K I Z U NA
Linking Japan and the World

Reconstruction for Tomorrow
Startups Changing the World

Spring2023

KIZUNA

KANAZAWA SHOKO
Calligraphy Artist
Born in Tokyo in 1985, she started learning
calligraphy from her mother when she wasﬁve years old. One of the notable young
calligraphers of today, her solo exhibitions
have been held throughout the world,in cities such as New York, Singapore,and Prague. She was selected as one of theoﬃcial poster artists for Tokyo 2020.

Welcome to KIZUNA, the official
magazine of the Government of Japan.
This bold work of calligraphy is
絆(kizuna) written in Japanese. Kizuna
means the enduring bonds between
people—close relationships forgedthrough mutual trust and support.
Originally describing the rope used
to tether domestic animals such as
horses and dogs, the meaning of
kizuna has evolved over the years. A
passage in The Tale of the Heike,compiled in the 13th century, uses theterm to refer to the bonds of love
between a father and his children.
More recently, kizuna has gone
beyond bonds tying together family
and close acquaintances; it is now
used in a broader sense of human ties
and connections. Of particular note is
the kizuna born among people during
natural calamities, which fosters
feelings of solidarity and serves as theunderlying strength to overcome
hardships.
Similarly, the kizuna cultivatedamong the countries of the world has
the power to deepen cooperation for abetter future. By reporting on a wide
variety of topics concerning Japan, we
hope that this magazine will provide
opportunities for Japan and the rest of
the world to connect and build
strong kizuna.

CONTENTS
POLICY & DIPLOMACY04

PM Kishida’s Tour Lays Groundwork
for Successful G7 Summit

06

G7 Summit 2023 Welcomed by All Hiroshima
RECONSTRUCTION FOR TOMORROW

08

Promoting the Bosai Spirit of Tohoku
to Create a Better, Safer World

10The Unknown Strong andWaste-Free Fishing Industry of Iwate

12

Ukrainian Evacuee and Tsunami-Hit City
Share Bond of Empathy

14

Drone Revolution is Taking Off from Fukushima

16

Protecting and Reinvigorating
the Craft of Fukushima Papier-Mâché
PORTRAITS OF JAPAN18

The Delights of Spring, the Blessings of Spring
STARTUPS CHANGING THE WORLD

20

The AI-Powered Manga Translation Service
Sharing Beloved Titles with the World

22
24

BodySharing: Transmitting the Experienceof Proprioception
Kosen Startup Automates Instrument Inspection

26

Breaking the Homelessness Cycle with Bike Sharing

TO READ MORE CONTENT,CHECK OUT OUR WEB MAGAZINE.
https://www.japan.go.jp/kizuna/

Spring 2023

COVER
(Clockwise from top left)
HAYAKAWA Minako, an artist ofpapier-mâché in Fukushima; Mantra, astartup that has developed an
AI-powered manga translation service*;
KAWAGUCHI Kana, a social
entrepreneur helping homeless people**;the ﬁshing industry of Miyako, Iwate
Prefecture, driving reconstruction after
the 2011 earthquake.
Photo credit: *MITSUKI KUCHITAKA;**DAISUKE GONDO

03

POLICY & DIPLOMACYPM KISHIDA’S TOURLAYS GROUNDWORKFOR SUCCESSFUL G7 SUMMIT

Assuming this year’s G7 Presidency, Japan will host the Summit in Hiroshima from May 19
to 21. To conﬁrm cooperation for the success of the Summit, and to conﬁrm further
collaboration between like-minded countries by deepening security cooperation with thesecountries, Prime Minister KISHIDA Fumio visited ﬁve of them in January. At the Summit,
Japan will lead the discussion as chair and demonstrate to the world the G7’s strong
determination to uphold the international order based on the rule of law.
Ahead of the G7 Summit to be held in Hiroshima
in May, Prime Minister KISHIDA Fumio visited fivecountries—France, Italy, the United Kingdom, Canada,
and the United States—from January 9 to 15. The prime
minister spoke with the head of state of each country andheld discussions concerning a wide range of topics, suchas regional and international affairs, including Ukraine,
as well as bilateral relations. The prime minister also
explained Japan’s way of thinking under the G7 Presidency
and received the understanding and support of his fellow
heads of state. At the end of his tour, Prime Minister
Kishida held a press conference, saying of the outcomeof the trip, “we succeeded in reconfirming that the G7
will unite and act in cooperation so as to fully defend theinternational order, which is based on the rule of law.”
The first stop on the tour was France, where Prime
Minister Kishida met with French President EmmanuelMacron. The two leaders concurred that the next Japan-

04

France “2+2” meeting should be held in the first half of
this year. They also exchanged views on Pacific Island
countries and confirmed that cooperation between Japanand France would be further promoted, based at the newconsular office of Japan in Nouméa in New Caledoniathat opened in January. The two leaders furthermore
welcomed the Japan-France Comprehensive Maritime
Dialogue, held on February 2.
In Italy, Prime Minister Kishida met with Prime
Minister Giorgia Meloni. The two leaders agreed toelevate the relationship between Japan and Italy to thatof “strategic partners” based on deepening bilateral
cooperation, including the trilateral joint developmentof next-generation fighter jets among Japan, Italy, and theUnited Kingdom that was announced at the end of lastyear.
The next stop of the tour was the United Kingdom,
where Prime Minister Kishida met with British PrimePrime Minister Kishida shown meeting
recently with ﬁve of the G7 leaders, fromleft: H.E. Mr. Emmanuel Macron,President of the French Republic; H.E.
Ms. Giorgia Meloni, President of theCouncil of Ministers of the Italian
Republic; the Rt Hon Rishi Sunak MP,
Prime Minister of the United Kingdomof Great Britain and Northern Ireland;
the Right Honorable Justin Trudeau,
Prime Minister of Canada; theHonorable Joseph R. Biden, Jr., Presidentof the United States of America.

KEVIN DIETSCH /GETTY IMAGES

Minister Rishi Sunak. The two leaders signed the JapanUK Reciprocal Access Agreement, a new platform for
defense cooperation between the two countries. The
agreement is expected to further promote bilateral
security and defense cooperation.
In Canada, in a dialog with Canadian Prime Minister
Justin Trudeau, Prime Minister Kishida expressed his
intention to work together toward the realization of aFree and Open Indo-Pacific (FOIP) through the steady
implementation of the “Japan-Canada Action Plan
contributing to a free and open Indo-Pacific region,”
which was announced last October.
At the Japan-U.S. summit meeting between Prime
Minister Kishida and U.S. President Joe Biden, the two
leaders confirmed that the national security strategies ofboth countries were aligned with each other, renewed
their determination to further strengthen the deterrence
and response capabilities of the Japan-U.S. Alliance,
and issued a joint statement by the two countries. The
two leaders will also strengthen Japan-U.S. security
cooperation across a broader range of areas extending to
the economy and technology, such as the strengtheningof supply chain resilience and cooperation in protecting
critical technologies such as semiconductors.
Since this year’s Summit will be hosted by the sole Asian
G7 member, Japan intends to discuss Indo-Pacific regional
affairs in depth and reconfirm further cooperation toward
the realization of a “Free and Open Indo-Pacific.”
The most prominent issue ahead of the G7 Hiroshima
Summit is Russia’s aggression against Ukraine. At theHiroshima Summit, member states will continue todemonstrate the will to uphold the international order

based on the rule of law, and will maintain and strengthen
both stringent sanctions against Russia and staunch
support for Ukraine. Japan, as the holder of the G7
Presidency, will lead the discussions and demonstrate acommitment to peace.

Hiroshima, where the G7 Summit will be held, is a beautiful city surroundedby lush green mountains and the quiet and peaceful Seto Inland Sea.
Hiroshima is one of only two cities in the world to have been exposed to theatomic bomb. The Atomic Bomb Dome in Hiroshima, which is preserved totestify the devastation of the bombing, has been inscribed on the World
Heritage List. HIROSHIMA CONVENTION & VISITORS BUREAU

Response following Russia’s aggression against Ukraine, updated on January
27, 2023, posted on the oﬃcial website of the Prime Minister’s Oﬃce.

05

POLICY & DIPLOMACYThe city of Hiroshima has many rivers and a beautiful cityscapewith lush greenery. It has undergone a remarkable reconstruction
since the day the atomic bomb fell and devastated the city. The
Atomic Bomb Dome is in the left foreground.

G7 SUMMIT 2023

WELCOMED BY
ALL HIROSHIMAThe G7 Hiroshima Summit will be held from May 19 to 21. At a time when the importance of peace is being emphasized morethan ever, the gathering of the G7 leaders in Hiroshima, with its perennial appeals for peace, holds unprecedented signiﬁcance.
Hiroshima prefectural governor YUZAKI Hidehiko, chairman of the Citizens Council for the Hiroshima Summit, gave histhoughts on hosting the summit in Hiroshima.
As the G7 Summit in May
approaches, the public and private
sectors in Hiroshima are steadily
preparing to welcome their guests.
Taxis, trams, and other forms of
public transportation, wrappedin advertisements announcing
the summit, traverse the city.
Local high school students havemade countdown boards to placeat the entrances to the airport,
train stations, and seaport, while

06

companies and organizationsin the prefecture had alreadytaken over 1,500 summit-related
initiatives by the end of February.
Governor YUZAKI Hidehikoexpressed his enthusiasm forhosting the long-awaited G7
Governor of Hiroshima Prefecture
YUZAKI Hidehiko has been inoﬃce for 14 years. “First andforemost, I want the summit to beheld safely, securely, and smoothly.
Secondly, I want not only visitors, butalso local residents, to be happy that
we hosted the summit in Hiroshima.”

Summit, saying, “I feel thewelcoming mood growing greater

HIROSHIMA ELECTRIC RAILWAY CO., LTD.

by the day.” The Citizens Council
for the Hiroshima Summit
is particularly committed toengaging young people in orderto turn one of the world’s mostimportant conferences into
an opportunity to connect tothe future, rather than letting
it pass by as a one-oﬀ event.
Commenting on that aim, thegovernor explained, “I want themto feel that the world’s problems
are shared by all of us and that weare part of the process of changing
global society.”
However, this G7 Summit’s
greatest signiﬁcance is that it will
occur in Hiroshima. Governor
Yuzaki said, “With Russia’s
ongoing invasion of Ukraine,
there has never been a summit
where the restoration andmaintenance of international
peace and security has been so
important. At the same time, I
think it will be a very meaningful
summit in terms of connections
between its theme and venue.”
On August 6, 1945, Hiroshima
was devastated by the ﬁrst attackby a nuclear weapon in humanhistory. With the Atomic Bomb
(Genbaku) Dome retaining
its appearance since the attack
and a museum conveying the

A tram is decorated with an announcement that the G7 Summit is approaching. The advertisement along
the top was designed by local high school students and features origami paper cranes, a symbol of peace.

sheer destructive power andhorror of nuclear weapons,
the city of Hiroshima has now
become a symbol of global
peace. That is why delivering a
powerful message of peace from
Hiroshima at the G7 Summit, as
the world watches, is “our duty in
Hiroshima,” claimed Governor
Yuzaki, who is also a native of thecity. “I believe that the current
appearance of the city, which
has made great progress since its
devastation during the war, will
also be a symbol of hope for thoseseeking to rebuild. I would likevisitors from all over the world
to feel Hiroshima in their hearts,
as a symbol of both the horror of
war and the prosperity that can beachieved through peace.”
The G7 Summit, which attractsa heavy foreign media presence, isalso a wonderful opportunity tohighlight Hiroshima’s appeal. In
addition to two World Cultural
Heritage Sites—the Hiroshima

Peace Memorial (Genbaku Dome)and the Itsukushima Shinto
Shrine—Hiroshima’s impressive
allures include its historicscenery as a long-prosperous city,
handicrafts such as Japanese paper,and the gifts of the mountains
and sea unique to its rich natural
surroundings. What is more, theprefecture not only boasts a wide
range of agricultural products
and fresh seafood caught in the
Seto Inland Sea, but also produces
Hiba beef—a variety related tothe original wagyu beef popular
all over the world—and is wellknown as one of Japan’s famous
sake-producing areas.
Governor Yuzaki said, “Theworld still doesn’t know about
many of the things that make
Hiroshima a wonderful place tovisit. I hope this G7 Summit will
create lots of new fans of the city.”
All the people in Hiroshima whotruly love the city and peace areready to oﬀer their welcome.

In anticipation of the post-summit period, the Citizens
Council has been encouraging young people of the prefecture
to join initiatives. The countdown boards (photo left) andoﬃcial logo of the council for the summit were also created by
local high school students.

07

PROMOTING
BOSAI
THE
SPIRIT
OF TOHOKU TO CREATE A BETTER,SAFER WORLD

The World BOSAI Forum—to beheld from March 10 to 12, 2023—hastaken place about once every two years
since 2017. People from some 40
countries and regions around theworld will gather to discuss various
bosai solutions. Use of unique Tohoku
recovery mascots (bottom right), a
walking tour of the disaster-aﬀectedareas in 2021(top left), and other suchfriendly touches full of local color haveadded to the attraction of the forum inthe past. THE WORLD BOSAI FORUM

The World BOSAI Forum, an international conference on bosai—a Japanese term referring to countermeasuresagainst natural disasters at all stages, from prevention and mitigation to post-disaster management andreconstruction—will be held in March in Sendai, one of the cities struck by the Great East Japan Earthquake. We
look at the forum’s focus, rooted in the lessons learned from that disaster, and its message to the world.
Japan has been aﬄicted throughout history bynatural disasters, creating original terms related tothese events—such as tsunami and sabō—that are
now understood globally. And recently, anotherJapanese word—bosai—has emerged as an importantconcept drawing attention. “Bosai has a wide rangeof meanings, from disaster prevention and mitigation
to post-disaster management and reconstruction.
There’s no word like it in English,” says Professor
ONO Yuichi of Tohoku University’s International

08

Research Institute of Disaster Science (IRIDeS). “Itessentially means building systems that are resilient
to disasters. To that end, not only do we need toorganize post-disaster responses, but we should
also prepare ourselves in advance from multiple
perspectives. With the recent increase in natural
disasters worldwide, we want to spread the conceptof bosai internationally.”
The third ever World BOSAI Forum will be held inMarch in Sendai City, Miyagi Prefecture, to deepen

RECONSTRCTION FOR TOMORROW

discussion on bosai and further share the concept withthe world. The forum will bring together individuals
and organizations from across the globe—including
researchers, companies, NGOs, and others—todiscuss a broad range of bosai-related topics, from thelatest technological advancements to climate change
impacts. But with its focus on practical knowledge
and solutions, the forum diﬀers from typicalacademic conferences. The reason for such a focus
lies in the lessons learned from the Great East Japan
Earthquake that struck many parts of the Tohoku
region, including Sendai City, in 2011. “Japan
has been collecting disaster data and developing
countermeasures since the early days, including
publishing an annual White Paper on Disaster
Management since 1963. Its countermeasures andlevel of knowledge are considered among the bestin the world. However, despite all those eﬀorts, theextensive damage caused by the giant earthquake
and tsunami of 2011 came as an enormous shock tothose of us working in the ﬁeld. It was a turning point
for Japan, making us concentrate more on actual
practice,” says Ono, the founder of the forum.
Since the earthquake, eﬀorts have accelerated in
the Tohoku region that are leading international
movements toward bolstering disaster risk
reduction. In 2012, Tohoku University in Sendai
established IRIDeS with the aim of creating an
academic framework for studying practical disastermanagement utilizing bosai. Sendai was chosen tohost the Third UN World Conference on Disaster
Risk Reduction in 2015, which adopted the Sendai
Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015–2030
After earning his doctoratein the United States
specializing in tornado
disaster research, Professor
ONO Yuichi of Tohoku
University’s International
Research Institute ofDisaster Science wasengaged in designinginternational disaster risk
reduction policies at UN
institutions. His experiencein 2011 as a volunteer in
one of the areas aﬀected by
the Great East Japan
Earthquake convinced him to move back to Japan and dedicate the rest of hislife to bosai eﬀorts, continuing to work on improving disaster readinessinternationally. THE WORLD BOSAI FORUM

Left: Sendai—the host city of the World BOSAI Forum—is rich ingreenery, with a population of 1.09 million in Miyagi Prefecture. The city
has been frequently afflicted throughout its history by natural disasters,from typhoons to floods and tsunami. AFLO
Right: Following the March 2011 earthquake, disaster-aﬀected areas haveintroduced a “multiple-defense” system that combines several methods tomitigate disaster risks. For example, Sendai, in addition to building
embankments and planting windbreaks in coastal areas, has constructedelevated roads that can function as embankments. CITY OF SENDAI

as the ﬁrst such agreement to set speciﬁc global
targets. To achieve those targets, IRIDeS establishedthe Global Centre for Disaster Statistics. Along with
monitoring the disaster damage statistics of countries
around the world, the center attempts to propose
investments needed in risk reduction tailored toeach country. The World BOSAI Forum evaluates
the progress of the Sendai Framework and makes
concrete proposals.
Another distinguishing feature of the forum is
its openness to citizen participation. Anyone who
registers can join the forum, which is designed tobe people friendly and, in the past, has included
presentations on stockpiling food and related
activities by students, as well as a walking tour ofdisaster-aﬀected areas. The lessons of the 2011 disasterare very much alive within such oﬀerings as well.
Ono, who volunteered his time and eﬀorts after thedisaster in order to interview aﬀected residents, foundthat while many of those on the coast had evacuatedto safety thanks to their heightened awareness, quite
a few living more inland had hesitated to evacuate
and thus failed to escape in time. To prevent such a
tragedy from ever occurring again, continuous eﬀorts
must be made to raise public awareness—that is thestrong belief incorporated within the forum.
Ono believes that the fact of having organized theforum cooperatively with local citizens helps delivera more powerful message on the necessity of bosai,
from the perspective of those directly involved, tocountries that need to prepare countermeasures
themselves. “Nobody else in the world should haveto go through the same horrible experiences that we
did—such strong thoughts will be conveyed via thewords of those who personally bore the eﬀects ofthe disaster. We hope to continue sending out sucha message, grounded in the perspective of individual
citizens, and realize a disaster-resilient world.”

09

RECONSTRCTION FOR TOMORROWTHE UNKNOWN STRONG AND WASTE -FREE

FISHING INDUSTRY
OF IWATE
MiyakoIt has been almost 12 years since the Great East Japan Earthquake. The ﬁshing industry
in the city of Miyako in Iwate Prefecture reopened just a month after the disaster,
helping to fuel the reconstruction eﬀort. We explored the nature and background of
the strength of Miyako’s ﬁshing industry, which has driven the area’s revival.
The waters oﬀ Sanriku, theeastern coast of the Tohoku(northeastern Japan) region—
where cold and warm ocean
currents collide—are home
to one of the world’s threegreat ﬁsheries, featuring animmense variety of sea life. The
complex coastline calms thewaves, making it suitable foraquaculture, and the plentiful
gifts of the sea support the
livelihoods of the local people.
In March 2011, the Great East
Japan Earthquake struck the area.
IDOBATA Katsuji—a memberof the ﬁsheries association in
Miyako City, Iwate Prefecture,
which forms part of the Sanriku

Coast—describes his experienceof the disaster as follows: “Thetsunami inundated Miyako’s ﬁshmarket, almost up to the roof.
All our utilities, including waterand electricity, were cut oﬀ.”
Even so, Miyako’s ﬁshingindustry reopened that April,just a month after the calamity.
KANAZAWA Toshiaki, director
chairman of the Iwate Prefecture
Bottom Trawl Fishery Association,says, “When the quake hit, wewere in the middle of unloadinga catch at the port. That’s why
we could quickly escape inour boats oﬀshore before thetsunami arrived, saving both ourcrew and our boats.” The trucks

and forklifts used at the market
were also safe because the workers
had quickly moved them to highground.
Another notable reason for the
local ﬁshing industry’s prompt
recovery has been the use of the
traditional method of trawling—catching multiple marine species
rather than intensive ﬁshing of the
few species that are in demand—
which had been in practice sincewell before the earthquake.
ISHIMURA Gakushi, Associate
Professor of resource economics
at the Iwate University Faculty ofAgriculture, says, “In Japan, which
has four distinct seasons, andwhose geography is characterizedby multiple inlets where diﬀerent
currents run up against eachother, the ocean environment ofcoastal ﬁsheries and the species
composition of the catch changes
easily. That is why Japan, compared
A trawler pulls in a catch afterdragging a net through the ocean. The
crew quickly sorts the many kinds ofﬁsh and shellﬁsh once unloaded.

Left: Iwate University Assoc. Professor ISHIMURA Gakushi (center), Musashi University Assoc.
Professor ABE Keita (right), and KANAZAWA Kaito (left), a graduate student who comes from a
Miyako fishing family and who studies under Ishimura. All three men conduct research on the
Sanriku Coast’s fishing industry.
Right: SUZUKI Ryota, the “Squid Prince.” He says, “My efforts are gradually gaining recognition.
Recently, they’ve been attracting interest from students who will work in fisheries in the future.
That makes me so happy.”

with other countries, hasdeveloped a culinary culture thatutilizes an extremely wide variety
of marine species.” Catching many
species together, rather than justtargeting the one or the few with ahigh market value, is a method that
commonly leads to a signiﬁcant lossof catch in other countries because
only a limited variety of seafood isever in high demand. In contrast,
when Japanese ﬁshers using theirunique trawling and set nets catcha variety of marine species at once,
none of the catch goes to waste. It
all becomes food and avoids thenegative eﬀects of intensive ﬁshingof a limited number of species.
Ishimura showed that thediversiﬁcation of species in eachcatch has contributed to thestability of the coastal ﬁshingbusiness. Distributing investments
among multiple assets to minimize
risk while sustaining returns is awell-known ﬁnancial engineering
theory of portfolio management,
and the same thinking applies
to ﬁshing as well. Ishimura
explains, “Seafood brokers aregood at adapting to ﬂuctuationsin the kinds and quantities ofﬁsh and other sea life that arecaught. The local wholesalersin Miyako distribute multiple
species to areas where they canfetch a higher price in various
ways, such as through being

processed as seafood products
or supplied to the market for
fresh raw consumption. In otherwords, prices are maintained byadding diverse economic values
to the variety of seafood products.
Miyako is an important location
thanks to transportation links
that connect the coast with theprefectural capital of Morioka
inland. That situation has
particularly matured the seafood
supply chain, and that, I believe,
is what contributed to the rapid
recovery of the value of landings
so soon after the earthquake.”
One person who has been
instrumental in expanding sales
channels for Miyako’s seafood
since the earthquake is SUZUKI
Ryota, the representative director
and executive managing directorof Kyowa Suisan, a seafood
processing company in Miyako.
He says, “When I saw how muchthe earthquake had changed
the familiar city and market, I
thought that I had to initiate
some sort of action.” After thedisaster, he started presenting
himself as the “Squid Prince,”
sharing information through a
blog and various media platforms,
and opening up new sales
channels through events and theInternet. Suzuki’s ideas for thinly
sliced squid somen-style noodles
in a cup and fried cod became

hit products. Meanwhile, Kyowa
Suisan and three other companies
in the industry started up Miyako
Team Isaribi (isaribi referringto the torch used for attracting
ﬁsh during night ﬁshing). Eachmember of the group takes careof diﬀerent processes, fromprocurement to production, sales,
and transactions, while sharing
raw ingredients and sales channels.
The result has been a tripling ofsales compared with the situation
before the earthquake.
With demand for food risingworldwide as the global population
increases, the sustainable use ofocean resources has become anissue of international importancethat has also been addressed by theUnited Nations’ SDGs. Miyako’sﬁshing industry, which forms thefoundation of the local economy,
employs ﬁshing methods anddistribution systems that have heldup against changes to the naturalenvironment and resources. That
could be an important tool for
considering ways of using theworld’s ocean resources and theeconomic activity they entail.
Top: An auction at Miyako’s fish market.
Seafood brokers gather to place bids on thefish and shellfish.
Bottom: Miyako’s fish market at the time of
the 2011 earthquake. The market was flooded
to the roof by the tsunami.

11

Irina Honcharova stands in front of the ruined buildingof Kadonowaki Elementary School, which has beenpreserved as a warning to posterity about the dangers ofcatastrophic earthquakes. “We will never forget thecountries and people who have supported us,” shedeclares. Her greatest wish at the moment is to return toa peaceful homeland.

UKRAINIANEVACUEE ANDTSUNAMI-HIT CITY

Ishinomaki

SHARE BOND OF EMPATHY

A Ukrainian woman who ﬂed the Russian invasion foundherself in Ishinomaki, a city devastated by the giant
earthquake of March 2011. Warmly supported by the local
people, she speaks about the importance of human life andher desire for peace.
Visitors to the former Kadonowaki Elementary
School in the town of Ishinomaki in Miyagi
Prefecture, part of Japan’s Tohoku region innorthern Honshu, are struck by the charred ruinsof its three-story building. The site lies less thana kilometer from the sea in an area devastated by
the earthquake of March 11, 2011 (the Great East
Japan Earthquake), and was engulfed in ﬂames whenhouses, cars, and other debris were swept around it
by a tsunami that carried along a trail of ﬁre. The
schoolchildren had fortunately taken refuge on a hill

12

behind the school and were thus all saved.
The damaged building has been preserved andis now open to the public as the Ishinomaki City
Kadonowaki Elementary School Ruins, standing as areminder and a lesson for future generations of theterrible power of tsunamis and tsunami-triggeredﬁres.
A regular visitor to the school since September
Honcharova is a volunteer at
the ruins of Kadonowaki
Elementary School, where shetalks to visitors about her own
country. She speaks to them in
Ukrainian with the help of an
AI interpreter and sings
Ukrainian
songs
when
requested.

RECONSTRCTION FOR TOMORROW

2022 has been Irina Honcharova, a Ukrainian evacuee
who ﬂed the Russian invasion of her homeland lastyear. She goes there in order to speak to people about
the preciousness of human life. Originally she had
lived in Chernihiv, a city in northern Ukraine thatcame under ﬁerce attack by the Russian armed forces,
forcing her to shelter in an apartment cellar withoutwater or electricity.
After the Russian siege was lifted, she immediately
ﬂed to Poland. Then, when the Japanese government
announced that it would accept evacuees,
Honcharova came to the country in April of last year
along with her then 86-year-old mother. They chose
Ishinomaki City because her son lives there with his
Japanese wife, and both have helped them to settle inthe community.
Three Ukrainians, including Honcharova and hermother, now live in Ishinomaki. The city assists themwith living and medical costs and also provides themwith a place to live. OSU Mitsuko, who works in thecity’s health and welfare department, says that her
experiences during the earthquake of 12 years ago
have helped her in dealing with the city’s present
support of evacuees. “Victims of catastrophe hesitate
to express their real concerns. Honcharova was thesame way, saying, ‘Oh, I’m ﬁne, I’m ﬁne.’ So rather
than repeatedly asking if they have problems, it’smore important for us to be there for them until they
can open their hearts and begin to speak up.”
Honcharova says she is grateful for the city’s
warmhearted support. “Here, everyone wants to help
us. I am especially thankful that someone from thecity oﬃce is always there to oﬀer support. They founda wheelchair for my mother, and they take her toadult daycare. I cannot thank them enough. At New
Year’s, I was so happy to receive many pictures fromschool children expressing their heartfelt prayers for
Ukraine.”Interacting with Honcharova and ﬁnding her to betalkative, Osu thought it would be good for her toconnect with other people as well. Thus, she suggested
that Honcharova volunteer at the Kadonowaki

Left: Ishinomaki was among the cities most devastated by the tsunami ofMarch 2011, with nearly 4,000 people either dead or missing. THE GREAT EAST
JAPAN EARTHQUAKE ARCHIVE OF MIYAGIAbove: Ishinomaki Minamihama Tsunami Memorial Park is located in a
district that suﬀered extensive damage. The park opened in 2021 tocommemorate the victims of the earthquake and tsunami, to pass on thememories and lessons, and to express the city’s ﬁrm determination to rebuild,
both at home and abroad. ARC IMAGE GALLERY/ AMANAIMAGES

Elementary School ruins. She now goes there twicea month to speak to visitors about Ukrainian culture
and society and to voice her desire for peace.
Honcharova taught at an elementary school in her
native country for more than a quarter of a century.
“For all teachers, school is a kind of home,” she says.
“Tears came to my eyes when I ﬁrst saw the remains ofKadonowaki Elementary School. It made me think of
all the destroyed schools in Ukraine. The destructionof a school is like the destruction of a home. It is sodevastating,” she sighs.
“Every human being has the right to live,”
Honcharova says emphatically. “Military invasions
and natural calamities are not the same thing. But thepeople of Ishinomaki and I share feelings that only
those who have suﬀered can feel.”
March 2023 marks the 12th anniversary of theGreat East Japan Earthquake. Ishinomaki, as it
continues on its way to reconstruction, stands ﬁrmly
in support of Ukraine and shares in its desire tocherish human life.
Honcharova is outgoingand eager to socialize
with local residents.
Here, she is all smiles as
she learns to play thekoto, a traditional Japanesezither-like instrument, at
a neighbor’s home.

13

RECONSTRCTION FOR TOMORROWDRONEREVOLUTIONIS TAKING OFF FROM FUKUSHIMA

Minamisoma

After suﬀering severe damage during the Great East Japan Earthquake of March 2011, Fukushima is building new
industrial infrastructure toward its reconstruction. The robotics and drone industries are one part of that eﬀort. With an
exceptional test ﬁeld covering land, sea, and air, Fukushima is striving for sustainable development through regional
collaborations.
“We’re motivated by the idea of
spreading Japan’s aviation industry
from Fukushima Prefecture,” says
SOTANI Hideji, president ofEams Robotics Co., Ltd., anindustrial drone manufacturer
based in Minamisoma City,
Fukushima Prefecture.
Initiatives to build up various
industries are proceeding under
the Fukushima Innovation Coast
Framework, a national projectthat seeks to build industrial
infrastructure in the prefecture
for its reconstruction after the2011 earthquake. The robotics
and drone industries are a criticalarea under the framework. The
Fukushima Robot Test Field
was established as a researchbase that can—exceptionally, byworld standards—reproduce theactual operating conditions ofground, maritime, underwaterand aerial robots, including
infrastructure and disasterzones. The ﬁeld is now the site ofongoing innovative research anddevelopment.
Eams Robotics is developing

state-of-the-art
technology,
includingdronesequippedwith AI to keep them aloft.
The company is mainly focusedon using such drones forinspections and surveys in highor dangerous places not easily
accessible by humans, including
bridges, dams, and wind farms,
as well as for the transportationof supplies to hard-to-reachlocations such as mountainous
areas and remote islands, andfor the gathering of information
during disasters. Using drones
The Fukushima Robot Test Field was built in
Minamisoma City, Fukushima Prefecture. To
develop the existing technology, researchers
conduct demonstration tests and flight drills to
inspect infrastructure and respond to disasters inhypothetical real-world environments. One goalof the test field is to build up a local robotics
industry. Shown right is a scene from anexperiment at the test field.

14

The main body and the unit can be separated,allowing the drone to be used for multiple purposes.
In the event of a disaster, it can be equipped with acamera that can transmit images of the damage anda speaker for guiding evacuation.

that can transmit live footage ofmajor disasters could allow for
quick situational assessment anda more targeted initial response.
“We’re developing a design thatallows a solo operator to control
multiple drones. Last November,
we conducted a ﬁeld test in which
one person simultaneously ﬂew
three drones in a search operation
at a ﬁre site. To utilize drones associal infrastructure, costs need tobe reduced by controlling severalof the machines simultaneously,”
President Sotani said.
To develop the drone market
with an “all-Fukushima” approach,Eams Robotics has also implemented
horizontal cooperation with otherlocal companies based in the
Hamadori area, which includes
Minamisoma City. “We arestarting to build a sales network
and initiating collaborationon technical matters as well.
We want to foster the drone
industry by capitalizing on eachcompany’s strengths,” Sotani said
enthusiastically, adding that healso hopes to energize Fukushima’s
industry as a whole.
Cultivating the next generation

Drones are expected to play an active part in inspecting
and surveying bridges, dams, wind power plants, andother sites that are hard to access by humans, as well as
in assessing the situation at the time of a disaster. The
picture depicts a bridge-survey experiment.

A unit with a camera

A unit with a speakerof talent will be essential to growing
a drone industry with strong local
roots. Sotani gives talks about
drones at local junior high schools,
and the company has started using
the visits as opportunities to takein local students as interns. “We
aim to be a company at which
the children of Fukushima will
choose to work.”
Eams Robotics is also eying
markets beyond Japan’s shores.
Although foreign companies
account for a large share of the
global drone market, Sotani
sees additional opportunities
for Japanese companies to makeinroads there. “I believe thatJapanese ﬁrms excel in promptly
troubleshooting problems andoﬀering ﬂexible customizationaccording to customer needs.
We can be eﬀective in actively
developing new applications fordrones, as well as in the ﬁeld of
information security,” he said.
The “Aerial Industrial Revolution”
that Fukushima’s advancements indrones will help make a reality isgoing to take oﬀ in a grand fashionin tandem with the prefecture’s
reconstruction.

SOTANI Hideji, president of Eams Robotics.
The company co-established Fukushima Next
Generation Aviation Strategy Promotion
Council (FAS), which is working on training
professionals and collaborating with otherlocal companies so that Fukushima can build aworld-leading industry.

15

RECONSTRCTION FOR TOMORROWPROTECTING AND
REINVIGORATING THE CRAFT OF

FUKUSHIMA
PAPIER -MÂCHÉ
An artisan exploring a new form of folk craft after the Great East
Japan Earthquake has been collaborating with companies
and incorporating characters from around the world toreinvigorate the industry with fresh ideas. We asked her
about the earthquake’s inﬂuence on her thinking
and the ideas that go into her work.
An okiagari koboshi is an eggshaped doll that generally imitates achild’s face and always stands backup when knocked down, while
an akabeko is a red cow ornament
with a swaying head. Both of thosetraditional papier-mâché folk toys
are said to ward oﬀ misfortune.
They come from the Aizu region in
Fukushima Prefecture, which wasseverely damaged by the massive
tremor—known oﬃcially as theGreat East Japan Earthquake—

The workshop employs over 20 artisans, ranging
in age from those in their 20s to those in their80s, each of whom managing a diﬀerent part ofthe papier-mâché-making process.

16

Nishi-Aizu

that occurred in 2011.
Papier-mâché painter HAYAKAWA
Minako said that when theearthquake struck, “It shook
like nothing I’d ever experienced
before. I felt sure that something
terrible had happened.” The
Nozawa Folk Arts workshop
where she works lies in the inland
Aizu region and did not suﬀer too
much damage; the coastal areasof the prefecture, however, wereaﬄicted by a tsunami in addition
to the shaking of the earthquake,causing tremendous destruction.
“I felt uncomfortable about
painting designs in a warm place
while other people were undersuch stress at what was still avery cold time of year. On theother hand, I thought that even
if I were to visit areas where
the destruction was greatest, I
couldn’t be of any help there.”At the time, a movement
started to support thedisaster area through thepurchase of folk crafts.

HAYAKAWA Minako with akabeko ornaments(aka meaning red and beko meaning cow).
Fukushima has several legends involving red cowsthat reputedly ended a plague and helped rebuild
a temple destroyed in an earthquake.

In addition to getting people tothink about traditional folk crafts
again, the movement spawned
momentum to produce newworks. Hayakawa noticed that
this development was “connectedto the reconstruction” in the formof giving impetus, so she started
producing entirely new papiermâché designs.
The ﬁrst new item that she
made was a negaidama, or “wishball,” painted onto an okiagari
koboshi with traditional auspicious
Japanese patterns. Hayakawa later
produced an ornamental cow witha wave crest pattern called seigaiha
These okiagari koboshi are “wish balls” painted
with traditional Japanese patterns. Each one
represents a diﬀerent wish, such as good health,prosperity of descendants, or business success.

The ornamental cows painted with seigaiha
patterns were created in response to theearthquake and subsequent tsunami. The red
thread connecting the head and body is based ona Japanese legend about a red thread thatconnects people.

when she joined the Akabeko
Project, which supports theaﬀected region’s reconstruction
through painting workshops andoriginal akabeko exhibitions bycreators from diﬀerent ﬁelds.
Seigaiha is a traditional Japanesepattern; the endless wave design
embodies the idea of everlastinghappiness. On the other hand, thepattern is also reminiscent of thetsunami that caused such tragicdevastation. “Although I hesitatedto say so right after the earthquake,
I never wanted people to forget
the tsunami. I also painted thecow with this pattern to express
determination to overcome thetsunami.”An oﬃcial from the Scandinavian
Tourist Board (now Visit Norway)
who saw Hayakawa’s ambitious
work approached her with anentirely unexpected idea for thereconstruction eﬀort: a papiermâché Okiagari Munch based on
The Scream, the best-known workby Norwegian painter Edvard
Munch. Hayakawa was initiallypuzzled, but was won over when
she came to understand that thehistory of The Scream—which
had been stolen and returned
several times—shares somethingin common with the okiagari

koboshi dolls thatalways stand back up
after being knocked
down. The work
was an instant hit,
showing the world theskilled crafting and allureof Fukushima’s papier-mâché.
Hayakawa and the workshop
have always worked on original
products with innovative designs
and have conducted numerous
collaborations with various
companies. The workshop
handles a wide variety of orders
while respecting tradition andartisans and focusing on quality.
Hayakawa said, “Just because
something will sell doesn’t mean
we have to make it. We always

think about whether there ismeaning for an item to be madein the form of Fukushima papiermâché and question ourselves if
the artisans are being pushed too
hard.”
Fukushima papier-mâché connects
people with a wish for a happy
future. Hayakawa’s current goal
is to pass on this tradition—
rediscovered due to the earthquake—to future generations.
The Okiagari Munch
ornaments were released
in 2013 to celebrate the150th anniversary of
Edvard Munch’s birth.

Right: Painting on paper pasted over a wooden
mold and dried. Part of the appeal of thehandcrafted works is their subtle diﬀerences in
expression.
Bottom: Hayakawa shown painting an ornament.
She is the president of Nozawa Folk Arts inNishi-Aizu, Fukushima Prefecture. She has beensurrounded by papier-mâché craftsmen, including
her father, who is the workshop’s former president,
since she was a child. After ﬁnishing high school,
she took over painting duties at the workshop.

17

PORTRAITS OF JAPANTHE DELIGHTSOF SPRING,
Miyajima,
Hiroshima

THE BLESSINGS OF SPRING

Cherry blossoms are known worldwide as a symbol of spring in Japan.
But there are other attractions during this season that rival them.
Tea and edible wild plants, which are essential to Japanese cuisine, arealso springtime delights that many Japanese people love. Please enjoy
spring in Japan not only with your eyes, but also with your taste buds.

MIYAJIMA IN BLOOM
Miyajima is a top tourist destination in Hiroshima Prefecture. An object of worship since ancient
times, the island is home to a number of Shinto shrines and Buddhist temples. Itsukushima
Shinto Shrine, said to be founded in the sixth century, has structures remaining from 1168,
and has been inscribed as a UNESCO World Cultural Heritage Site. The large vermilion torii
gate erected in the sea is a symbol of the island. Atop the nearby hill is a ﬁve-storied pagoda thatstands about 28 meters high and contains a splendidly colorful interior. The island, retaining
traditional streets and untouched virgin forest, is covered in cherry blossoms when they reachfull bloom in spring. This May, the G7 Summit 2023 will be held in Hiroshima. MO PHOTOS/AFLO

Fuji,
Shizuoka

DELICACIES OFSPRINGTADAO KIMURA/AFLO

Along with cherry blossoms, Japanese people lookforward to the appearance of edible wild plants in spring.
After the cold winter, plants sprout fresh buds oﬀering thegifts of nature. They have had their admirers since long,
long ago, appearing in poetry that is more than 1,200
years old. A diverse range of varieties grows in diﬀerent
climates and terrains, and in addition to being collectedin the wild, today the plants are widely cultivated.
Although they have a distinctive bitterness, the ﬂavor ofwild plants is also a characteristic of Japanese cuisine thatmakes it so tasty. While traveling throughout Japan, you
can try dishes using the wild plants of each area.

TEA FIELD WITH MT. FUJI
Shizuoka is Japan’s greatest tea-producing prefecture. Its more than 20 production areas
account for about 40% of the country’s tea plantations. Thanks to a warm climate andadvanced technology, farmers can produce quality tea that people in many countries
beyond Japan also enjoy. Running from April to May is the season of new tea—tea
made from carefully hand-picked young tea leaves, oﬀering a distinctively invigorating
sweetness and fresh aroma. In the tea ﬁelds of the city of Fuji, you can have fun joining
an organized tea-picking activity while gazing upon stunning Mt. Fuji, a UNESCOWorld Cultural Heritage Site and another of Shizuoka’s attractions. KAZUO OGAWA/AFLO

Mantra Engine (above) can swiftly recognize text placed in the manga panel and identify its
order, automatically turning the words on the page into a translation that considers the situationand the personalities of the characters. Leveraging their respective areas of specialty, themembers of Mantra (right) have striven to create a system that is easy to use. MITSUKI KUCHITAKA

THE AI-POWEREDMANGA TRANSLATIONSERVICESHARING BELOVED TITLESWITH THE WORLD

Aiming to send more manga titles out into the world in a shorter time, AI research graduates from the University ofTokyo have developed a machine translation system that has not only signiﬁcantly streamlined the translation
process, but also enabled several unexpected innovations.
Japanese manga, such as Demon
Slayer, One Piece, Slam Dunk, andDragon Ball, have a huge following
around the world. Althoughmanga are now translated into
various languages, an endlessamount of pirated translations isstill being produced. Among themany reasons, two motivations
are the time lag between
translating and releasing thelatest titles and the limited varietyof titles existing in translation.
Wouldn’t it be wonderful if

20translations of a wide range ofthe latest titles were available
immediately and anywhere in
the world? Mantra Inc., a startup
founded in 2020 by AI-research
graduates from the University ofTokyo, is taking on the challengeof realizing such a future. Using
innovative AI technology, theﬁrm has developed a translation
system known as Mantra Engine,which not only pursues highly
accurate, natural-sounding andnuanced machine translations—afeat considered diﬃcult withmanga—but has also succeeded
in halving the time conventionallyrequired for the process. “Thissystem has already been adopted
by more than 10 companies inJapan and overseas, where it
supports the translation of 40,000
to 50,000 pages (equivalent
to about 250 titles) a month,”says ISHIWATARI Shonosuke,
Mantra’s co-founder and CEO.
Ishiwatari, who came up with
the idea of Mantra Engine inSTARTUPS CHANGING THE WORLD2018, had been pursuing his
doctorate at the University ofTokyo, researching how computers
process the language used ineveryday life. He chose to focus
on manga translations for the
medium’s unique characteristics—
a diverse range of fonts, distinctive
forms of speech dependent on
individual characters’ personalities
and emotions, and multiple
speech bubbles in a single panel—that make machine translation
especially complicated. Ishiwatarisays, “It was an area that promised
technological challenges.”
Together with HINAMI
Ryota, the company’s CTO, who
was also conducting research on
image recognition technology inthe same doctoral program, hedeveloped a dedicated engine thatenabled AI to learn from massive
amounts of data, focusing on

manga graphics and translation.
It succeeded in accurately reading
the location and content of thetext in an image and in translating
the words in colloquial form,
while taking their order and thecontext into account. The text
in the image can be translated
and replaced just by uploading
the manga’s data into the systemand selecting the language, withthe entire process taking as little
as a few seconds per page. “If weheighten the eﬃciency and releasetranslated versions without any
time lag, we can prevent pirated
manga translations from emerging.
One pirate translation group
has already announced that they
will no longer produce titles thathave been translated and released
through our system,” notes
Ishiwatari.
Meanwhile, barriers remainthat current technologies cannot
surmount. One is the fact that
ISHIWATARI Shonosuke
polishing up a translation to
co-founded Mantra after acquiring his
convey the nuances of a
doctorate from the University of Tokyo’s
Graduate School of Information Science andmanga in a natural andTechnology. He ﬁrst became conscious of the power
enjoyable way is a highlyof manga during his childhood spent in China.
“Japanese anime and manga were the center ofcreative process that still
conversation among the local children. That gave me
requires human skill.
a sense of how powerful this culture could be,going beyond national borders to bring
Since Ishiwatari and his
people together simply for theteam do not feel compelled
enjoyment it provided.”
to have translations automated
100%, they have instead focusedon building a system to support
the overall translation process.
As the translation is carried out
in the cloud through ordinary
web browsers, anyone can workon a project without using any
special applications. Additionally,
multiple individuals can work
remotely at the same time, fromanywhere in the world, with

In 2019,
Mantra participatedin SXSW (South bySouthwest), a creative conference
that covers a broad range of ﬁelds fromtechnology to culture. The company
plans to also focus on translating
manga from countries otherthan Japan.

feedback and conﬁrmation given
through the system itself.
In 2021, the system wasutilized in the translation ofa major Japanese publisher’s
popular manga series, carriedout by enthusiastic overseas
fans for simultaneous release in
English and Japanese. According
to Ishiwatari, “The cloud-based
system turned out to be perfectfor cross-border collaboration. In
the future, it may even be possible
for fans worldwide to get involvedin the translation of various
titles.” This is the future that hehas dreamed of. “In addition to
being a technological pursuit,
we originally launched Mantra
because we also wanted to use AI
to go beyond national borders anddeliver a wonderful culture acrossthe globe. We believe that theworld will become a little morepeaceful if manga can encourage
further international exchange.
That is how we want to contributeto the global society.”21

In 2011, TAMAKI Emi (left) developed
PossessedHand (below), a device thattransmits proprioceptive sensations to thebody. The following year, she co-founded
the startup H2L and embarked on
developing the business. The company
launched “UnlimitedHand,” a moreversatile version of PossessedHand forresearchers, and “FirstVR” (left photo
center) for general consumers. Tamaki
said, “I’m glad we started the company
because while gaining feedback from ourusers and thinking about our businesspriorities, we get closer to providing
speciﬁc services.” H2L:
BODYSHARING
TRANSMITTING THE EXPERIENCE OF
PROPRIOCEPTION

Sharing experiences virtually or from a remote location that seem so real, almost as if you have taken over the body ofanother person—this is a technology and concept known as “BodySharing.” Put forward by a Japanese researcher
and entrepreneur, BodySharing aims to make such experiences a reality in the not-so-distant future. Whatpossibilities and new lifestyles can it bring about?
Sharing an enjoyable experience
with someone in another placeby syncing up with their bodily
sensations, and doing so fromyour home—an innovation thathelps make such a sci-ﬁ dreama reality is “PossessedHand,”a device released in 2011 by
TAMAKI Emi, who at the time
was a student at the Universityof Tokyo Graduate School. By
wrapping a belt with electrodes
and cords around your arm, you

22

can send electrical stimuli similar
to the commands issued by thebrain to the muscles in your handand ﬁngers, conveying what is
known as proprioception—thedeep sensations that allow us
to perceive self-movements, theweight of objects, forces appliedon the body, and other sensory
information. Conveying thosesensations to the body, it ispossible to reproduce the same
movements, positions, and eventhe degree of force applied as felt
by someone else.
“The transmission of notjust sight and sound but also
proprioception creates sharedexperiences that feel more active
and realistic,” said Tamaki, who iscurrently the CEO of H2L Inc.,a startup she co-founded, andalso a professor at the Faculty ofEngineering, University of the
Ryukyus. PossessedHand has
attracted much global attention

STARTUPS CHANGING THE WORLDas the world’s ﬁrst device thatallows people to experience thesensations of others not just intheory but in actual practice.
PossessedHand is one fruit of
BodySharing—Tamaki’s proposed
concept—which refers to thetechnology and interfaces involvedin the mutual sharing ofexperiences among people, avatars,
and robots through the reciprocaltransmission of proprioceptive
sensations. It makes the sharingof experiences virtually or froma remote location richer andmore real, and can be realized inmany ways. Not only is it possible

Tamaki giving a presentation on her researchwhen receiving the University of Tokyo
President’s Award for the development ofPossessedHand. She said that it was very helpful
during the development process to have studied
a broad range of ﬁelds, including basic
engineering, AI, and physiology. H2L

In addition to business and research, she also
focuses on fostering science-related humanresources in her work as an engineering
professor at the University of the Ryukyus,
where she has taught since 2021 (photo:
Tamaki interacting with students during aguest lecture at Waseda University). “With AI
about to surpass human capabilities, thosepeople who will be in demand in the future willbe the generalists who can create something
new through interdisciplinary knowledge.”to relive what someone else isgoing through, but you can let
someone far away experience thesame sensations as you, and theexperiences of a remote robot canalso be shared while manipulating
its movements in real time.
The technology has, moreover,the potential for application
in a broad range of ﬁelds. For
example, by reproducing the
optimal movements and degreeof force applied as demonstrated
by a model, the technology could
be utilized in developing skills inmusic or sports, or for physicalrehabilitation.
Tamaki’s pursuit of BodySharing
was triggered when she was inhigh school. Having missed along-awaited family trip due tobeing hospitalized, she was shown
photos and videos of the trip, but
it was far from the sensation of ashared experience that she had
wanted. “I started searching fora way that would make me feellike I had traveled together withmy family, but when I couldn’t
ﬁnd one, I decided to develop one
myself,” recalled Tamaki. After
graduating from the University of
the Ryukyus, Tamaki immersed
herself in research on robots andinterfaces between humans andcomputers. She then created theprototype for PossessedHand
as an experimental tool at the
University of Tokyo Graduate
School.
After she obtained her Ph.D.,
Tamaki co-founded H2L in 2012,and launched “UnlimitedHand,”a more versatile version ofPossessedHand for researchersand developers, in 2015. While

Conveying proprioceptive sensations to the bodyby sending electrical stimuli through a whiteband worn on the arm, UnlimitedHand canrealistically reproduce the weight and presence ofa small bird (bottom left) held in the hand. H2L

PossessedHand only transmits
electrical stimuli from the computer
to the arm, UnlimitedHand canalso measure sensory informationfrom the arm itself and send it to
the computer. “We wanted to spur
on applied research by making thetechnology easier for researchers
to access,” Tamaki said. And
just as she had hoped, morethan 100 research projects using
UnlimitedHand are currently
underway around the world.
Tamaki’s ultimate goal in thedevelopment of BodySharing is
to realize what she calls a “multithread lifestyle.” Tamaki believes
that if physical constraints, such as
time and space, are removed whenpeople experience something,
they will be able to extract justthe parts they want and enjoy
several experiences in parallel. “By2029, I aim to make it possible foreveryone to choose a multi-thread
lifestyle. I want to enrich people’s
lives by allowing them to enjoy
double or triple the number ofexperiences in the same amountof time.”23

STARTUPS CHANGING THE WORLDKOSEN
STARTUPAUTOMATES INSTRUMENT INSPECTION
Kosen, or institutes of technology, form an educational

system particular to Japan that provides university-level
vocational education to students once they graduate fromjunior high school. A startup that was launched at one such
school is now implementing digital transformation at
workplaces in many industries.
Industrial worksites use a dizzying mix of analog
and digital instruments: thermometers, pressuregauges, power meters, water meters, ﬂow meters, andso forth. Those instruments require visual checks andinspections, with workers in many cases needing to
examine them numerous times a day, and sometimes
late at night or on holidays.
IntegrAI is a startup working on applying digital

Sodoo and his teamentered KOSEN-DCONwith the NITNC
Pre-Lab Team and won
ﬁrst prize for theirproduct MATERAI, theprototype for IntegrAI.

transformation (DX) to that burdensome task. The
company has developed a system that automates data
recordings and provides notiﬁcations of anomalies.
It does so by using AI to read numerical values fromvideo footage provided by cameras mounted to the
instruments. The startup was founded by a teacher
and Mongolian international students at the National
Institute of Technology, Nagaoka College (NITNC,

IntegrAI’s founding members.
From left: founder Odonchimed
Sodtavilan, representative director
and NITNC teacher YANO
Shohei, and CEO Bayarbat
Nomunbayasgalant.

called “Nagaoka Kosen” for short in Japanese).
Kosen, or institutes of technology, form an
educational system particular to Japan whose
purpose is to train engineers with practical andcreative skills. The schools accept junior high school
graduates and provide a professional education via a
ﬁve-year program equivalent to senior high school
and undergraduate engineering courses. There were
57 public and private kosen in Japan as of March
2023. Each school focuses on its own specialty incooperation with its local community.
Being located in Niigata Prefecture in northcentral Japan means that NITNC is surrounded bya thriving agro-industrial area. The school carries out
many projects to solve local companies’ technologicalproblems, and students join those projects from theirﬁrst year in the school. The idea behind IntegrAI’s
product came from a company president who foundchecking instruments to be a burdensome chore.
Odonchimed Sodtavilan (Sodoo), a student from
Mongolia, developed a system that uses AI to readanalog meters and notify workers of the values via
smartphones and other devices. Another Mongolian
student, Bayarbat Nomunbayasgalant (Nomuha),later joined the project. Together they won the ﬁrst
prize at the 2019 KOSEN Deep Learning Contest(KOSEN-DCON).
In 2020, they used the prize money to establish
IntegrAI. KOSEN-DCON’s follow-up support
for the winners facilitated a smooth start for thecompany. YANO Shohei, a teacher at NITNC, said,“Even we didn’t realize
this technology’s true
value. But the staﬀ
at KOSEN-DCON
recognized the highThe IntegrAI system is ready to go
after simply attaching a camera to an
instrument.

AI automatically reads and records analog anddigital meter values. The user can freely conﬁgure
settings such as standard values to receive a
notiﬁcation when there is an anomaly.

demand for applying DX to decades-old equipment
and strongly encouraged us to start a business.”
Nomuha added, “The KOSEN-DCON people helped
us with the startup paperwork. Without them, we
wouldn’t have made the decision to start the business.”
The IntegrAI product is used in company factories,
as well as to manage the local government’s storageof COVID-19 vaccines, and to monitor fuel data for
the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency ( JAXA).
One potential customer is now considering using
IntegrAI to manage highway electrical systems.
Sodoo said that kosen are appealing because “theyoﬀer a great environment for using your hands.
When I was there, I was making something every day
in Mr. Yano’s lab. I don’t think we would have beenable to develop the IntegrAI product without thatenvironment.”
The Japanese government intends to encourage
the creation of more such startups from kosen. The
government came out with the Startup Development
Five-Year Plan in November 2022, which calls forstronger education in entrepreneurship at such schools.
The Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Scienceand Technology has included 6 billion yen (around44 million dollars) in its proposed supplementarybudget for ﬁscal 2022 to cover the cost of improving
the educational environment geared toward
generating startups at kosen.
Yano said, “From a young age, the students
learn close by to real worksites so that they canthen innovate. That’s what kosen can oﬀer.”
Many startups like IntegrAI have emerged
from such schools. Through practical study,
we can expect those educational institutions tosteadily provide technology that beneﬁts realworld workplaces.

25

STARTUPS CHANGING THE WORLD

BREAKING THE
HOMELESSNESS CYCLEWITH BIKE SHARING

Inspired by her vision of building a society in which anyone can start over, a young Japanese changemaker has helped
more than 4,300 people in need since launching an NPO in her teens. Here she speaks about the backbone of her
activities and how to ﬁnd a successful model for resolving social issues.
In recent years, bicycle sharing has swept rapidly
through Japan, having been already introduced
in more than 160 cities nationwide. Some might
wonder, could this new system be used to solve othersocial problems, such as homelessness? A surprisingquery indeed, but KAWAGUCHI Kana, a Japanesesocial entrepreneur based in Osaka, has used it toproduce admirable results. She focused on the factthat a lot of homeless people were using bicycles forrefuse collection, which for many is their main sourceof income. In 2011, Homedoor—the certiﬁed NPO
established by Kawaguchi—launched HUBchari,a bicycle sharing system. While oﬀering residents a
new mobility option, by employing homeless people
as staﬀ the system has also paved the way for them tocapitalize on their bicycle-repair skills honed throughrefuse collection, and earn a higher and more stable
income than they have before. With the system
gradually gaining in popularity, the number of bikeports has now grown to about 300. “We ﬂexibly try
out new ideas and, through repeated trial and error,
ﬁnd the ‘switch’ that will turn a vicious cycle into avirtuous one.”
Kawaguchi’s involvement in seeking solutions
to homelessness started when she was just 14 years
old. She was commuting to school by train and wasshocked to see an area full of people living on thestreets. Why do people become homeless in thisaﬄuent country of Japan? That simple question led
her to volunteer at a soup kitchen. When she wasSocial entrepreneur KAWAGUCHI Kana goes on nightly
rounds to check up on the homeless population while
distributing daily necessities. Homedoor, the certiﬁed
NPO she established in 2010, has over 1,600 registeredvolunteers who support the organization’s operations
mainly by conducting such rounds. DAISUKE GONDO

When Kawaguchi was 16, she was selected as Japan’s volunteer goodwill ambassador
by an international award that recognizes the world’s middle and high school
students for their volunteerism. She took part in a conference with otherrepresentatives from around the world (center photo, second from the left). “It wasa revelation to see so many people my age who had already been able to raise vast
sums of money or who had launched their own projects.” Immediately after that, shedrew up a ﬂoor plan of her ideal facility (right), which led to her current operations.

in high school, she drew a picture of the dream she
wished to realize. It was a ﬂoor plan for a facility
where anyone could easily stay, eat, and ﬁnd work.
Kawaguchi recalls, “I wanted to create a place where
homeless people could feel that things would workout for them if they were to go there.”
Homedoor, which Kawaguchi established at theage of 19, was the result of that inspiration. Since then,while going through a process of experimentation,
the organization has assisted a total of more than
4,300 people in need. It provides comprehensive
support to help people escape homelessness: fromconducting nightly rounds distributing foodto operating a shelter and cafeteria, providing
employment support, and helping people to ﬁnd
housing. The goal is to create a new model for asocial structure that does not generate homelessness.
According to Kawaguchi, “One of our roles is towork in the ﬁeld to discern what is lacking in regard
to the various kinds of support already provided by
the public and private sectors.” When Homedoor
was established, staﬀ spent nearly a year chatting withpeople in areas where many were ﬁnancially distressedin order to get their insights. It was during this timethat one homeless person happened to mention that
he was good at repairing bicycles, and that inspired
the idea for HUBchari.
Recently, Kawaguchi has also been tacklingthe issue of youth homelessness, a common issue
worldwide. “In Japan, it is diﬃcult to support suchpeople because they don’t gather in speciﬁc areas,
and many of them don’t look homeless. Our nextchallenge is to create a system that helps people whoare not so visibly in need of support,” says Kawaguchi,
who has now been watching over the homelesspopulation for over a decade. While pursuing mediumto long-term support measures that will lead to stable
employment for young people, she has also begun
approaching the government and private companies
to ask for their cooperation in helping people seek
support. One result of her eﬀorts is that starting in
February, email notiﬁcations by a telecommunications
company to people who have fallen behind in paying
their mobile device bills will include a website
providing information regarding the welfare systemand other support. “With knowledge about the
problem of homelessness comes responsibility. I
think we must consider what can be done, and notturn a blind eye to this situation. I want to create asociety in which anyone can start over.”

Top: HUBchari is a bicycle
sharing service employing
homeless people as staﬀ. It
has grown into Homedoor’s
major project, accounting
for about 40% of the NPO’srevenue.
Bottom: “& Center,” which
opened in 2018, is an
emergency shelter with 18
individual rooms. “It’s hard
to ﬁnd the will to start over when living in a harsh environment, so whenpeople are going through tough times, I want to provide them with the best
hospitality,” says Kawaguchi.

27

Spring 2023

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