Personal relection on the role of ILO in Japan
Back to life after the great East Japan earthquake
Residents of a city devastated by the 2011 tsunami pick up the pieces, showing just how crucial jobs are in times of disaster-recovery.
Feature | 01 April 2013
KAMAISHI CITY, Japan (ILO News) – Ms Maekawa, who is over 60 years old, is busily cooking a dish to serve her customers in a bistro in Kamaishi City, a small coastal town in Iwate Prefecture famous for its steel production, fishing industry and eco-tourism. When not cooking she comes out to greet her customers, who have also become her friends.
Her bistro not only offers food but serves as a place for people to talk, socialize, make friends and share experiences. It helps people get on with their lives after the tsunami that devastated Kamaishi City in March 2011 taking the lives of 886 of its residents, including Ms Maekawa’s daughter.
“A year ago, local men would come to our bistro and eat a lunch plate without saying a word,” said Ms Maekawa. “But now, some of them talk to each other. Sometimes they ask for a take-out for their families or loved ones. They’ve just started opening up their hearts and come to terms with their grief, I guess.”
Two years have passed since the earthquake and tsunami hit Japan. More than 18,000 people lost their lives. Some 841,000 jobs were affected by the mega disaster. Since then a range of efforts to rebuild and restore employment have been undertaken by the public and private sectors.
In August 2012 the International Labour Organization started a technical cooperation project “Dissemination of Employment and Labour Measures for Recovering from the Great East Japan Earthquake as International Public Resources”, supported by the Government of Japan. The project aims to collect and disseminate lessons learnt and good practices related to employment and labour measures, taken from the reconstruction process. These will form the basis of a report that will be presented to a conference to be held in Japan in
Residents of a city devastated by the 2011 tsunami pick up the pieces, showing just how crucial jobs are in times of disaster-recovery.
Feature | 01 April 2013
KAMAISHI CITY, Japan (ILO News) – Ms Maekawa, who is over 60 years old, is busily cooking a dish to serve her customers in a bistro in Kamaishi City, a small coastal town in Iwate Prefecture famous for its steel production, fishing industry and eco-tourism. When not cooking she comes out to greet her customers, who have also become her friends.
Her bistro not only offers food but serves as a place for people to talk, socialize, make friends and share experiences. It helps people get on with their lives after the tsunami that devastated Kamaishi City in March 2011 taking the lives of 886 of its residents, including Ms Maekawa’s daughter.
“A year ago, local men would come to our bistro and eat a lunch plate without saying a word,” said Ms Maekawa. “But now, some of them talk to each other. Sometimes they ask for a take-out for their families or loved ones. They’ve just started opening up their hearts and come to terms with their grief, I guess.”
Two years have passed since the earthquake and tsunami hit Japan. More than 18,000 people lost their lives. Some 841,000 jobs were affected by the mega disaster. Since then a range of efforts to rebuild and restore employment have been undertaken by the public and private sectors.
In August 2012 the International Labour Organization started a technical cooperation project “Dissemination of Employment and Labour Measures for Recovering from the Great East Japan Earthquake as International Public Resources”, supported by the Government of Japan. The project aims to collect and disseminate lessons learnt and good practices related to employment and labour measures, taken from the reconstruction process. These will form the basis of a report that will be presented to a conference to be held in Japan in