The Chinju no Mori Project has planted more than 680,000 trees along Japan’s coastline to mitigate the impact of tsunamis.The project took its inspiration from the “guardian forests” that often surround Shinto shrines.These forest groves helped protect several shrines from destruction during the massive earthquake and tsunami of 2011.Despite the project’s popularity, most towns continue to turn to concrete seawalls to guard against the next disaster.
MINAMISOMA, Japan — Kazuo Monma stepped out onto the small stage and looked at the large crowd with a sense of relief. The weather report had called for rain all weekend, and the mayor of Minamisoma, a coastal city in Japan’s Fukushima prefecture, worried that few would show for what had become an annual event for volunteers from across the Tohoku region.
Instead, Monma stood in front of more than 1,000 people. The assembled crowd, some from as far away as Kanagawa prefecture, more than 300 kilometers (about 200 miles) to the south, were there to plant more than 12,000 trees along the steep dunes that line Minamisoma’s sandy beaches.
“I really do think we should be proud of this moment,” Monma said to the crowd. “This is a place where thousands of people have kept this up for so long.”
