Dear Friends,
I got back from the area devastated by Tsunami just yesterday. Although clean-up efforts have been made, the Government policy of whether or not to allow residents to rebuild houses in places where Tsunami washed away have not been made. (As you may know, we have a mess in our politics at the moment).
Quite a few people are still living in school gymnasiums. I visited one of the evacuation centers in Otsuchi Town in Iwate Prefecture. As most of the village was washed away, people there have lost their loved ones, relatives, houses and jobs.
A group of senior men were busy carrying woods from debris, cutting them into firewoods, and packing & shipping to the western part of Japan. The old leader said to me, "We just simply have to live lives in ways that we would not be laughed at by all the people died in Tsunami".
I have visited the coastal area of Iwate by car and Miyagi by helicopter.
The scale is unprecedented. We had a KIBOW gathering in Morioka on 22nd of June. We all felt that strong energy was coming out of us. We need to rebuild towns and rebuild Japan!
We have been receiving donations from Malaysia, Switzerland etc. Thank you all for your generosity. All the donation will go to the devastated area by means of supporting effective NPOs and providing good education to those in the affected region.
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In the meantime, we will be holding the first G1 Global Conference in Tokyo on 3rd November 2011.
The G1 Global Conference aims to create a forum for mutual learning and networking. The central theme of this year's G1 Global is "Rebirth of Japan after the Earthquake".
There will be a number of parallel panel sessions held, such as Japanese economic recovery, challenges of political leadership, fiscal crisis in Japan & developed nations, energy security, trends of the new media, and the changing balance of power in Asia etc.
Date and Time: 3rd November 2011, 9:00AM -5:30PM, followed by cocktail
reception and dinner
Venue: Globis University, Tokyo, Japan (tbc)
Registration Fee: 48,000 JPY
Website URL
Some of our distinguished guests have already confirmed their participation (as of June 24, 2011):
-Heizo Takenaka (Economist, former Minister of State for Economic and Fiscal Policy)
-Yoriko Kawaguchi (Politician and diplomat, former Minister of Foreign Affairs)
-Yasuchika Hasegawa (President and CEO, Takeda Pharmaceutical Company, and Chairman, Japan Association of Corporate Executives)
-Henry Tricks (The Economist Tokyo Bureau Chief)
-William Adamopoulos (President and Publisher, Forbes Asia)
-Teresa Clarke (Founder and CEO, Africa.com)
-Glen Fukushima (President and CEO, Airbus Japan)
For those of you who have not had the chance to visit Japan so far, this could be a great opportunity to come and see with your own eyes how post-disaster Japan may be able to address the tremendous challenge of rebuilding itself.
The conference programme is still being developed, and we welcome the participation of international speakers. If you are interested in joining us as a panelist or simply as an audience member, please reply to me on yhori@globis.co.jp or to g1global@globis.co.jp
Looking forward to hearing from you soon.
Yours,
Yoshito Hori
Leader of GLOBIS & KIBOW
