ISSUE #82

JULY 2015

JLGC NEWSLETTER­Japan Local Government Center ( CLAIR, New York )Issue no. 82 July 2015

1. Introduction of New JLGC Staff
Namiko Mukumoto, Assistant Director, Representative ofMatsue City
Hello, my name is Namiko Mukumoto. I’mfrom Matsue City, Shimane Prefecture. Today,
I’d like to introduce my hometown.
JAPAN DAY 2015 IN NY

ISSUE NO. 82 JULY 2015

1. Introduction of New
JLGC Staff (Page1-5)
2. Our Visit to the City ofNovi, Michigan (Page 6)
3. Japan Day 2015 In Central Park (Page7-8)
4. JETAA Canada Conference 2015 in Ottawa (Page9)
5. Tohoku: Moving mountaiins. Facing questions(Page10-12)

Matsue City is the capital ofShimane Prefecture, a ruralarea in Southwest Japan. Thecenter of the city is an old casMatsue castle in springtle town. Matsue Castle isabout 400 years old. It’s oneof the oldest castles in Japan and was designated as a national treasure this year.
In the 18th century, a Lord of Matsue Castle deeply loved thetea ceremony. Under his influence, many Japanese confectionery craftsmen made delicious and beautiful sweets thatare enjoyed during the tea ceremony. The tradition has been passed down to posterity. You
can see many Japanese tea stores and Japanese confectionery stores in the town. Why
don’t you enjoy the tea ceremony?
The tea ceremony

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If you are interested in samurai, The Matsue Samurai Parade(Matsue Musha-gyoretsu) is worthwhile to see. It’s held in April
every year. More than one hundred people who wear old Japanesesoldier costumes walk around the center of town. (You can also BEa samurai by taking part in this event!)
Matsue Samurai ParadeAt the same time, the Izumo region, which includes Matsue City andits surroundings is the place where old Japanese mythical stories took place. It is said
that the gods all over Japan gathered in Izumo once a year to decide who will marrywhom. There are many shrines, traditions and festivals in this area. Recently, many more
people (especially young women who want to get married) visit this area.

Sada Shin Noh –a ritual dancedesignated as an intangible
UNESCO world heritage.

Yaegaki Shrine is said to be theplace where the first wedding ceremony in Japan was held.

Peony flower river in Daikonshima Island. You can see
beautiful flowers are in fullbloom around the island at thebeginning of May.

Shoji (paper sliding door) madefrom Washi. Washi (Japanese traditional paper) is one of Matsue’sspecialties.

In addition, there are so many beautiful places, delicious and fresh foods, and fine traditional crafts to be experienced in Matsue. You can also enjoy sightseeing near Matsue
City. For example, the Izumo Taisha shrine is one of the biggest and most famous shrines
in Japan. If you are interested in Japanese gardens, the Adachi Museum of Art has abeautiful garden that was granted the highest rank of three stars in the Michelin Green
Guide Japan. I’m looking forward to your visit!

For more information about Matsue City, please check the following official sites:
http://www.visit-matsue.com/index.html
https://www.facebook.com/visitmatsue

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Fumiko Tatemichi, Assistant Director, Representative of Hiroshima CityHello, my name is Fumiko Tatemichi from Hiroshima City, Japan.
I just came to New York to work at Japan Local Government Center (JLGC) this April. This is my first time to livein the US and I am really excited to meet many people anddiscover a lot of exciting new things in New York.
Hiroshima is located in the western part of Japan and wasfeatured in the Lonely Planet’s Cities Book as one of the
200 most attractive cities in the world. “Hiroshima” is awell-known city because there are two world heritage sitesthe Atomic Bomb Dome and Miyajima Itsukushima Shrine.
Of course these are very famous, but there are other places
I recommend you to visit in Hiroshima.

Itsukushima Shrine in Miyajima

Atomic Bomb Dome along the river

Miyajima Itsukushima Shrine, with its celestial
grandeur and 1400 years of history, is one of thebeauties of Japan. The shrine was registered asa World Heritage Site in 1996. It is only about
50 minutes from Peace Memorial Park by streetcar or 55 minutes via World Heritage Sea Route,which connects Peace Memorial Park andMiyajima Island via cruise boat.

Hiroshima is a very beautiful city surrounded bythe calm ocean (the Seto Inland Sea) and themountains (the Chugoku Mountains). The Seto
Inland Sea offers a great cruise experience, withthe ever-changing scenery of a sea dotted withislands of various sizes. Also, riverside open-air
cafes welcome both busy tourists and local people to take a nice break.

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Surrounded by beautiful nature we offer a varietyof delicious foods such as oysters, lemons and Hiroshima-style Okonomiyaki. Okonomiyaki has atasty sauce on top and there is a special way tocook it. It looks like a pancake but includes lots ofvegetables and sea food, so it is much healthier.
When you are in Hiroshima, you just have to try it.

Hiroshima-Style Okonomiyaki

Momiji Manjyu(sweet red bean paste)

In the fall, you can see beautiful red maple leaves
around the mountain areas. We offer traditional
sweets called “Momiji Manjyu”, cakes baked in the
shape of maple leaves with a filling of sweet red
bean paste. You can choose flavors from manykinds of ingredients such as green tea, cheese andother seasonal flavors. You can go sightseeing
while eating it, which is the local Hiroshima style.

Hiroshima has a professional baseball team,called the “Carp”. The new stadium was just built
5 years ago and is unique. There are many kindsof seats in the stadium, such as reclining sofas andtatami seats. You can enjoy a BBQ while watching
the game. Since everybody in Hiroshima loves the“Carp” you can see them watching the game while
singing and dancing!
See you in Hiroshima!

Slyly (Carp)

There are many wonderful places to see and enjoy inHiroshima. We have lots of tourists from all over theworld but I would like them to try not only sightseeing
but also the local Hiroshima style!

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Yasunori Inoda, Assistant Director, Representative of Tokyo Metropolitan Police
Department
Hello, I’m Cpt. Inoda from the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department (TMPD). I’ve
been working for Japan Local Government Center since this April, seconded here by
the TMPD. Today, I’d like to introduce some of our staff members who are real“softies” working in an organization known for its firmness.
What image do you have of the police or police officers? I think quite a few people inJapan still have an image of the police as a group of very serious people. In order tolet people feel closer to the TMPD, one staff member of the TMPD has been working
hard every day. That’s our mascot character, “Peopo-kun (Peopo Boy)”. Peopo comesfrom “People” and “Police”.
Since his birth in 1987, Peopo Boy has played an active part in various police events,
such as traffic safety campaigns every spring and fall and crime
prevention activities held at elementary schools or nursing
homes.
Peopo Boy is not alone. He has his family. The photo was taken
when all his family members showed up at a police event. In thephoto, from left to right, there are his grandfather, grandmoth- Peopo Boy and his family
er, father, himself, mother, younger sister and brother.
In addition to Peopo Boy, some police stations in Tokyo have their unique mascot
characters. The Minami Osawa Police Station, which was established in 2009 as the102nd police station of the TMPD, has “Yuzu-ro (Yuzu Boy)”. His name comes fromboth the “yuzu” fruits grown commonly in the station’s area and “Yuzuriai”, a spirit ofgive-and-take for traffic safety. Also, the Tamagawa Police Station, which is keeping
the peace in the south-west tip of Tokyo, has its own mascot characters named“Tamao-kun (Tamao Boy)” and “Tamako-chan (Tamako Girl)”. The original ideas of
Tamao Boy and Tamako Girl were given by abank clerk working in the area.
If you have a chance to meet Peopo Boy or other police mascots in Tokyo, please call to themin a friendly manner. As members of theTMPD, they will keep on warmly watching overboth residents and tourists in Tokyo to keep
everybody safe.

Yuzu Boy

Tamao Boy & Tamako Girl5

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Shindo Hayase, Representative of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications
Arisa Maruno, Representative of Wakayama Prefecture

The City of Novi is located in southeastern Michigan. Its population in 2013 wasaround 60,000, and 2,600 of these were Japanese. There are also many Japanese companies there, along with the biggest Japanese community in Michigan.
The City of Novi and JLGC have a close relationship with each other, so Novi kindly
hosted a visit by our Executive Director, Mr. Tatsuta, and five new assistant directors
this year.
We met with a hearty welcome, especially from the Mayor of Novi, Mr. Bob Gatt. Hewent to Japan last year to take part in our “CLAIR Fellowship Exchange Program”,
which for over 20 years has been affording senior state and local government officials
an opportunity to experience Japanese government administration firsthand.
During our four-day stay, we had a chance to visit the City Council, Novi HighSchool, the general hospital, the welfare facility, and some administrative offices. All
the facilities we visited were wonderful, but what attracted
our attention the most was the Novi Public Library. It provides many resources, according to each user’s needs, and its
services are offered to people of various generations. It plays
a role as not only a library but also a facility for bringing
people together. We could find familiar Japanese picture
books which we had read when we were children, because
many Japanese families live in Novi. It was a great place
Novi Public Libraryand there was more than we could see in such a short time.
Some of our JLGC members said that they would like to live
near this library, if possible.
We deeply appreciate all the people who welcomed and tookcare of us during our stay. It was a valuable experience for us
to learn a lot from the people who work there. We’ll never forget this trip, and we strongly believe this friendship between
the City of Novi and JLGC will last for many years to come.
Thank you so much!

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3. Japan Day 2015 In Central Park
Arisa Maruno
Representative of Wakayama Prefecture
On May 10th, the event known as “Japan Day” was held in Central Park in NewYork City.
Japan Day is an opportunity
to introduce Japanese culture to people in New Yorkand promote cultural exchange between Japan andthe U.S. This was the ninth
year it has been held, andmore than fifty thousandpeople come to this event
every year. This year, there
were 19 booths (besides theheadquarters booth), including 8 booths of Japanese
food, and 12 groups of various Japanese arts performed on the main stage. Five staff members from JLGC,including me, participated in this event as volunteers.

The event started with a four mile marathon called the “Japan Run” at 8:00 AM.
After Ambassador Takahashi made some encouraging remarks, 5,580 people (3,000men and 2,580 women) ran around Central Park. “Japan Run” was planned andconducted by New York Road Runners (NYRR). NYRR is a nonprofit organizationthat aims for the improvement of the public’s health and plans marathon races andtraining programs around NY. Japanese foods like Okonomiyaki and Onigiri wereoffered to people who finished the run.

As if to prove how well-known and popular Japanese foods are in New York, there was a long line atbooths where they served things such as Yakisoba,Okonomiyaki, Gyoza and Onigiri for free from earlyin the morning. The booths where they offeredchances to experience Japanese culture, such as trying on Yukata, Kabuki face painting, Origami andcalligraphy, were also very crowded.
Yo-Yo Fishing

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Meanwhile, what attracted my attention was the booth where JR (Japan Railways)
Group introduced the stamp rally. The stamp rally is a popular activity in Japan.
Recently, JR East conducted a stamp rally for Ultraman, which is a famous series
about a group of superheroes, on Japanese TV. That
stamp rally was held at stations around the Yamanoteline. People collect stamps of characters at each stationand get prizes, and so on. We can enjoy not only getting
original goods but also collecting the stamps themselves!
I hope that people in New York fall for its charm as I do.
On the other hand, on the stage, people were entertainedwith both traditional Japanese culture, such as Japanese taiko drumming, Japanese sword fighting and karate, and Japanese modern culture such as dance performances, live painting, anda performance by the famous idol group AKB48. I was so surprised by AKB48’s
ability to attract people and highly excited about the band’s performances. They
played famous Japanese video game music. Almost all the people in my generation
there must have been attracted to their playing like I was.
I could see a remarkably long line among the booths that I mentioned. It was theYO-YO fishing booth that Japan Society and The Japan Exchange and Teaching(JET) Program Alumni Association of New York (JETAANY) ran cooperatively. Japan Society is a leading U.S. organization committed to deepening mutual understanding between the U.S. and Japan in a global context. JETAANY is a public,
nonprofit membership organization of JET alumni in the New York metropolitan
area. YO-YO fishing is an indispensable activity at the summer festivals in Japan. People try to catch a “yo-yo” balloon
from a small pool before their hooks, on paper lines, tear off.
Every year many people show their interest in it and form along line. Volunteers from JETAANY tried not to let people
waiting in line get bored, so they stood near the line andtold people how to do it and how much fun it is. I was
moved by them, as if they embodied the Japanese idea of‘Omotenashi’. Furthermore, the sight of both children and adults laughing with eachother and looking into the pool filled with colorful balloons made me feel a warmthof space peculiar to Japanese culture. I hope that as many people as possible could
feel that sentiment.
In conclusion, through this opportunity to serve as a volunteer at theevent, I realize again the importance of grass-roots activities in order tospread knowledge of Japan and Japanese culture, and I can’t help feeling gratitude to the JETAA members who help with activities such asthese on a regular basis.

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Keisuke Matsuura
Representative of Miyagi Prefecture
The JETAA Canada Conference 2015 was held at the Embassy of Japan in Ottawa
from June 6th to 7th. Not only delegations from all Canada chapters but also 2 country representatives from the US attended this conference and introduced theirJETAA activities in 2014 to each other. They decided to make a membership database and discussed ideas for celebrating the 30th anniversary of the JET Program inNorth America in 2016. It was a great opportunity for them to talk about some ideas
regarding JETAA activities beyond their countries’ borders and for helping think
about future events.
JLGC announced recent developments concerning the JET Program, such as theJapanese central government decision to increase the number of participants from4,400 currently to over 6,400 by 2020, when the Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic
Games will be held. Also, JLGC explained the “Homecoming Program”, which is tohave 11 alumni from all over the world, including 3 alumni from North America,
visit their former communities in Japan and promote the relationship between JET
alumni and local governments in Japan. These attendees will have an informalinternational meeting in Tokyo to discuss ways to celebrate the 30 th anniversary incountries around the world. This program will be held in the fall of 2015 and I hope
many alumni will have a wonderful experience again in Japan.

These issues will be discussed in more detail in the near future. JLGC will watch
the alumni discussions closely and would like to support their activities.

Chapter delegation’s presentation

A discussion at the conference

Chapter delegation’s presentation

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Matthew Gillam
The Rebuilding
Compared to two or three years ago, the overall sense
upon visiting Tohoku recently is that the future is finally beginning to take shape, even if the past still defines
the landscape.
The record-shattering nature of the March 11, 2011, disasters – earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear reactor meltPart of Rikuzentakata’s conveyor belt sysdowns – both in terms of their scale and compounded eftem for moving earth from a neighboring
fects, produced quite disparate situations depending on
mountainthe location. The coastal areas of Iwate, Miyagi, and Fukushima Prefectures were hardest hit, although the effects of the disasters were felt further up and down the coast, while most inland areas now show little if any obvious signsof damage.
For those communities devastated by the tsunami, much attention has been given to complaints that the rebuilding effort is going too slowly, and this is understandable when thepace of new permanent housing constructed is compared with that of previous disasters
such as the Hanshin Awaji Earthquake that devastated the City of Kobe in 1995.
However, much of the reason for this is the decision to undertake the unprecedented
civil engineering feat of leveling mountains and raising the land under the affected communities before moving to rebuild them on higher ground, whereas in earlier disasters it
was basically possible to simply clear away the rubble and get to work. Each community
being rebuilt along the coast is undergoing a somewhat different combination of having
mountaintops levelled, lowlands raised, breakwaters, levees, and buffer zones createdalong their coasts, and evacuation areas provided.
In Rikuzentakata City they are shaving a neighboring mountain down from roughly 120
meters in height to 40 and using a massive conveyor belt system, three kilometers in total
length, to move the approximately 6.4 million cubic meters of fill necessary to raise partsof the former downtown nine meters in areas closer to the ocean and eleven meters further
inland, to be used for business & industrial development and housing, respectively. The
entire project is expected to take at least another four years to complete.

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A similar terracing (kasaage) process, using dump
trucks rather than conveyors, is going on in mostcommunities along the coast, although not quite
on the same scale. Altogether, some estimatesplace the total amount of fill needed for various
planned terracing and levee projects in the threehardest hit prefectures to be roughly 40 million
cubic meters. This is enough to fill the 55,000 seat
Tokyo Dome 32 times.

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“Kasaage” terracing operations in
Rikuzentakata City, Iwate Prefecture

The Town of Onagawa, in Miyagi Prefecture, isprobably the community furthest along in its terracing and rebuilding effort. They just opened their new train station on March 21 stand have made substantial progress in laying out the civic plaza that will run fromthe station down to the port, where a new marine products processing plant has
already been built and opened.
Admittedly, Onagawa has benefitted from advantages not always enjoyed by othercommunities, including dynamic political leadership, strong community involvement,and money from the nuclear power plant located within the town’s jurisdiction. Theyalso benefit from being a smaller, more cohesive community, unlike larger, recently
amalgamated cities such as Ishinomaki, next door.
Ishinomaki only recently settled on a plan for rebuilding, and is taking a somewhat
different approach. They will build levees, topped by four-lane roadways, to help protect the city from future tsunami, which will at least buy time in a worst case scenario
for residents to evacuate to high ground or specially-built towers. Coastal areas of thecity were destroyed when the tsunami drove through them and large areas behindthese were inundated to the depth of two to three meters, leaving behind extensive
damage. However, with relatively more buildings and infrastructure having survived,
it apparently makes more sense to adopt less-invasive measures than to demolishwhat’s left and raise the city, as is being done elsewhere.
The Challenges
The reality underlying the recovery effort is that the challenges facing the region prior
to 3.11, foremost of which were limited opportunities for young people and an elderly
and declining population, have only been exacerbated by the disasters, and the effort
to recover from the destruction wrought on the coast is ultimately inseparable fromthe need to somehow address these longstanding issues.

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Is it worth investing so much in terracing and rebuilding communities that were dying tobegin with, where many people have already made the decision to move away and start anew
elsewhere? Will these still be viable places for the elderly to live if all residential development is placed on high ground away from shopping and services, conveniently accessible onlyto those who can drive? Is there any way to make the region more attractive to young people?
As with all rural areas of Japan, Tohoku was losing population even before 3.11 owing to a
combination of a declining birthrate, outmigration of working-age people to urban
areas, and mortality among the aging population left behind. Statistics show Iwate losing
roughly 55,000 people between 2005 and 2010, Miyagi roughly 22,000, and Fukushima
roughly 62,000.
Cities in these prefectures, on the other hand, show more disparate trends, with Rikuzentakata and Kesennuma trending steadily downward from the 1950s until 2010, and Ishinomaki’s population growing until the 1980s and then leveling off before gradually declining
from the early 1990s. Fukushima City showed slight growth until 2011, then a small dropoff. On the other hand, Morioka City, in Iwate, showed strong growth from the 1920s into the1990s, and while it has leveled off, it is holding steady. Sendai had steady growth from theearly 20th century, and the pace has actually increased since 3.11, probably due to people relocating there from the coast and people responding to the disaster basing themselves there.
While it is clear that substantial physical rebuilding will begin along the coast in the next
year or so, it is less clear to what extent communities will be able to reconstruct themselves.
It is likely that, as with developments so far, there will be a wide variety of outcomes, including newly revitalized, if perhaps somewhat smaller, communities, places that manage tobuild back to some degree and hold on for a while, and ones that fail to achieve enough critical mass to survive.
For more information about Tohoku, please check the following official site:
http://www.jlgc.org/TopicList.aspx?
topicCategoryID=6&topicID=445&languageTypeID=1&controlType=Display

JAPAN LOCAL GOVERNMENT CENTER (CLAIR, NY)

Published by Japan Local Government Center
3 Park Avenue, 20th floor, New York, NY 10016 / Tel: 212-246-5542 / Fax:212-246-5617 / E:mail: jlgc@jlgc.org / http://www.jlgc.org

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