Kirk here. Today is the 10th anniversary of the first major earthquake of the series of quakes that hit Kumamoto in 2016. It registered 7, the highest level, on the Japanese seismic scale in Mashiki, Kumamoto.
A symposium has been planned to discuss how those quakes impacted foreigners in Kumamoto and Kumamoto International’s own Hari Devkota will be one of the speakers. The event will be in Japanese but here’s an English translation of the webpage announcing it.
P.S. Hi Hari! If you have time, please tell us a little about Kumamoto Kurasu. I found one web page but I still don’t have a clear idea about the organization and how it works. I’m happy to see, though, that the organization’s website links to this page. :) https://kumamotokurasu23.wixsite.com/kumamotokurasu/about-1
— start Claude translation —
On April 14 and 16, 2016, we were struck by violent tremors of seismic intensity 7. At that time, there were foreign residents who evacuated while facing barriers of language and culture. Ten years have now passed. This symposium will begin by welcoming as guests foreign residents who experienced the harsh conditions of those days, those who rushed to provide support on the front lines, and newspaper reporters who observed the disaster area both as victims themselves and from an objective perspective — all sharing their stories about that day. This will be followed by a keynote lecture by Taro Tamura, Representative Director of the Diversity Research Institute and Reconstruction Promotion Advisor to the Reconstruction Agency, who has been active on the front lines of supporting foreign residents at disaster sites across Japan. The event concludes with a panel discussion exploring mutual community support (kyōjo) between local residents and foreign residents — three parts in all. “What if a major earthquake struck again tomorrow?” Let’s start building, here and now, the kind of relationships where we can reach out and take the hand of the foreign resident living next door.
Event Overview (Three-Part Format)
Date: Sunday, April 19, 2026 (Reiwa 8), 2:00 PM – 5:00 PM Venue: Kumamoto City International Exchange Center Hall Capacity: 180 people Admission: Free
Part 1: Looking Back on the Kumamoto Earthquake — Experiences During the Kumamoto Earthquake (2:00 PM – 2:40 PM)
Presenters:
- Naoki Watanabe, Head of Integrated Editorial Division, Kumamoto Nichinichi Shimbun
- Tsutomu Higuchi, Representative Director, Kumamoto Disaster Volunteer Network NPO
- Hari Devkota, Vice President, KUMAMOTO KURASU
- Hiromitsu Yagi, Managing Director, Kumamoto City International Exchange and Promotion Foundation
Part 2: Keynote Lecture (2:50 PM – 4:00 PM)
“Large-Scale Disasters and Foreign Residents: A Bird’s-Eye View of Community-Based Disaster Response from the Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake to the Noto Peninsula Earthquake”
Speaker: Taro Tamura (Representative Director, Diversity Research Institute) Born in Itami City, Hyogo Prefecture. In response to the need to provide information to foreign residents affected by the Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake, he established the “Multicultural Coexistence Center” in 1995. After serving as a councilor at the Council of Local Authorities for International Relations and other positions, he founded the Diversity Research Institute in 2007. As Representative Director, he works to promote “consideration for human diversity” in corporations and local governments. Following the establishment of the Reconstruction Agency, he served as Senior Policy Research Officer and has concurrently served as Reconstruction Promotion Advisor since 2014. His co-authored works include Creating Work in a Town You Love, Multicultural Coexistence Keyword Dictionary, Municipal Policy and Universal Design, and The Great Hanshin Earthquake and Foreign Residents.
Part 3: Panel Discussion — Making Foreign Residents Partners in Community Mutual Support (4:10 PM – 5:00 PM)
Panelists:
- Naoki Watanabe, Head of Integrated Editorial Division, Kumamoto Nichinichi Shimbun
- Tsutomu Higuchi, Representative Director, Kumamoto Disaster Volunteer Network NPO
- Hari Devkota, Vice President, KUMAMOTO KURASU
- Hiromitsu Yagi, Managing Director, Kumamoto City International Exchange and Promotion Foundation
Coordinator: Taro Tamura, Representative Director, Diversity Research Institute
For more details, please see the flyer below. Kumamoto Earthquake 10th Anniversary Symposium Flyer (PDF: 527.9 KB) — Opens in a new window
— end Claude translation —
熊本地震から10年シンポジウムを開催します https://www.kumamoto-if.or.jp/kiji0033582/index.html