By Hiroki Ose, President, Japan Agricultural Journalists Association.
Thank you very much for your expressions of support following damages caused by a massive earthquake and tsunami on March 11. As a president of the Japan Agricultural Journalists’ Association, JAJA, I sincerely appreciate every effort you are making and ask all of your members to support the people of Japan who are seriously suffering.
More than 10,000 people are believed to have been killed or still missing. We are seeing extensive efforts to avert crisis arising from a series of failures on large nuclear facilities. Not only human damages, but also extensive damage on farming will be inevitable.
Most of our members are safe. However, we are still confirming the safety of every single JAJA member. Although the areas most severely stricken by the earthquake include parts of Sendai city, where we had the IFAJ World Congress in 2007, places we visited during the tours are generally safe.
We have had many inquiries from members of IFAJ asking about the situation of those who helped us during the congress. We don’t have enough information to answer all those questions. Thousands of people are missing and rescue operations in those areas are underway.
We will keep updating you about the situation as soon as we have information. We really appreciate you as a journalist to report stories, programs and commentaries with warm heart on the tragedy, which will encourage Japanese people to stand up against this difficult situation.
Also we will appreciate your donation through IFAJ for people who have suffered. Since it is very difficult to estimate so far how much damage they have, we will decide the allocation of the fund later at the appropriate time in consultation with IFAJ.
On behalf of JAJA, I really appreciate your help as a professional colleague.
Hiroki Ose is President of the Japan Agricultural Journalists’ Association and Senior commentator with the Japan Broadcasting Corporation, NHK
