In July 2019, we had the chance to visit Onagawa to conduct interviews with local residents about the current stage of recovery work and development, more than 8 years after the Great Tohoku Earthquake which hit on March 11 2011. The situation in Onagawa is something we plan to observe over the coming years, as a lot of ‘flagship’ projects (e.g, a new station and public bath by Shigeru Ban) were realized but residents have their doubts about their lasting efforts as on weekends many tourists come, but on normal weekdays the city can look deserted. In our coming fieldwork we would like to focus on questions as 1) what will happen to the neighbourhood and city in the next coming years, 2) how can local residents make a living, not relying alone on the tourism sector and 3) how are basic needs, including tangible (e.g. facilities as super markets, school/kindergarten, bank etc) and intangible aspects addressed. Thus, how is the community network functioning day in day out and what problems are overlooked but should be solved to secure a livable community development. In a final step we plan to compare the case of Onagawa with other cases in Yamagata (Tsuruoka) and Fukushima (Kitakata).
Suiden Terrace in Tsuruoka (by Shigery Ban) opened in 2018.