 Well good evening everybody. Welcome to the Dyra Foundation. May be a way that there's not actually a Dyra event, really. It's organised with a deaf-ass Japan Center, the Project Center, so you don't have to ask a thank, but we are providing the boost. Just a couple of housekeeping announcements to make. If there's a far along, it won't be a drill. Felly, dwi'n cael ei wneud. Rwy'n cael ei wneud yn ymgyrchu. Felly, dwi'n cael ei wneud yn ymgyrch, a'r cyflwyno'n gwylltol, a'r cyflwyno'n gweithio'r gweithio'r gwylltol. Felly, dwi'n cael ei wneud yn ei bwysig i'r clywgrwm, dwi'n cael ei wneud. Felly, dwi'n cael ei wneud, yn y bag o'r laptop, ac ydy'n gweithio arhoo, a dwi'n cael ei ddim yn gweithio. Felly, dwi'n cael ei wneud, dr Hen生 yma'n Ddiweddor missiles i'n ddim ni yn gwneud cy corresponddur. Mae'n cydweud yn gwneud a'r newid iawn i'w cyflwyno. Yn ydych chi'n gweithio wrth i'r hynny, mae'n cyrraedd mewn gweld Rhywbeth gyda, fel o'r rei fynd yma, Rhywbeth. Rhywbeth. Rhywbeth. Rhywbeth. OK, rahd yn gweld dim inni a gweld ddigon i amlwg a�fnig i'r cyfnodydd, a rydw i'n mynd i'rair. Yn defnyddio itwf yw�r Ibi Gwch Cwau tfod ym Chydigau sydd gennym. Rhyw uch i ddod i ddim yn ddelyddio. Y byddwch gweld mae'n cymdeithas yng Ngharer Cymru, yn ei rhetho'r lleol. Yn gyfaf yng Ngharer Cymru, Eiddo'i fod i g Waith Ffonsong Ienca i gyfaf, o ran, mae'n cael ei ffight. Yn y llwyddiol, kenwn Iwatte 30 yma am y cerddo, mewn cram yma, ac rwy'n gyrsio gyda mi pwyd. Eiddo'r holl i'r holl er mwyn i ddweud y 1100goedd, mae'r holl i'r holl i, oes ydy, gan ddweud y gweithio? Mae'n gweithio a dywed am ychydig i wedi'u gweld eich leisio boi gydweud o ddweud ymlaen o'r hyn. Ac mae'n gwybod i'i ddweud ond iddyn nhw'n ddweud maen nhw'n ddweud y cwestiynau, o'r 20 o rhai, yn gyfynu 3, a'u bod o'r peth o'r peth o'r honno yma i'r Ici. Dyn nhw'n ddweud ond rhaid i'r un o'r tyfnogi. Mae yw'n ddweud ymlaen. First song, you've got the lyrics up there if it matters to you, and just you'll notice both of these songs talk a lot about the fishing in this town, it's a harbour town, and fishing was for a long time in the main industry, but you'll also find during the lecture a lot of other industry goes up too. Anyway, so just enjoy, and I've really twisted their arms, they've hardly had time to practice this, so I hereby appreciate their efforts to sing this song before I have to do my song, so please kama isi hama huta, the beat song of kama isi. Pan research centre at SOAS, and I've got a few thank yous to start with. I want to thank David and the menial group for a spectacular start to the evening. I didn't know we were going to have to sing along, so that was enough. And I also want to thank Daiwa, Angledger Foundation, for hosting us here this evening. We're here tonight for our annual weekly lecture because SOAS and many other universities are on strike, so thank you to some of my SOAS colleagues who have come along too, but it was very kind of them to let us use this venue at the last minute so that we could still hold the event. In particular, I wanted to hold the event because I'd already invited Nakamura-san to come over from Tokyo, and we'd already got very generous funding from Brendan at the Great Britain-Sasakawa Foundation to have our lecture this evening, so thank you very much Brendan and GBSF. So Nakamura and I first met about nearly a decade ago through Janet Hunter, and we were both working on the historical consumption consumer, what's the book again, historical consumers, everyday consumption in Japan, and Nakamura was researching railway passengers and the consumption of train travel, and I was researching the consumption of rice cookers by households, and now we're both doing rugby research. Although I'm really just dabbling in rugby research, just for fun, but he is doing serious Kawai-shi city research longitudinal surveys in Kawai-shi city, so I'm really delighted that he's come from Tokyo to give this talk. He's a professor in business and economic history at the Institute of Social Sciences at Todai, and so I'm really delighted that he's come along to talk to us about Kawai-shi city, about various issues that are so hot in Japan. D-population, industrial and economic restructuring, and of course sport, so please welcome him here, and he's going to talk for about up to an hour, then we'll have time for Q&A, and then I will invite you downstairs for sake and other beverages. So welcome Nakamura-san. Okay, hello everybody, and thank you very much for coming. Today I present the price thinking in the regional Japan that's related to Kawai-shi story. So, one of what my major is international economic relation on major Japan, and Japanese imperialism written by Professor Abizie is one of the important classic literature that I feel. So when I was a graduate student at the Kishu University, I had read it and surprised how comprehensive viewpoint he had. So I'm truly honored to invite this brief, tedious, material lecture. So, at first the self-introduction. My main subject is an economic history of Japanese free, dwelling from late 19th century to 20th century. It includes a railway history, the Japanese industrial revolution from local and global perspective, and oral histories of managers and labels in post-war Japan. My first book, the formation of Japanese railway in late 19th century, was included to the first category. The second book, Japanese industrial revolution from local perspective, this one. So it was included to the second category. And the recent book, the trading locomotives, the first globalization and the development of Japanese railway, this locomotive one. It had related to both categories. And in 2002, a second, I started oral history of workers of Japan national railway at the Tosu city in Kyushu. It published in 2006 and titled the Memories of the Poesu, the Oral History of Railway Workers in Tosu, this one. I challenged to study post-war Japanese history using the oral history method. And the next research field is the Kamaisiri Iwate Prefecture in Tohoku. This book and title, this book, this one, this book and title, the Memories of Friends, the Oral History of Workers in Kamaisiri Work, was one of the outcomes of the project and the close relation to this lecture. So the purpose of this lecture is to examine the crisis facing post-war regional Japan, taking the Kamaisiri city as a case study. Kamaisi had to deal with the state of crisis common to all provincial cities in post-war Japan, the population, the grind of key industry, and the disasters. The mixture of different crises complicated to the response of regional communities. So how come a city attended to deal with this crisis in the past? And how are they attempting to deal with them in the future? These are our research question. This lecture is fruits of the crisis thinking Kamaisi survey conducted by the Institute of Social Science at the University of Tokyo. And also it is result of 14 years of general regional research project on Kamaisi city by the ISS. This is the contents of the lecture. At first, I'd like to introduce the Kamaisi city. And second, I describe the history of our research project at Kamaisi from 2006. Third, I try to explain the structure of multilayered crisis and how to respond to the crisis in post-war Kamaisi. This part is main body of this lecture. Last, I'd like to discuss how to overcome the regional crisis. Let's start the introduction. Kamaisi city is located in the south-eastern section of Iwatepurifecture at the center of the Sandic coastal line. Nowadays, the city is a small rural town in Tohoku area, which a population is around 33,000. But until the 1980s, it was an industrial city which was called the town of iron and fish. Fish were related to the things. The steel industry includes the Kamaisi steel work, the Nippon steel corporation. And the fishery flourished because there was a good fishing field area nearby. In addition, Kamaisi is also famous for rugby town. It was one of the venues of the World Cup rugby last year. Originally, the Kamaisi area, there were the iron mines producing rich iron ore. In 1857, the construction of the first western-style breast furnace in Kamaisi. It was the oldest western-style breast furnace in Japan. In 1874, the Kamaisi steel work was established by the government through technological transfer from the UK. After them, until the mid-20th century, Kamaisi was one of the leaders of the modern steel industry in Japan. The picture shows the Hashino furnace remain, which is one of the world heritage related to Japanese industrial revolution. During the 1950s, the Kamaisi steel work supported Japan's post-war reconstruction. In 1960, the Kamaisi steel work has over 12,000 workers. Thanks to the success of steel works, the population of Kamaisi city rose rapidly. With the population more than 80,000 in the early 1960s. However, the restructuring of the steel industry began in the late 1960s. At last, the breast furnace was shut down in 1989. Nowadays, there were living behind the wire rolling mill alone. Nowadays, the Kamaisi steel works and here is the rolling mill. This is near the breast furnace, but that is not. That is an electrical plant. The next is officially. Fishing was another main industry of Kamaisi since the early modern period. However, the deep sea fishing and offshore fishing were declined due to the oil shock and the establishment of the 200 nautical miles system after the 1970s. The last is rugby. The Japanese steel rugby team, so-called Kitano Tetsujin, won the Japanese national title seven years in law from 1978 to 1984. In 1990, the team gradually weakened and reorganised from the corporate team to the club team in 2001. In March 2011, a huge tsunami struck the coastal area of Kamaisi city. Kamaisi city was seriously damaged by the tsunami and its coastal area had been completely broken. That or missing people were 1044 in Kamaisi city. From then, the Kamaisi reconstruction project had been doing. At that time, the World Cup rugby played an important role in it. Next, I will show you the promotion video of the rugby team. Let's move on to section two. In this part, I'd like to explain why we had started the Kamaisi survey in the prology part. Our relationship between Kamaisi began with the ISS Institute-wide project Social Sciences of Hope in 2006. Having taken on the theme of the Social Sciences of Hope for Fitch, they had no model and copying with how to study the social phase of hope. So, we visited Kamaisi city in January 2006 without a clear idea of how to proceed. Driving by the idea that hope is what lay beyond the stable, set back and behind. The Kamaisi city would be beyond inside into the topic because they had explained repeated cycle of the hardship and hope. That's the social sciences of hope Kamaisi survey had begun. Because of the social sciences of hope had run new field, it was difficult to formulate hypothesis beforehand. There was no choice but for the project to be a community survey for the purpose of discovering theme with the final goal of developing hypothesis. In this regard, it also present an opportunity to take advantage of our strengths, namely interdisciplinary research in the social sciences. Then, 30 researchers from the disciplines of law, politics, economic, sociology and history visited Kamaisi numerous times to conduct a variety of survey and investigation at the same time and in the same location. Employment method for considering the social phase of hope and general community surveys. Kamaisi's history, current situation and challenges are gradually discovered by the intensive interview and questionnaire survey conducted in 2006. By 2008, we formulated the hypothesis that following three factors essential to recovering a community's hope. The first, the continually organizing building of local identity. And second, sharing of hope and last, formation of network within and outside local community. And the key word running through all three factors is the dialogue. Then, in 2009, two books reproducing hope and connecting hope were published. With the hypothesis developed from work in Kamaisi in hand, we headed to new region in which to continue our investigation. That was social sciences of Hope Fkwisar Bay, which carried out from 2009 to 2013. The project was also large scale general community survey, which also involved 14 researchers. It is during the Fkwis project, Kamaisi was struck by the huge earthquake and tsunami in March 2011. So then, in September, we launched the Memories of Disaster or History project. It aimed to creating a record of the disaster employing oral history method. The project resulted in the collection of interview from 60 individuals by 2012. In 2014, a book was published entitled, The Social Sciences of Hope, People in Church. Throughout the project, we continued to think about what aspect of Kamaisi City had changed and what had not as a result of Kamaisi having experienced a major event. At the same time, we came to feel the need for multi-layered investigation of Kamaisi's past, present and future of the regional recovery. In 2016, the crisis thinking Kamaisi's survey had been begun. At first, we only forced on Kamaisi's response to the Great East Japan earthquake. However, as the investigation proceeded, we began to see aspect of various crisis beyond the earthquake. Further, we discovered that it was a complex structure of this crisis itself that complicated regional crisis response. So then, the multi-layering of crisis became a key word. Regions faced multiple overlapping crisis that differ in dimension and timescale, increasing possibilities that dealing with one crisis will cost another crisis. For example, constructing a massive sea wall and to raise land in response to the tsunami were expensive and take a long time, which can delay the region's recovery and accelerate the deep population. In addition, the fact that this multi-layered crisis progress in power while influencing each other is shared by many regions and not just Kamaisi City. If that is the case, how have Kamaisi City and its residents attempted to deal with this crisis in the past? And how are they attempting to deal with them in the future? Next, we will move on to section 3. The object of this part is investigate structural problem of crisis in regional Japan taking Kamaisi City as a case study. At the local level, there were three categories of crisis. First, acute crisis resulting from the damage of the war and natural disasters. And second, step-wise crisis caused by the decline of core industries. And last, chronic crisis such as deep population. Kamaisi is stable case study for examining how communities have faced response to and attempting to deal with multi-layered crisis. Keeping this point in mind, let's now clarify the multi-layered structure of crisis in Kamaisi. There was a tsunami, but the neighbour bombardment during the war was worse. This quote was selected from the oral history of an elderly Kamaisi resident who had experienced the neighbour bombardment in World War II. It compared the damage of Kamaisi City following the tsunami to the neighbour bombardment. It should be kept in mind that underlying this comparison determines the spirit of Kamaisi residents that we got back on our feet after the terrible experience of the neighbour bombardment and we will get back on our feet after this as well. Connecting to the image of damage by neighbour bombardment are the memories of Kamaisi's rapid recovery and economic development during the high growth period. Keeping it in mind, let's compare the damage caused by the acute crisis experienced by Kamaisi over the years. Kamaisi was struck by several tsunamis, including a major tsunami, which caused huge damage as evidenced by the over 50% death rate and this destruction of 70% of buildings. On the other hand, look at the destruction caused by the neighbour bombardment, the major tsunami and the neighbour bombardment is here. The death rate is over 50% neighbour bombardment. The number of deaths is nearly 700. And the destruction rate of the city centre area is nearly 50%. And much in 2011, the massive tsunami struck the Kamaisi again. The death rate of this tsunami is estimated to be 3% with 1044 lives lost or missing. The number of similar is the neighbour bombardment. And see these pictures. This one was damaged by the neighbour bombardment, really small. Here is a river and here is a Kamaisi still walk. The main target is here, but the more damage there, this is the city centre. So in this time, here is the Kamaisi still walk and here is the city centre. The old city centre was damaged. That is the same to the neighbour bombardment. Next, let's identify the characteristics of Kamaisi's response to the acute crisis by comparing the city's recovery after the neighbour bombardment to its recovery after the tsunami. September 1945, just after the end of the war, the Kamaisi City Council took a decision to construct 1,000 worth restoration houses in the Kamaisi city centre. The city did not wait for financial assistance from the National Treasury to begin its walk and took proactive steps to obtain the necessary fund by getting loan from banks. Then such self-funding end of rapid recovery from the war damage. Similarly, Kamaisi began a rapid recovery effort just after the Great East Japan earthquake. In May 2012, Kamaisi developed a basic restoration plan. At that time, they refused to raise the land in the city centre because it needed a long construction period. If they chose to raise the land, they just could not wait it and the population would be accelerated. That said, the two cases were similar so far as recovery efforts were started immediately after each disaster. Next, let's examine how Kamaisi had deal with the stepwise construction of its key industry. A town of iron fish and rugby, the common among these three elements is the fact that they had all their golden age in the 1970s and 80s. After which they underwent stepwise construction and did line up up to today where they were managing to survive. In addition, the slogan town of iron and fish was first introduced around 2005. At which time the number of workers at steel work had dropped to its lowest level. This figure is employee in Kamaisi steel work. The peak time is here but after that the decline rapidly. Next is the blue line is the transaction volume of the fish market. The fish market is similar. The peak was in 1970 and from that the transaction volume was declined. The town of the steel and fish was set in 2005. 2005 is the lowest level. Up. The two coped stepwise crisis, Kamaisi came up with proactive measures to support the local community. Regarding the steel industry, the steel works began to develop and upgrade technology at its wire load factory and to focus effort on keeping the factory in Kamaisi. Then they successfully developed the steel code for larger tire, one of the new high-end products at Kamaisi. This one is still called. On the other hand, Kamaisi created employment opportunity by introducing new business and attracting companies. This action was intended to prevent sudden shrinking of the local economy. This figure from the 1970s to 80s also rapid industrial development all over the country in Japan. The output of manufacturing industry of Kamaisi was declined. In this time, all Japan were rising because of the high-speed growth area. At that time, Kamaisi was declined. However, in the 1990s, the trend had changed. This one. The bottom is 1990. After that, Kamaisi's output was rising. What happened? This recovery reflects favourable performance of steel work wire load plant and successful attracting of companies to the area. As shown in this figure, the value of equipment for metal products and machines grew rapidly from 1995. In contrast, the steel shipment fell until 2000, but from 2005, the output of the steel industry started to increase again. This is the steel. The steel, the ratio of the steel were declined until the 2000, but after that the ratio were rising. It is a fruit of effort by Kamaisi Steel work and Kamaisi City to respond to the stepwise crisis. Kamaisi City has been able to maintain the existence of the iron and fish for the steel and fish, thanks to its response to the stepwise crisis. It is against this backdrop that the city's identity summed up by the slogan, Town of Iron and Fish was formed. It is helped by the designation of Hashino Farness Remain as the World Heritage Site in 2015. That said, the effort to regenerate Kamaisi based on the city's historical legacy as the Town of Iron and Fish comes with challenges. Last, I'd like to examine the progress of underpopulation in Kamaisi. Please see this figure. This is a population in Kamaisi City, the blue bar. The peak is 1960. Nearly 80,000 people are there. From that, the population gradually declined. The population standing below 40,000 in 2010 is just before the tsunami. Before that, the population was quite declining. So, the population was accelerating in this area. The main reason for the de-population was the decrease among the young. Due to the lack of employment opportunities. So, after the disaster, the attracting company was essential in terms of creating employment opportunities for younger generation. Since the earthquake, seven new companies had been attracted and six companies had set up shops in Kamaisi of their own accord. The 13 newly-arrived companies included five companies in the marine product-proceeding industry. The first company in the United States was the United States. The second company in the United States was the United States. The third company in the United States was the United States. The third company included five companies in the marine product-proceeding industry. And four companies in the distribution or transportation industry. Particularly, the later companies are hoping to take advantage of Kamaisi's access to transport. This is the map of the Iwatec prefecture, and Kamaisi is here. And after the disaster, the Sandic Expressway, here is the Sandic Expressway, was opened. And the Kamaisi Expressway, this is the Tohoku Expressway. And the Kamaisi Expressway were there, opened both highways. And the interchange of Expressway had located in Kamaisi City. In addition, Kamaisi Port, here. Kamaisi Port was restored just after the disaster, and succeeded at attracting continuous ship. So then, Kamaisi gained a locational advantage as a good distribution hub on Sandic coast after the earthquake. Effective use of Kamaisi's advantageous infrastructure is a key to Kamaisi's future economic development. On the other hand, if we accepted the continued gradual deep population, it is necessary to consider the compact city. Kamaisi City constructed a lot of disaster recovery public housing units in the city centre destroyed by the tsunami. Here is the recovery public house. Here is the city centre of Kamaisi, the main street is there. That is a big shopping mall, the Ion. And here is a city hall, the new big city hall. And maybe here has many shops. And this recovery house, recovery public house. So, Kamaisi has acquired at the same time improving urban functions. The shopping mall and the city hall. And of course, the shopping mall has a clinic. So, that is very convenient for the elderly people. So, in so doing, Kamaisi has succeeded in creating a compact city like urban space by chance. In this lecture, we analyzed the multilayered structure of crisis faced by Kamaisi City from the standing point of acute, stepwise and chronic crisis. So then, is it possible for the local community to respond to this multilayered crisis? Professor Genda, who is the co-leader of our project, pointed out that the mind of Bricoraj is the key concept of crisis thinking. This book is the first outcome of our new project. So, you know, the Bricoraj is used by Revistoros in originally. It means that the skills of using whatever is at hand and recombining them to create something new. And Revistoros compared the working of Bricoraj and engineer. Using this concept, Professor Genda has discussed that accumulating Bricoraj is essential for responding to the multilayered crisis. I think the combination between the engineering and the Bricoraj is more important. It means that the relationship between both concepts is not conflict but in operation. Actually, Kamaisi City seems to be responding to the crisis by combining both ways of thinking. For example, they are attracting a company using the giving advantage of infrastructure. Speedy reconstruction brought a compact city by chance. And copying the decline of key industry enable the reverse of local identity. All of them have not systemically planned but connected each other. Then, as a result, reconstruction Kamaisi seems to be well-going. Recently, Kamaisi City again surface damage. This time from the typhoon that struck the Kamaisi on the October of the last year. The typhoon damaged many residents' transportation infrastructure and the operation of various business. The disaster also caused the cancellation of the World Cup rugby match between Canada and Nambia that had been scheduled for the 13th of October. However, both athletes and spectators were completely on board with Kamaisi City people's first response to the disaster. And are put to work as a disaster relief volunteer. Image of rugby players cleaning up the road with war broadcast around the world and displayed to the globe Kamaisis and the fit of all spirits even in the midst of the repeated crisis. In addition, November 2019, Kamaisi City was presented with an award for character at the World Rugby Awards. In conclusion, I'd like to read the last phrase of our new book. This is advertising. This is my new book. Entitled Crisis Thinking of Regional Japan, a case of Kamaisi. But in Japanese, the Chiki no Kiki, Kamaisi no Taio. Even after coming face to face with the crisis, Kamaisi keep getting back a backup with out hesitating and seek to use the crisis as a turning point for the next jumper. There is no doubt that Kamaisi's experience have much to offer in terms of insight related to crisis response at the community level. Ok, just with that. Thank you very much. It's all my presentation is over. Right, that's fantastic. So we have a good half hour before the drinks and we have some roving microphones if anybody at the back. I think people at the front can probably just shout out any questions or comments, but people at the back could have a microphone. So hands up if you want to ask a question or make a comment here in the middle and then one at the back after that. Can I ask where the finance came from for the construction of the public housing after the tsunami? Sorry? So who wedded the money for the recovery housing? Ok, of course that's a national privilege. Yes, the Japanese government were support to constructing the recovery house. But they are permanent housing, aren't they? Yes, permanent housing. Of course the Kamaisiri were a little bit paid, but that is a little bit. So mostly nationally funded. There was a question at the back then. Two questions at the back. Yes, I've got two questions. One is I had a very moving experience of visiting Kamaisiri a year ago. So that's a question there about the seawalls that have been built both in Kamaisiri and in many other places along that coast. In engineering terms it's decided it's necessary, but if you talk to the local people they talk about the way to cut them off. That people no longer feel connected to the sea, that the children don't know any more what it is to play on the beach. Do any of your questioning and surveying bring out any views of that seawall? Of course there were other people who said the war was necessary. There were people who had mixed feelings, but I wonder whether your work reflects anything on that. Can we take that question first? Let's take that first and then you can ask the next one because it's hard to remember. Of course seawall is very important, but in the Kamaisiri there are two ways to respond to the tsunami. The first is a high seawall in the UNOSMA area that has the rugby field. They had a high seawall, but in central Kamaisiri, the city centre, not. The reason was two. The first is that they had the sea wall in the water. That's right, I've seen that. It's the sea wall that's out at sea. The double block, the seawall. They don't have a high seawall. They did not construct a high seawall. That is lucky. Maybe the Kamaisiri city centre is very lucky because the two block system are there. That is rapid reconstruction work. The rugby stadium is eight kilometres north of a little village. Along with those villages they've put these massive seawalls, which is blocking off the village from the sea now, but in the main cities it's not quite as bad in that sense. What was your second question? My second question is to do with depopulation generally. The tsunami has accelerated in some places depopulation. What do you think the correct strategy is if you're looking at it from the Tokyo government? Should you be concentrating the population in larger centres like Kamaisiri, or should you be rebuilding every single last community? Yes, the depopulation accelerated depopulation is of course a serious problem, but maybe both the Kamaisiri residents and the Tokyo government could not treat it. So we have to accept that situation and the other response needed. Maybe the compact city is one of the answer against depopulation. Kamaisiri is very lucky because after the disaster they reconstruct the recovery house in the city centre and they construct the compact city by chance. But this is not the ordinary in the sea coast area in Sandvik. So it is a very serious problem for not only the Sandvik area, but the other rural area in Japan. I think it does raise a very crucial question as you said. So taking the rugby one again, that village was eight kilometres north and wiped out. And arguably we could have just not rebuilt that village or built a stadium there, but they took the opportunity to completely rebuild the village. And now it is part of Kamaisiri city, but it's not really when it's eight kilometres north. So I think it is an invalid point that you raised. Is that the right way to go about it? But I think if you ask local people there, it's absolutely for them the right response. But arguably other places maybe not. But it's a tricky, reachable situation I think there. There was a question there. Thank you. In the context of Kamaisiri's economic decline, I'm wondering if it's accurate to really talk about Kamaisiri's sort of building up the mythology of it pulling itself by its bootstraps to rise again. I'm really interested in how you're feeling about the central government role in this. And because it strikes me that in other parts of the total coast there's a tremendous amount of tension between what the center has decided to do. And basically just reorganizing massive infrastructure projects which are effectively in certain communities are undermining their relationship to the sea and so on. I feel like your story is a bit kind of centered on myth of Kamaisiri as a kind of like willpower or gamon sort of context. When I think actually that the mobilization or in fact the cash for this and the political leverage for it is coming from the center. I'm wondering what you feel about that. He's going to destroy your hope theory. So he's saying is it a myth, is it sort of not really real, reality that Kamaisiri is rebuilding itself by itself? And he's saying is there not real tension between the national government and these local communities? Are you saying too much about Kamaisiri doing it by itself essentially? Yes, that is the point. I understand that there is a conflict between the actors. So basically the Kamaisiri is very lucky because the construction of infrastructure was maybe not for only Kamaisiri, but the other sandy coastal area. But the Kamaisiri is very lucky in the interchange and they had the ports so they recovered smoothly. But yes, it is very difficult to find. So they've had a bit of locational lack rather than other places which as you pointed out probably didn't need lack or hope for. I would say that the rugby story though, they did actually do it themselves. There was no need for them to bid to be a host city. They absolutely did that themselves through the Scrum Kamaisiri organisation that he talked about. So the infrastructure and the fishing and the steel was probably a different story and more tension. But I think that rugby one, albeit short lived maybe, was Bootstraps and local initiative very much so. I think there was another one at the back. Seeing some nice familiar faces, thank you all for coming along in such a risky environment that we have now. I have two questions. The first one is that you mentioned that one of the ways to revitalise the Kamaisiri was to create and implement opportunities for generation by inviting several companies. My question is how was it possible? So did the three like providing a financial incentive or a future incentive? So when they tried to attract new companies and younger people, what incentives did they offer the city? Was it finance? Was it office space? What was it? Office space is very important but Kamaisiri is lucky too because there are many land for the factory because the steelworks has a huge factory but they are empty. So for example the Eon, that is the shopping centre. Here is the place of the Kamaisiri work. So the other factories were located in the steelworks. So maybe that is point, one point. And second point is this one. The very lucky for the infrastructure was improvement. So the company, especially the distribution or the transportation company were located here. And were they reusing the old steelworks buildings or were they just using the land and building new offices? Both. And any financial incentives, tax advantages? No. What's your second question? So were there any role in revitalisation of the city by civil society organisations? Any local organisations? No, civil society organisations. Oh civil society groups. Unfortunately the energy or the NPO of Kamaisiri is very weak because the Kamaisiri city council is powerful and their officers are very excellent. So they organise all the societies and industries. So the non-government sector were weak. It seems to be one way or another in Japan. You either have a strong local community council or it doesn't seem to be both often. David and, or should we take this question and then me? I don't mind if you want to get first. No go on, I've said you. So I was wondering, I look at some other cases of depopulating places in Japan. And sometimes it feels they don't quite get what's going on. It feels like the reaction to it is just asking for one more government grant finding one more natural feature to concrete over. And then looking around wondering what went on when the construction dog jobs disappear after a few years. You saw that with the sea walls as well, but for some reason Kamaisiri has realised that according to your presentation that that is not the way forward, that that won't help recovery. So they did their own thing. They found new, perhaps slightly unorthodox ways to get the steel back, get the fish back, get the rugby back. I was wondering what's Kamaisiri's secret there, apart from being mucky. What made it so that Kamaisiri, more than some other local municipalities in Japan, got its head out of the sand and thought, right, we're going to do this, we're going to do that. We're actually going to get part of this. So what made Kamaisiri's successful? When so many others went. I want to know it. One reason is that the local government or not the local officer were very excellent. Micro government. The second point is that maybe the steel works were very important for the Kamaisiri community because that's the size nowadays. The size is so small and shrinking, but the OV, the retired people, the residents were there. So they are very powerful and they got the money because the pension is good. So that is maybe different from the other local community. My sense is too that they're not reinventing the wheel there, are they? So they're using what they had or have steel works, but they're upgrading it to produce the radio. They use it the fishing presumably. So they're using what they have already, like you very well pointed out, but in new ways, which I think helps, doesn't it? You're not completely starting from scratch with something completely new. That's a very, very quick point of what you just said. When you said it was partly because of the particular abilities of the local officials, how good they are, are we talking about the elected officials or the unelected officials? That's very difficult for him. So is it local councillors and the mayor or is it industrial leaders? I suppose it's a combination. My sense is that it's a combination. Yes, that is a combination because the local officer, the steel work has the excellent people. So they discuss each other so that local officers will accelerate to the ability and their viewpoint was very wide. And they look at not only the Morioka, Morioka means the local capital, but they direct to the Tokyo. I see, so they've got a direct line to Tokyo. That is one of the points of the Kamayushi's recovery. They have a very good steel museum there too, if you're just in the steel museum. Right. In Morioka, the year after the disaster of 2011 and also twice since then, I have visited what they call Chakkonomikai. This is tea drinking ceremonies for people whose homes and villages were destroyed and they had to be relocated inland. A few of them had relatives they could live with, maybe your daughter lived in Morioka. A lot of them had no place to go and they were given housing for a while. I wonder what it was like when you lost your village. I remember the first time I went and I was talking to very old people who lost their houses. I'd say, I bet you're very homesick. You want to move home when you can, right? And a couple of them said, oh no, no, Morioka is much better. I don't know now if the local population that had to move is homesick. Do they miss their home? Or did they realize once they moved to a big city that actually that old village was not wonderful? I don't know if this question came up much in your research. That is a difficult point too. But one thing is temperature is different, temperature, because the coastal line is warmer than Morioka. Morioka has many snow and temperature is low. So for the elderly people, that is very hard condition. And yet they seem to prefer that. I don't know why. I don't know what the data is on people moving out and then coming back in or staying out. I mean there are geographers and demographers who could tell us that, I'm sure. Well, thank you very much for your very interesting presentation. But the questions in my mind are in a way a follow-up to all ready to have a question. I'll ask you about the de-population. My point is that it's not just the de-population that this commercial town is facing, but also as you showed in one of your graphs. The younger population is now about one-third of the population and the elderly community is about two-thirds of that. That's pretty standard in Japan. So how are you going to deal with it? I mean it is a ticking time bomb, isn't it? Now 33,000 population and about one-third is the younger population and it seems as is the trend that younger people keep going out to the big cities. This is the one problem that I consider as a ticking time bomb. It is as serious as tsunami or earthquake that you are simply not left with the young people who can take the place. The second follow-up from this, because I am a Londoner and London is a very, very multicultural city. What seems to me is that Japan is resisting. They can see it that in many places perhaps they could get people from nearby countries but they are resisting and keeping their homogeneity. Don't you ever consider that this is a kind of outmoded thinking? We were just closing your eyes. OK, so you picked up two national points. Camaishi is a standard demographic across the whole of Japan more or less. So why are they not opening up to immigration is the big question that is always asked. Not just Camaishi. Camaishi, the population of Camaishi and the elderly people were rising and the younger generation were decline. That is common to the other rural areas. You were right, the younger generation would go to the city and the elderly were not, so this one. And immigration is a very difficult problem nowadays. In Camaishi, before the disaster, they had few foreign workers there. That is the Chinese and the Vietnamese. That is so-called... Chinese system. Yes, that is behind it. But that is the number of workers with very few. So that is just a trial. This is a national issue. Japan now has 2% of the foreign population, which is a record. Slightly less homogeneous than it has ever been, but you are right. It is rising, of course, but it is only around 2%. Just a follow-up question. You said your construction was funded by Treasury, but then you mentioned that after the naval bombardment, which was much longer before, it was self-funded. And I just need a bit of more explanation about self-funded. You mentioned about bank loan, and does it mean local government get a loan from private companies? Yes, that is the point. After the world war II, the Kamaisi city loaned from the bank. So the debt of the city was rising. So that is a financial crisis in the 1950s. But after that, the steel industry was rising. So the tax from the steel works were rising. So then the crisis was banished. So that is very lacking for Kamaisi. And in this time, the Kamaisi got a huge budget from the national treasury. So that is no problem. But yes, after the world war II, Kamaisi had a rapid and smooth action. But after that, the debt, heavy debt, was a heavy burden for the Kamaisi city. It's a point. Right, the back there. I'll do it. Do you have a question that links your earlier work in the tuition and industrial revolution with the work you're doing now? And that would be that a lot of the areas that you've worked on are now in decline. So using that as a starting point, do you see any similarities and differences between regional towns in decline, north-east Japan, and south-west Japan? Do you have a question? Basically, the western area of Japan and the eastern area of Japan are quite different. Because maybe the wealthy people in the western area, for example, Kyushu, there were many wealthy people there. So they spend the money for the infrastructure and so on. Perhaps in the eastern area, of course not only poor, but the number of the wealthy people were few. So the role of government was strong. That is high. So in this time, Kyushu, the Kumamoto earthquake and east-Japan earthquake were quite different recovery processes. In Kumamoto, of course, the government spent money in Kumamoto. But the volume was few than the east-Japan earthquake. So maybe the east-Japan area, of course not only the budget, but the manpower. For example, Kamaishi is a core actor in the local government. And the other area is the same. But in Kumamoto, the main actor is a private sector. So maybe that is different between both areas. But historical study is difficult to compare both Meiji and nowadays is quite different situation. So it is very difficult to compare both the age. Is that right? OK. I don't want the drinks to get warm. Before I say thanks, I just want to very briefly plug our next week's event. Next Wednesday at 5pm we have our final. It's the fourth of one of our JRC sports symposiums. It's on women in sport. It's not at SOS. Have a look at our website if you'd like to come along. It's on women in sport, but the venue for the next Wednesday night which is the night of the tsunami memorial. It's the eleventh of March next week. If you'd like to come along, please look at our website. Final, I want to thank Dywa for hosting Great Britain, Sosa Cawer foundation for funding. David for the fantastic staff. And all of you for coming along because we're not supposed to be mingling at the moment, but thank you so much for coming along. Thank you so much. Don't get so excited about that. Mae'r gwaith yn ystod, na Cymru, i'r pryd yw'r pryddysgu'r llwythiau sy'n ddim yn ystod o'r teimlo'n gwybod yw'r holl yn jopŷn i'r ysgol, ac mae'n gweithio'r ysgol i'r tŷodau i'r ysgol, ac roedd ymlaen i'r llwythu'n gweithio'n gweithio. Roedd ymlaen i'r ysgol.