I have been familiar with disaster prevention since my childhood.

Yuki Tokii, a young entrepreneur who has been dedicated to reconstruction activities, was only four years old when the Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake occurred.

“When the earthquake hit, I lived in neighboring Miki City north of Kobe and did not suffer any major damage. I have only scattered memories but can remember that I felt a strong quake and my mother threw herself over me to protect me when I was in bed. Having witnessed people around me being unsettled, I could sense that something devastating had happened even though I was only a child. These memories might have been developed by stories that my parents told me later on incorporated with my scattered memories.”

A while after the earthquake, Mr. Tokii moved to Shizuoka Prefecture, where he resided from elementary school through high school, due to his parents’ job relocation. People say that Shizuoka is known as a prefecture with a high interest in disaster prevention. Boasting strong ties among its communities, Shizuoka Prefecture actively takes preventive measures against a possible major Tokai earthquake by practicing emergency drills and other activities on a regular basis.

Activities in a seminar shaped my life.

While attending university in Kobe, Mr. Tokii launched the “Kobe Tomoshibi (lighting) Project,” which works to send street lamps to areas stricken by the Great East Japan Earthquake, as well as founded REVEARC Inc. just before his graduation, aiming to provide long-term support for their recovery. He says his various current engagements stemmed from his university days.

“I reached a major turning point in seminar activities, in which students learn about service marketing for intangible businesses, such as the tourism and hospitality industries. I met a wonderful teacher who welcomes any type of students and brings out the individuality in each of them.”

Around that time, Radio Kansai approached us with a program aimed to find out whether local people can use the medium of radio to offer necessary information on their own by using an outside broadcasting van when a disaster strikes. With the assumption that they can do that if students can, we started to work on the project, focusing on disaster prevention and mitigation measures by using the broadcasting van.”

I learned about disaster prevention through physical activities.

Students in the seminar belonged to a generation that has only a vague memory of specifics regarding the Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake. Thus, Mr. Tokii and other students started by interviewing people who had experienced the disaster.

“I became interested in topics, such as disaster prevention and disaster mitigation, when I knew how serious the damage was and how the affected people felt at that time. A total of about 10 students in the seminar voluntarily initiate actions one after another.”

The radio van project was fully in place from the summer vacation in 2010. The students successfully broadcasted a radio program at the university festival held in October of the same year, after learning the skills necessary to produce programs from professionals. Mr. Tokii says the series of attempts led to the conclusion that even ordinary people can broadcast a radio program using the van.

“On the day of the festival, I had another task of covering the event since I was the chief editor of the campus newsletter. Therefore, in the radio van project, I was engaged in gathering information prior to broadcasting, recording, and other related works. The project ended up a success. It involved an experiment in which no cell phones were allowed to be used for a week, as well as research on stockpiling food with a good taste. I believe that survival is the most important thing immediately after a disaster, but, after a while, we need to think of how to meet requirements and solve issues emerging when affected people feel a little relief.

Having learned about disaster prevention measures through the physical activities, Mr. Tokii and other students in the seminar decided to participate in a disaster-prevention radio drama contest held by the National Research Institute for Earth Science and Disaster Prevention. They created a radio drama under the theme of possible disasters in the Kobe area and preventive measures to be taken.

“Surprisingly, the contest was being held for the first time, so we felt as if it had been launched for us. Our team was named FM Free. The story we created was that when a major earthquake struck 10 years later, we, as grown-ups, were dedicated to recovery efforts by leveraging knowledge and experience we gained in university. Although we regretfully came in second place, the award for excellence, I had never been committed to anything with such enthusiasm before.”

Photo: FM Free won the award for excellence in a disaster-prevention radio drama contest.

Voluntary support activities beyond education

The Great East Japan Earthquake struck the following year. Mr. Tokii immediately took action, participating in a fund raising campaign held by volunteers at the university.

“It was the moment that what we had learned became a reality. We were stopped from going to the disaster-stricken area because it was said to be dangerous. There was also a practical problem in that if we missed classes at university, we may have failed to earn credits. Therefore, we focused on the fund-raising activities.

In the seminar, nobody talked about what kind of actions they were engaged in. I guess our teacher also did not want to deal with the devastating disaster as an educational tool. We, however, somehow sensed that each member was doing everything they could at that time.”

Two months after the Great East Japan Earthquake, three of Mr. Tokii’s seniors left for Minami-sanriku in Iwate Prefecture to set up a temporary FM radio station for the disaster, in cooperation with Radio Kansai, at the request of the affected area. Mr. Tokii could not join them, because he had to pass on his tasks as chief editor of the campus newsletter around that time.

The temporary FM station was in operation for nine days in the area. They worked to pass on the knowledge on mixing techniques and information gathering they had learned to people in the area who were not familiar with radio broadcasting.

“I met the three seniors just returning from Iwate Prefecture at the airport, even though they looked very exhausted, and asked them all about the affected areas until late at night. As I listened to them, I kept thinking about what I can do.”

Photo: Campus newsletter reporting about the senior students who successfully launched a temporary FM radio station for disaster in Minami-sanriku in Iwate Prefecture

Launch of the Kobe Tomoshibi Project

After he finished passing on his tasks for the campus newsletter in July 2011, Mr. Tokii launched the Kobe Tomoshibi Project, which sends street lamps to disaster-stricken areas. He asked for advice from people in Nagata Ward, Kobe City, who experienced the major earthquake, because he did not want the project to be just for his own personal satisfaction.

“When I heard people in Nagata Ward say that everyone looked depressed after the earthquake, maybe because it was dark in the towns, I realized what to do. I was also advised that lamps should not cost much for local communities to run. We worked to put up lamps which would operate for the next ten years, by selecting solar-powered lamps, which require no power-distribution work, and processing them with a special plating method to add rust-proofing which can resist salty sea wind.”

Then, the Kobe Tomoshibi Project took off in cooperation with stores on the Taishosuji Shopping Street. In response, he further focused on fund-raising activities.

“Since I could set a clear goal for the fund-raising activities, I became rather motivated. I often visited Shin-Nagata, one of the worst-affected areas, to raise money, and some people tearfully told me about the experiences they had faced. I strongly felt that it was also my responsibility to tell their stories.”

In 2011, a total of 12 lamps were sent to the affected areas. Mr. Tokii, however, needed to rethink the system to raise funds, because from the following year he faced difficulty in collecting money. Thus, he worked to develop products, together with the Minami-machi Murasaki Market, a Reconstructed Shopping Street, located in Kesennuma City in Miyagi Prefecture. He has taken a variety of measures, such as creating a system to donate a part of the profits from sales.

Photo: A key holder made in collaboration between the Minami-machi Murasaki Market, a Reconstructed Shopping Street in Kesennuma City in Miyagi Prefecture, and a leather artisan based in Nagata Ward in Kobe City

In the university festival held in 2012, his final year of university, he sold Tako-soba-meshi (fried noodles and rice with chopped octopus), cooked in combination with mizudako (giant octopus) caught in Minami-sanriku and a famous Nagata “B-grade gourmet” dish. He achieved the highest sales of the whole 2012 festival.
Photo: Tako-soba-meshi, for which Mr. Tokii was involved in product development, and Kamaboko (Japanese fish cake) Croquettes were well-received at the event

Deciding to found a company for continual support

Eventually, the time had come for Mr. Tokii to consider a career after graduation. He decided to start his own business in December 2012, just before his graduation, and founded a company four days before the graduation ceremony. With a concern about the decline of the industry in Nagata Ward from when he was in university, his business started by developing leather craft products in cooperation with artisans.

“My first product was a business card holder developed together with a leather artisan in Nagata. Incorporating techniques in which leather is processed millimeter by millimeter, we never compromised functionality. When the product was completed, I was more eager to contribute to revitalizing local industries.”

Photo: Business card holders and coin cases, the first products by REVEARC Inc.

Promoting products made of materials from the affected areas

At the very beginning of 2014, he received an offer from Kesennuma City, Miyagi Prefecture, to provide advice on promoting products made with mulberries. Unfortunately, he did not have enough knowledge to give any advice about mulberry products. Concluding that he was not in a position to do so, Mr. Tokii decided to launch a joint business, in which Kesennuma City manufactured products and he was engaged in sales activities.

He is also planning to develop products made of shark skin, which is tough and highly water-repellent, together with artisans around Japan, since Kesennuma boasts the largest catch of shark in Japan. He believes that this will be a trigger to further promote reconstruction activities across the nation.

Photo: Shark skins featuring a unique texture, expected to serve as a key material for the future

I want to be proud of myself in ten years’ time.

Lastly, we asked Mr. Tokii to share his vision of the future.

“My current mission is to create new systems by pondering what to do to support the affected areas. I want to share our activities and jointly developed products with people not only in Japan but also around the world. By doing so, I will be able to say that I made a difference in the reconstruction projects in a few decades from now. I will keep devoting myself entirely to these projects.

(Photographed by Kyoko Kataoka, interviewed and written by Kaoru Nikaido and Aya Yamamori)