Miho Tominaga
Chair, Shinsei NPO

Common ground for the reconstruction of Fukushima

Shinsei began our activities to support the disabled people who had been affected by the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake and nuclear accident. We have continued to confront the “isolation” of disabled people ever since. Quite a few disabled people are still living as evacuees, separated from the family and friends on whom they relied. The isolation of the disabled people working at Shinsei also deepened as they moved from living in evacuation centres to temporary housing, and then to public housing built as part of the reconstruction. As the monotonous days passed, in which they only went back and forth between their accommodation and the welfare centre, we started to hear the same kinds of thing more and more often: “I wonder whether I will be able to be buried in the family grave in my hometown...” “It’s hard for me to watch the news because seasonal events like New Year, rice planting, Obon, or summer festivals remind me of my hometown”, “I don’t know anybody here [where I have been evacuated to] apart from the people at Shinsei and welfare-related people. I feel lonely”. Perhaps isolation can be felt more keenly as our lives stabilise.

However, the isolation of disabled people was a problem before the nuclear accident, and it seems difficult to say that they have become isolated solely due to living as evacuees. We came to think that the ways in which they had been protected by the high walls of the disability welfare system and had not hitherto made proactive efforts to get involved with ordinary society might possibly have been a factor deepening isolation. By connecting with people in various different positions in society, Shinsei was able to overcome the difficulties after the earthquake and nuclear disaster. In the reconstruction of Fukushima, we experienced over and over both the difficulties of forging partnerships with people with different affiliations, personalities, cultures, and values, and the wonderful aspects which outweighed these. Even during the COVID-19 pandemic, these partnerships have supported Shinsei, and have grown into resilient links. Convinced that there are hints about an inclusive society which does not create the isolation of disabled people in these partnership links, we came up with the name “Bridge-building Project”. The Bridge-building Project means that people with different affiliations, personalities, cultures, and values build bridges along which they come and go, with disabled people (Shinsei) acting as the hub. With the reconstruction of Fukushima, making use of everything which Shinsei experienced and learned from the Great East Japan Earthquake and nuclear accident and all the connections which developed from this, as our common ground, we decided to concentrate our efforts on this Bridge-building Project going forward.

Bridge-building Project – launch of the “Mountain Farm” in 2019

The toughest period of our activities after the earthquake and nuclear accident was around 2018. The special procurements for reconstruction were over, society’s interest in the reconstruction of Fukushima was waning, and Shinsei’s sales continued to fall. We worried “If things continue like this, we won’t be able to pay wages. How can we move from reconstruction projects to become self-supporting?” During this time, we met one of the local farmers, “agrity”, a corporation eligible to own farmland. Agrity offered their cooperation, saying to disabled people working at Shinsei whose dream was to return to their hometowns one day and work in agriculture, “Come and farm with us!”

In 2019, in collaboration with agrity, Shinsei was able to publicly open our “Mountain Farm”. At the time that we set up the Mountain Farm, companies from the Tokyo area which had been involved with us in the reconstruction of Fukushima rushed to join us again. They got so covered with mud carrying soil that it was difficult to imagine them in their everyday suits; they made pork miso soup on an outdoor woodstove; they crammed their mouths with rice balls together with disabled people. These memories have been passed down, and even during the COVID-19 pandemic, they have been coming to help us on what they call “our farm”. On the farm set up in this way, even disabled people who had not formerly been able to exert their true strength now engage vigorously in activities, working their hardest and declaring “My dream has come true!”

In 2020, we also built a processing plant at the farm and began the challenge of making heat-and-eat pouches of curry using non-standard vegetables from neighbouring farms which could not be sold. Just as we were finally beginning to break free from reconstruction projects and become self-supporting, in 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic began. We were worried that we might lose our links with the Tokyo area which had been unbroken ever since the post-disaster reconstruction; but these links with the companies who had got all muddy to prepare the farm did not break. Even during the period when we were unable to meet, they talked a lot about their dreams with the disabled people, saying “We want to see everyone at Shinsei soon... What shall we do on the farm when the pandemic is over?” Moreover, prompted by the pandemic, we also focused on connections with the local community, which had been weak until that point. We were joined by powerful partners, senior high school students (Asaka Kaisei High School) and researchers (Fukushima branch of the National Institute for Environmental Studies). Partners from the local community (farmers, senior high school students, researchers) joined in with the dream of companies from the Tokyo area and Shinsei about what to do on the farm after the pandemic, and we came up with a plan to open a “Mountain School” together.

Bridge-building Project – launch of the “Mountain School” in 2022

In April 2022, the eagerly-awaited Mountain School, open only once a month for two days, was launched. We are carrying out project evaluation with the aim of making it sustainable.

The Mountain School’s motto is “Sometimes a teacher, sometimes a student”. The participating disabled people, students, researchers, and people from companies are all both teachers and students. On Fridays, Shinsei holds an inclusive society experience programme, in which groups made up of diverse members carry out tasks (cooking rice on a woodstove, supplying firewood, farmwork, maintenance work, and so on). During the reflection time, which is also an opportunity for exchange, they tell one another their thoughts in the group, and each summarise them in a written passage, which contain thoughts like the following. “I was not good at talking with unfamiliar people. But at the Mountain School, I had great fun eating and working together with people whom I had just met. I realized that I actually really like talking with people.” “It’s a long time since I have laughed this much. I had thought that it was good that remote working had become the norm, but I noticed a part of myself that wanted to laugh and joke.” 

　
Eating lunch

Fist bumps

An enjoyable camp fire

On Saturdays, participants take a high-quality “environmental studies programme” through fieldwork and classes given by researchers (from the National Institute for Environmental Studies). The question and answer time always has to be brought forcibly to an end with insufficient time to answer everything, but the researchers find themselves confronted with more questions during the break because the participants are so happy to be able to discuss with specialists. We also hold a “What is work like?” group session at the request of the senior high school students. This group session is led by the All NTT Workers Union of Japan, and participants with different affiliations, personalities, cultures, and values exchange opinions about working. One senior high school student gave the following feedback: “During the COVID-19 pandemic, I did not have the chance to talk with any adults apart from my school teachers and parents. By hearing various people talk about work, I was able to form an image of my future path.” This group work is also highly valued by adults because it allows them to reflect on work and life.

 
The environmental studies programme: observing salamanders during fieldwork

“What is work like?” group session

The other day, the stakeholders of the Mountain School got together to review the first half year. Reporting on the questionnaire, the evaluation team cited a particularly large number of participants who, after taking the “inclusive society experience programme” on Fridays and the “environmental studies programme” on Saturdays, reqested to be clearly shown “what we should do for a sustainable future”. After a lively discussion on this question, the conclusion was that “what we should do” ought to be different for each participant. We were able to elicit a shared understanding that the Mountain School is a time to think about what each person will do. The questionnaire also made it clear that there were many ambitious wishes for the environmental studies, such as “I am interested in ‘environmental changes due to radiation’, an issue particular to Fukushima” and “I want to learn about renewable energy making use of the farm environment (wind power, small-scale water power, biomass, solar energy, etc.)”. We were able to adjust the programme content for the second half of the year to take these wishes into account, and so this was a valuable opportunity to notice that we are all building the Mountain School together.

The future of the Bridge-building Project

People with different affiliations, personalities, cultures, and values gather at the Mountain School. Together we eat delicious food, and laugh and talk a lot. Participants say that the distance between them becomes much closer, and that they have become accepting of ways of thinking that differ from their own. We believe that each building bridges along which we can come and go, with disabled people at the centre (hub), is deeply meaningful. In the 2022 fiscal year, Asaka Kaisei Senior High School and the All NTT Workers Union of Japan are collaborating with us as monitors on a trial basis, but we hope to gradually broaden the scope of the programme in the 2023 year, and are thinking about recruiting participants. After the “Mountain School”, the next step will be a “Town School”. In the future, we plan to open a venue for learning in the town, as well as on the farm, and take the Bridge-building Project forward. Well, then, what kind of venue for learning will be opened in the town? As we share our dreams with one another, it seems that the circle of anticipation expands. Making use of everything which we experienced and learned from the Great East Japan Earthquake and nuclear accident and all the connections which developed from this, we at Shinsei intend to aim for an inclusive society by building many bridges.