Though more than two years have passed since the 2016 Kumamoto earthquake, many …

Though more than two years have passed since the 2016 Kumamoto earthquake, many people are still feeling its impact. This news story is about students from The Hong Kong Polytechnic University who came to the Aso area to help a farmer still recovering from the quake. Hats off to the folks at Hong Kong Polytechnic for continuing to offer help after so many people outside of Japan have forgotten about the quakes.

Speaking of unresolved issues, the local NHK station recently broadcast a program about people who have still not found permanent housing since the quake. Due to a three-year limit, they are likely to loose the government-provided assistance they have received thus far but according to Prof. Takabayashi of Kumamoto Gakuen University, the government is not obligated to cut off the assistance at three years. He argues that assistance should continue until it is no longer needed.

Japanese text about NHK program https://www4.nhk.or.jp/P2883/x/2019-01-18/21/59300/8221281/

Text and YouTube video (both in Japanese) about students from Hong Kong: http://rkk.jp/news/backno_page.php?id=NS003201901161716190111

– Kirk