On September 16, 2022, “The University of Tokyo & The Great East Japan Earthquake and Nuclear Disaster Memorial Museum Hands-on Activities Program Joint Research Forum 2022” was held at The Great East Japan Earthquake and Nuclear Disaster Memorial Museum in Futaba Town, Fukushima Prefecture. This forum was organized by Kainuma Laboratory. Students participating in the Hands-on Activity Program “Thinking about ‘town planning’ of hard-to-return zones” spoke at the forum.

Hands-on Educational Programs are open to all undergraduate and graduate students at the University of Tokyo and have been implemented since 2012. This year, 74 programs are available, and “Thinking about ‘town planning’ in Difficult-to-Return Zones” is one of them. It was proposed by Yuta Kikuchi, a master’s course student in the Graduate School of Engineering; Kainuma Laboratory provided guidance, and Yuka Kasai, a master’s degree student in the Graduate School of Interdisciplinary Information Studies and a resident of Namie Town, served as an advisor.

Participants held a series of meetings and site visits from July to September. Although the program was intensive and took place in a short period of time, the students, who at first had no experience visiting Fukushima, were able to gain much experience. This experience was gained through various activities, including interviews with local government officials and residents, and fieldwork in difficult-to-return zones and interim storage facilities for decontaminated soil. The participants made concrete and advanced proposals for urban development in Namie, Futaba, and Okuma, where more than 50% of the municipal area has been designated as difficult-to-return zones. The dates of the field survey coincided with the moment when residents resumed living in Futaba Town, the last municipality to have still been entirely uninhabitable for 11 and a half years since the disaster. We were able to witness the event of the residents’ return.

One of the participating students, Hinano Maji, a master’s student in the Socio-information and Communication Studies course, said, “I participated in this program with the sole intention of deepening my understanding of Fukushima, but I also had the opportunity to meet students from other faculties and graduate schools, which was very stimulating. The team discussions leading up to the debriefing session were intercultural communication itself, with each discipline’s unique logic and values clashing with the others. The experience of being exposed to and struggling with the perspectives and problem-solving approaches of other fields, and of working together as a team to find a common ground, may have been something that could not be obtained in ordinary classes. I would like to apply the insights I gained from the dialogues with the program participants, advisors, and the people I visited to my master’s thesis and beyond”.

Hands-on Activities Programs have a 10-year history. Although a wide variety of programs are offered, they may not be widely known to students in the Graduate School of Interdisciplinary Information Studies.

Hands-on Activity Programs will continue in the future. If you have a chance, please try to participate in next year’s and subsequent years’ programs.

Text: Hiroshi Kainuma (Associate Professor)
Proofreading: David Buist (Project senior specialist)