El desastre sísmico y el problema de la pobreza en Japón. El apoyo cotidiano a las víctimas y la organización comunitaria

In this paper, Makoto Yuasa, a social activist and educator at Hosei University, describes his experience around the triple catastrophe of March 11, 2011, when he worked at the Cabinet Office of former Prime Minister Naoto Kan to assist the victims of Tohoku Earthquake. Among his multiple roles, he has served as coordinator of the team providing urgent employment and aid to the people in state of need and poverty, as coordinator of volunteers supporting the victims of the earthquake, and as coordinator of the office promoting social inclusion.Yuasa is the Executive Director of the Independent Life Support Center (MOYAI) and the Executive Director of the Anti-Poverty Network. His long experience of assisting homeless people served for the everyday-life support he helped to implement for victims of the Fukushima disaster. The author explains how he emphasized that people needed first and foremost to believe in the possibility of reconstructing their lives. Then, how he sought officials and politicians, hoping to arouse their interest in a social inclusion perspective. He prepared and shared a document titled, "Towards a reconstruction that values every person – the need for a social inclusion approach," which addressed the isolation of individuals in contemporary Japan and focused on the prevention of social exclusion and the promotion of social inclusion. However, he holds that in Japan reluctance to community building had furrowed its roots deeply into the history of Japanese society since the Rapid Economic Growth days. Hence, Yuasa stresses the importance of building on the preexisting practices of community building across Japan, and continue to build upon them.This paper was presented by Makoto Yuasa at the international symposium: "Fukushima Disaster and the Future of Nuclear Energy: Learning from Experience", of the XII ALADAA International Conference (Latin American Association for African and Asian Studies), Universidad Popular Autónoma del Estado de Puebla, Mexico, on June 15, 2012. The Spanish version is included in the conference proceedings published by ALADAA in 2013.Translation from the Japanese by Marcela Méndez Vázquez. Japanese title: Shinsai to Nihon no hinkon mondai: hisaisha no seikatsu shien to komyuniti ôganaizu 「震災と日本の貧困問題～被災者の生活支援とコミュニティ・オーガナイズ」