Giving Back to Japan 2: Community Leaders Report

During the past 12 months, a great deal of progress has been made in terms of relieving people's immediate needs, yet years of reconstruction stretch ahead in Tohoku. And while the Government of Japan is of necessity first addressing major infrastructural needs, the view from the region's cities and towns is understandably more focused on the minutiae of repairing the social fabric of communities that have literally been torn asunder.
On May 16, 2012, The Netherlands Chamber of Commerce and Tohoku Planning Forum, supported by 16 national chambers of commerce and Hitotsubashi University ICS, will present GIVING BACK TO JAPAN 2: Community Leaders Report, a public forum featuring leaders of cities and towns across Tohoku, whose communities face different reconstruction issues and are at different stages of reconstruction.

The speakers will be the following mayors: Mr. Kimiaki Toda (Ofunato), Mr. Kiichi Numazaki (Yamada), Mr. Hidetoshi Watanabe (Aizu Misato), Mr. Tsuneaki Iguchi (Iwanuma), Mr. Yoshiaki Suda (Onagawa).
Television and radio presenter, Peter Barakan, will guide a discussion about communities' rebuilding processes and ongoing needs, as well as allowing the elected officials to present their suggestions for ways in which individuals and organizations can help their communities toward their goal.