ICA update on Japanese Earthquake and Tsunami

The International Co-operative Alliance (ICA) contacted its members in Japan following the devastating earthquake and tsunami that hit north easytern part of Honshu island on Friday, 11 March 2011 and has been receiving updates on the situation in Japan. As of 23 March 2011 and as reported by the Shinbun Newspaper 9,487 persons have died (= total conmfirmed number of 12 Prefectures); 15,617 are missing and 2,775 are seriously injured. ICA and many ICA members have sent letters of condolences and support to ICA members in Japan. In addition, on 16 March the ICA launched an appeal to collect donations for its Japan Disaster Recovery Fund. A number of Japanese members have already or will established special funds for those that wish to support both the immediate relief efforts and longer term reconstruction.

Appeals and funds to support relief and reconstruction

23 March 2011 - Japan Workers' Co-operative Union (JWCU) established Earthquake Relief Fund - See more information on how to contribute (pdf)

16 March 2011 - ICA launches appeal for Japan Disaster Recovery Fund
16 de marzo 2011 - Llamado global de respaldo a las víctimas del terremoto y tsunami en Japón

14 March 2011 - Letter from ICA Asia Pacific to members in Japan (pdf)

Japanese Co-operative Movement reports on damages

ICA has received the following members in Japan on the situation:

6 April 2011 - Update JF ZENGYOREN (see below)

JA-ZENCHU - National Federation of Agricultural Co-operatives

23 March 2011 -- 02:36 ( Central European Time or GMT +1)

Damage in Iwate province: In Iwate prefecture, as of March 16, 3 staff are dead and 17 staff are missing in 8 primary societies (JAs). No report on members. In the case of JA-Ofunato, the first floor of their headquarters was flooded, 6 branches suffered severe damage, 2 branches catastrophic damage and there is no information from 2 branches.
Support by JAs in Iwate province: Since March 14, JAs in Iwate province including damaged JAs have been supporting affected members and community residents by providing hot meals, rice, blankets, water, etc. Some JAs have requested member farmers to contribute rice for support. Damaged JAs have implemented repayment of deposits without passbooks.
Support by major provinces:
- JAs in Hokkaido province sent 35 tons of potatos, 175 tons of onions and 35 tons of rice to Miyagi province in March 16.
- JAs in Akita province sent 9,000 bottles (2L) of water and 10,000 cans of porridge to Iwate prefecture in March 15.
- JAs in Yamagata province sent 20,000 of rice balls and 7 tons of rice to Miyagi prefecture from March 15 to 20.
- JAs in Nagano province sent 30,000 bottles of fruit juice, 20,000 bottles of tea to Miyagi, Iwate and Fukushima provinces in March 15.
- JAs in Niigata province sent food and living necessities such as blankets, portable stove burner, home drugs, etc.
Impact of Fukushima nuclear plants: Radioactive materials in minute amounts which exceed the prescribed standard were detected from some vegetables and milk in Fukushima and the neighboring provinces. JAs in those provinces have stopped selling such vegetables and milk to markets based on the requests by respective provincial governments.

14 March 2011 --11:28 (Central European Time or GMT +1)
Damages by Tsunami were much more severe than by Jishin or earthquake so that I think fishery co-operatives and their concerns including fishermen were seriously affected. But we have not received any information about those fishery co-operatives yet.

14 March 2011 -- 05:58 (Central European Time or GMT +1)
Three provinces, Iwate, Miyagi and Fukushima, in the north-eastern part of Japan were seriously affected. According to the TV news, the dead and missing are more than 3,000. Miyagi provincial police said the dead will over 10,000 in the province. The present situation of agricultural co-operative (JA) group is as follows:

In Miyagi province, the building of Miyagi provincial union received serious damages. The union's function becomes temporarily paralyzed so that the present situation of primary societies (JAs) has not been informed.
In Iwate province, 3 JAs, Ohfunato, Shin-Iwate and Iwate-Hanamaki, received serious damages. Ohfunato's damage is catastrophic.
In Fukushima province, some people in the JA federation hospital were influenced by radiation leaks from Fukushima nuclear power stations.

12 March 2011 Staff of JA Zenchu at Tokyo are safe. Now we are trying to collect information on damages to members of JA group by the earthquake and tsunami disaster around country. The earth quake and tsunami caused great damage, especially along the shores of Tohoku district of Japan.

JF ZENGYROREN - National Federation of Fisheries Co-operative Associations

6 April 2011
As of 20:00 of Wednesday 6 April 2011 as announced by the National Police Agency of Japanese Government:

Number of deaths: 12,554
Number of missing: 15,077
Number of persons evacuated: 161,928 (Excludes those evacuated from nuclear incident).

23 March 2011
The photos below were taken on 22 March in Onahama, Fukushima Prefecture. One of the directors of ZENGYOREN a briefly visited Onahama, one of the nearest affected places from Tokyo, to talk with member federation concerning the needs for new and continued emergency measures to be taken. Due to poor communication access, ZENGYOREN has still to set up a more detailled action plan. Coastal cities such as Kesennuma, Yamada, and others are damaged much more seriously.

18 March 2011
On Tuesday 15 March, JF ZENGYOREN sent emergency support materials such as blanket, medicines, fruit, clothes etc to Iwate Prefecture by 10 ton truck. On Thursday 17 March, another truck carrying 10 tons of mineral water in bottles left JF ZENGYOREN for affected areas.

16 March 2011
JF ZENGYOREN (National Federation of Fisheries Co-operative Associations) established "Fisheries Sector Task Force"on Saturday, 12 March 2011 in order to do necessary relief activities in connection with the devastating earthquake and tsunami of 11 March. The head of the Task Force is Mr. Hattori Ikuhiro, President of JF ZENGYOREN.

ICFO (chairman: Mr. Lee Jong Koo) sent his first letter to its member organisations for taking necessary action.

14 March 2011 - 06:35 (Central European Time or GMT +1)
As regards damages, we do not know yet since there are places where the whole towns got disappeared. We have atleast two such towns, and they say that the number of people missing is more than 20,000. Already, as of today 11:00 Toyko local time of Monday 14 March 2011, news media report that they have confirmed the total number of deaths of 1,600 people. It will continue to increase since most of the people who were buried alive by the fearful tsunami are still under the debris of houses etc. Further, we do not know how to find those who were drifted away by the tsunami far off to the sea. This is more than a tragedy. I do not know how to express this catastrophe in words. Dr. Terada Torahiko, a physicist of Japan, once said that "Natural disasters and catastrophies will hit at a time when you forget them". This adage is really true. Co-operative communities need co-operation and spirit of solidarity at a time like this gigantic time of trying. Thanks for your concern and sympathy.

Japan Consumers' Co-operative Union (JCCU)

15 March 2011
Japanese Consumer Co-operatives set up Earthquake Task Force and Earthquake Relief Fund

13 March 2011
JCCU website news: http://jccu.coop/eng/news/ns_20110313_01.php

12 March 2011
As you may know, there was a great earthquake in Japan with magnitude 8.8. It is reported that the size was the largest in last 150 years. In Tokyo metropolitan area, we had fearful quakes. But the damage was not very serious considering the quake. However, in north-east area of Japan, the damage is serious. Consumer co-operatives got substantial damages at their business facilities. The other co-operatives may also have got severe damages in their facilities in the north-east area. So far, the whole damage situation is not clear. It will take a few days to know the whole damage.

Japan Workers' Co-operative Union (JWCU)

See also http://english.roukyou.gr.jp/news.html

23 March 2011

JWCU member, "Bihoro" in Onagawa City (Miyagi Prefecture), one of the most affected areas, phoned the JWCU head office this morning. The cell phone system is still problematic, but JWCU was able to speak with them for about 15 seconds. The message was, "We'll do whatever we can. We'll go all the way!" JWCU members at Bihoro have already started working on reconstruction of the City. (Photo right: Bihoro office & its members)

On 23 March JWCU President Yuzo NAGATO and 3 other executives left Tokyo for the affected areas. On 24 and 25 March, they will visit several cities where members were most affected. On 26 March, a meeting will be held in Tohoku regional office to discuss mid- to long-term plans for support and reconstruction efforts.

Tokhu region: JWCU head office and regional offices are receiving goods and supplies from its members throughout the country, and trucks are leaving for Tohoku region (photo right). Trucks leaving with supplies to Tokhu region

Trucks leaving with supplies to Tokhu region

There is currently an urgent need for foods and gas which is expected to continue for some time. so deliveries are focusing on those supplies. The needs for supplies are expected to last for a long time, and coordination of the efforts is very important.

There is a need to assist residents to remove debris and clean damaged houses. However, those that assist need to bring vehicles (e.g. trucks) to do the work.
JWCU team members in Hokkaido will leave on 27 March to deliver supplies in Noda Village (Iwate Prefecture). They will stay for a few days and help the residents take their furniture and goods out of their houses.
Several member co-operatives have already offered to send teams to the affected areas for a week. JWCU head office is also planning to co-ordinate these teams to provide physical support in the affected areas.

Financial Support: The JWCU relief fund was set up today to obtain necessary goods/supplies and to provide support for our members in the affected areas. However, because this account does not accept international remittance, we will use our regular account to receive the international donations and transfer them to the relief fund account. The detailed information is available on the JWCU web site (http://english.roukyou.gr.jp/). Financial assistance is critical for long-term support and reconstruction efforts. Therefore, we will put more energy on obtaining financial support.

18 March 2011

JWCU efforts are now focusing on collecting and delivering goods and supplies to the affected areas. It reports that its members nationwide have been bringing goods and supplies (e.g. foods, blankets, clothes, water, toilet papers, portable stoves) to the head office and other regional offices. Several private corporations are also kindly donating goods and supplies for our members including Takasago Corporation (construction company) and Seijo Drug Store.

Delivery of goods and supplies are well underway. A truck from Akita Prefecture arrived in Noda Villege in Iwate Prefecture (1 of the 3 most affected areas among JWCU members) this afternoon. Trucks from Amagasaki and Itami (both are in Hyogo Prefecture where the big earthquake hit in 1995) left last night and this morning respectively. Trucks from Niigata Prefecture (where the big earthquakes hit in 2004 and 2007), Osaka and Tokyo head office will leave this evening. A truck from other Tokyo metropolitan area will leave on March 19. The second truck will leave around March 23rd.

The city of Ohnojo (in Fukuoka Prefecture, about 1,500 southwest of the affected area) has approached one of JWCU's member units (a nursery) about possibility of sending nursery staff to the affected area.

17 March 2011
JWCU at the national level continues to check the safety of our members, the efforts are starting to shift to the relief work (e.g. sending supplies and human resources). The head office has been receiving supplies from members nationwide. The first supplies will be leaving Tokyo on March 18th (2t truck). JWCU members in several regions are also collecting supplies and will travel to Tohoku separately, starting March 18th. The JWCU head office is collecting the information from the affected areas and regional offices which are collecting the supplies which will be distributed to the affected areas based on the information on what is needed in which area. JWCU head office is also in the process of opening an account for the relief work. The board meeting is scheduled at the end of this month, and they will discuss how to distribute/use the donation.

JWCU has also reported on the safety of members in Tohoku noting that it has found the co-operative president of Bihoro (the last missing co-op member of JWCU) and his wife through a bulletin board, but that some individual members are still missing. There have also been other loss of life in member families.

There continues to be a survey of property damage in the Tokhu region. The building of Ishinomaki Jigyodan (JWCU member co-op) is completely gone due to Tsunami. A building housing the nursery in Urayasu City (Chiba Prefecture)s too damaged to use. Our members are currently discussing with the City about the possible measures to take.

Finally, JWCU is reporing that some JWCU members operate public facilities (designated by municipalities), and at least 1 of them in Saitama has been approached by the City about the possibility of accepting evacuees from Tohoku region at that facility.

16 March 2011

The JWCU head office has set up a Disaster Task Force. It has a daily brief to share information and discuss the work to do.
A team from the head office has set up 2 hubs in Tohuka (northeast region) - 1 in Sendai, Miyagi, and the other in Akita (northwest of Miyagi) - to collect information and distribute supplies. These were operational as of 15 March.
The JWCU president Yuzo NAGATO and others will travel to Tohoku on 23 March 2011 and establish the future direction.
Several members nationwide have sent supplies (sleeping bags, water, foods) to the head office. These will be distributed es in accordance with the information on member needs.
The most severe damage is expected at our units in 3 areas (Onagawa City & Ishinomaki City in Miyagi Prefecture, Noda Village in Iwate Prefecture). We will prioritise these 3 areas to send supplies and human resources.
JWCU is preparing to open a special account for the relief fund. The fund will be used for the supply and cash assistance (for both short- and long-term).

JWCU has reported that most of the members in Tohoku have been found safe. However, they have not yet been able to contact anyone at the unit in Onagawa City, Miyagi Prefecture. Even for those who have been found safe, some of their families are missing and/or have been killed by the earthquake and tsunami. JWCU day care centers for the elderly are continuing to house worker members and clients who were at the centre when the quake hit.

In addition, JWCU has made an intial survey of property damage:

Aomori Prefecture: The extent of property damage is immeasurable.
Miyagi Prefecture: The building cracks are very severe.
Iwate Prefecture: There are cracks in walls.
Fukushima Prefecture: The base of the building broke at a day care center.
Kanagawa (south of Tokyo) joint regional office of member co-ops, Koreikyo (older persons' co-operative) and Center Jigyodan, was damaged. The building is too dangerous to stay so members moved documents and PCs to one of their service units.
At least one child care center in Tokyo is closed because the building is damaged.
Some buildings of units in Chiba Prefecture (east of Tokyo) are damaged due to liquefaction.

12 March 2011
As you may already know, one of the biggest earthquake hit Japan yesterday, causing unimaginable damages. We would like to inform you that at least the headquarters of Japan Workers' Co-operative Union (JWCU) in Tokyo is fine (small property damages but no injury). However, we have several branches in Tohoku (northeastern) area, where the earthquake hit the hardest, and we are currently trying our best to contact our members there. There seem to be some damages but we are yet to find out about the details. Our phone systems are not working too well, and we are still having aftershocks (smaller ones though) every now and then. Please allow us to keep you informyou on this matter.

National Federation of University Co-operative Associations (NFUCA)

15 March 2011
NFUCA has set up a task force immediately following the disaster and began many of the support related activities for the universities and university co-ops. In addition, many of the other co-operatives as well as Japanese Consumers' Co-operative Union (JCCU) have been assisting in the rescue and recovery efforts in the devastated regions.

NFUCA is determined and committed to carrying support activities for the disaster victims and many of the necessary reconstruction activities in joint effort with related association, when the rebuilding begins.

NFUCA will also set up a local task force to coordinate joint tasks located in the disaster struck area. Many of the university co-operatives have already initiated the set up of a donation fund to help support some other financial needs.

Institute for the Development of Agricultural Co-operation in Asia (IDACA)

12 March 2011
Note: A joint ICA/IDACA co-operative training programme for agricultural co-operative leaders from Asia is currently being held at IDACA.
Regarding the earthquake of yesterday, we inform you that all participants and Mr. Taneja (ICA Asia-Pacific) are safe. IDACA had problem of cut of electricity yesterday night but it was recovered this morning. It was not possible to use internet yesterday but it recovered this morning. Therefore, participants can contact their family directly now.

After the earthquake hit, we could not get power and water supply and with all the official and staff, took measures necessary for the participants. No injury and sick of the participants. The participants may have difficulty in coping with the situation which most of them had never experienced. It is now 06:55am in Tokyo. Electric power and water are alright now. I will inform you of the situation more later.

Last Updated: 20 April 2011