On December 12, 2012, Kizuna Bond Project with 50 college students from the Philippines was held at Tohoku Institute of Technology (T.I.T.).
The theme was “What T.I.T. Can Do toward the Reconstruction for the North-Eastern Japan after the Tohoku Earthquake”. The workshop started with the opening address and presentation by Dr. Sawada, the president of T.I.T., followed by the presentation “What We Can Do Toward A Disaster Reconstruction” by Dr. Ishikawa, the vice president. After that, T.I.T. students gave three presentations on cultural events in Sendai, students’ project to support people living in temporary housing and “Tsumikimetto”, multi-function toy against disaster. All of them were enriched with great information. I was impressed by the students from the Philippines who listened eagerly to those presentations, asked specific questions and made interesting comments to the presenters although they were from different colleges and had different majors. After their thank-you speech both in Japanese and English, they performed dances and songs for us. After having lunch with T.I.T. students, they walked on the campus and visited three facilities for projects of earthquake-resistant structures, disaster-assistance robot and measurement of radiation.
This project indeed was a great opportunity for all the participants to understand more about the disaster and deepen the friendship between the Philippines and Japan, so I would like to thank everyone who was involved in this program.

Mika Miyasone
Department of Management and Communication/
International Exchange Committee