Creating spaces to nurture Fukushima's leaders

Asubito Fukushima Youth - Winter 2019 Activity Report: ‘Fukushima Taberu Tsushin’ Magazine

"Fukushima Taberu Tsushin" (Eating Fukushima) is a food-related magazine started by a high school student who wanted to do something to address negative rumors that were circulating about agricultural products from Fukushima Prefecture after the nuclear accident. It has a student editorial team that conducts and writes up interviews with local producers, and the process of interviewing, writing, and publishing this magazine has provided valuable business experience for the students. The magazine started in 2015 and published its fifteenth edition in the autumn of 2018.

A look back at the Autumn 2018 Edition

Before preparing for the upcoming issue, the editorial team got together to review the fifteenth edition, published in the autumn. Members gave each other feedback on the articles, which had been written with a theme of emphasizing the high school student perspective. Some first-year high school students invited by the editorial team also participated to share their views.

It was clear that the new members joining the editorial team had been drawn in by junior and senior students inviting and speaking to them about their own personal experiences with the magazine. For planning of new issues of the magazine it is important to ensure that students can express themselves in their own words, and this plants the seeds of continuity.

Interviews for the Winter 2019 Edition

We interviewed Kazunori Sakamoto on the Sakamoto Farm where he has been growing western-style vegetables (in contrast to the traditional Japanese vegetables) for 20 years with his parents, who are long-term growers of green onions in Iwaki City, the Hamadori region in Fukushima Prefecture. He used their knowhow for growing green onions, starting with excellent soil, to begin growing from seeds he obtained while on a training overseas, and was getting great reviews for the multiple products he was growing. We interviewed him to learn about how he persevered to grow a variety of vegetables and did not give up when he temporarily lost market share in the Tokyo metropolitan area, and even when the farming situation changed after the 2011 earthquake disaster.

Students were surprised to see the number of tractors and farm machines stored in the big shed and learned more about the background and future prospects for farming. Through this their preconceptions about the financial difficulties of farming were transformed.

They also interviewed Akihiro Nakamura, a farmer who is producing fresh mushrooms, processed foods and other products in Iwaki City. This interview showed the students the realities and diversity of farming today, which Nakamura is tackling one step at a time to realize a lifestyle and farming methods closely suited to his “satoyama” (traditionally managed landscape), using what he learned through his major in environmental studies at graduate school.

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• Asubito Fukushima

“Odaka Manhole Cover Art Project” + Zero Gomission

 As one idea that arose from the Asubito Fukushima Community intergenerational entrepreneurs' camp, a project incubator for high school and university students and adults in August 2017, the Manhole Cover Art Multigenerational Exchange Event was held on July 22, 2018. This Odaka Manhole Cover Art Project was part of a concept to create art in Odaka ward (in Minamisoma City), and to discover charms that locals may not have noticed. It was promoted as a university student-led way of preparing to create future touristic resources. This project was organized in an area that had been declared an evacuation zone after the 2011 nuclear accident and where evacuees were still slow to return to even after the evacuation order was lifted. On the day of the event it attracted about 60 persons, mainly the local elementary school kids and high school students who had been invited. 

The first half of the event was designed for people to experience the charms of Odaka with a walk around town doing a Zero Gomission activity (a play on words of “zero emissions” and “gomi,” which means waste or litter in Japanese), which was planned and run by local high school students. The event was designed to make people aware of history, culture and garbage through litter collection. Participants were able to connect with each other and create good memories in Minamosoma, through a participatory physical activity with the purpose of reviving the town environment and atmosphere. Minamisoma high school students did the planning and operations, with support from Asubito Fukushima. The participants split into teams and competed on the weight of garbage collected and other tasks.

The second half of the event was for review and discussion, and participants shared their observations about the charms of Odaka that they had noticed while walking around doing the Zero Gomission event. Also, former city waterworks employees who had actually thought up the idea of putting designs on the manhole covers to depict the local dragon legend, spoke about the dragon idea and the history of Odaka. To finish off, the group painted colors on manhole covers near the venue and made T-shirts on the same dragon theme.

By their involvement, students were able to gain various experiences through cooperation with the local government staff who gave permission to paint the manhole covers, communication with local residents leading up to the event, and collaboration with adults who supported the event. Overall the event was a great opportunity for the entire region, including elementary school kids, to reconfirm the charms of their community of Odaka.

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