TOMODACHI Alumni Highlight: Yuuki Sato, from TOMODACHI Next Generation Summit 2023

For this highlight, we are featuring the speech given by Yuuki Sato at the TOMODACHI Next Generation Summit 2023 Reception. Yuuki is an alumni of the TOMODACHI Summer 2016 SoftBank Leadership Program.

He became interested in a farmers’ market that he visited during the program in the United States and was involved in activities to implement a farmers’ market while growing his own vegetables back in Japan. In the process, he became interested in community development from the residents’ side, but he thought he needed to know what kind of organization and role the government plays in order to do so, so he entered Fukushima University’s School of Public Administration and Policy Studies.

While still in school, he began to tell stories about the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami that struck his hometown Fukushima, so he focused his studies on reconstruction administration. After graduating from the university, he started working for an educational non-profit in Fukushima and is involved in teaching product development at high schools.

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Hello, everyone.
I am Yuuki Sato, alumni of the TOMODACHI Summer 2016 SoftBank Leadership Program. Currently, I am working at an NPO in Fukushima Prefecture, where I am involved in creating an environment for high school students to go out into the community and learn together with local residents. First, let me briefly explain my TOMODACHI program. In this program, 100 high school students from Iwate, Miyagi, and Fukushima prefectures spend three weeks in Berkeley, California learning about community contribution and leadership.

The Great East Japan Earthquake occurred when I was 11 years old. On March 11th, after the earthquake struck, we were instructed to evacuate our town the next day.
That morning, leaving for school, when I said, “I’m heading out,” I didn’t realize that I wouldn’t be able to return home.
Three and a half years after the disaster, I was able to return briefly with my family. The evacuation order was still in effect so we couldn’t sleep in our house, but we were able to return briefly to cleanup.
I was surprised to see the state of my house – it was the same since the earthquake first shook. Fallen roof tiles and fallen fences remained. Cracks in the walls were in all the rooms. And there was mold and animal remains everywhere.
It was my first time returning, but other adults had been going back to town so I was shocked to see that three and a half years had changed nothing.

At that time, I thought that adults were capable of anything. However, I realized that even adults couldn’t do anything about such a situation caused by a nuclear accident even after three and a half years. I wondered if there was anything I, as a minor, could do for the town’s recovery. But as a high school student, I didn’t know what I should do. That’s when I learned about the TOMODACHI program and decided to participate, hoping to find something I could do to contribute.

As part of the program, I made a diagonal connection with the “adult allies” – mentors who supported us not only during the program but after we returned to Japan.
It was very important for me to have someone I could talk to about things that were difficult to discuss with my family or teachers. Especially when I had difficulties or when my view was too narrow to see what was going on around me.
This relationship allowed me to continue taking action.

The NPO I am working for now (Bridge for Fukushima) is the organization that the adult ally was from when I participated in the program. We grew vegetables and held a farmer’s market when I was in high school, and I believe that we were able to do this because of the understanding of our teachers and parents as well as the various community members we met. Because this experience was so significant, I wanted to be involved in creating an environment where high school students can create these diagonal connections.

Today, taking the lessons I learned from the TOMODACHI program, I now work as a Regional Coordinator at a high school in Fukushima. I mainly do two things: 1) being a connector between the school and the community. I help students meet and listen to various people within the community to better understand what the needs are; and 2) I work with those students to develop their action plans and help deepen their ideas.

Until now and while I was in theTOMODACHI program, I have been on the receiving end of these connections. But now I am the one connecting.
I am still learning how to be the best connector between these communities and to support these students, but I would like to use my past experiences to do what only I can do.

Thank you.

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This introduction was written by Hannah Fulton, TOMODACHI Alumni Intern. Hannah is currently a TOMODACHI Alumni Program Intern and is an Alumni of the U.S.-Japan Council’s the Toshizo Watanabe Study Abroad Scholarship Program 2022-2023.