back the leadersʼ group from the spring School and make a groundplan.”

Onagawa team local school

The students realized that, even if the central part of the plan is decided, if they were unable to come to a decision about the rest, there
would no meaning to it. They needed to know what they are doing it for and what they should do to achieve it. This whole process led them tobe aware of one thing: that they didnʼ t know what they should have known.

That gave spirit to our project.

Otsuchi team local school■Intensive School #3 - Expanding the NetworkIsozakiʼ s workshop
Surround Mr. Gad

From our failure to come up with a plan for the event, we became aware of our need for better communication. Beginning shortly after thesecond school, meetings were held each month with student leaders and local leaders, and about once a week separate topic-based meetings
were held via Skype. Many avenues of communication were established, enabling the teams to share information with each other, to form
relationships with local organizations, and to coordinate the sharing of information between Japan and Paris. Through implementing the plansfor product displays that were decided at the Local Schools, and seeing how highly they were valued by outside organisations, we were able tosee results with our own eyes, a little bit at a time. It was as if the third School had actually started in September, rather than waiting forMarch.
The third Intensive School was held in Kesennuma, Miyagi Prefecture, which was heavily damaged by the tsunami. On the second day weput together a tentative outline for the event. On the third day we assembled the plans from the four theme-based activities, and put ourselveson the road to the project's goal. Concentrated eﬀorts and teamwork produced an energetic atmosphere at the meeting location, and we think
all of the participants were surprised at how much they had grown.
It has been exactly one year since the project began, and many of the students have moved from junior high to high school. At the end of
the Intensive School, we had the students share their thoughts about the past year. What they said made a deep impression on us. Although
diﬃculties continue in their regions, through participating in the OECT Tohoku School, they have found companionship and hope. They feel as
if they are growing, and have found meaning in living at this time.

Commemorative photo

The situation of talks

OECD 東北スクール

We also had a workshop named “What is Tohoku?” led by, Mr. Norio Akasaka, the director of Fukushima Museum. He said the primary
theme that the students thought of was coincidentally the same as the theme “Death and Rebirth” that underlies the festivals in Tohoku region.