JEN Accepts Students from Harvard Business School into its Exchange Program

This year again on January 10, 2014, Harvard Business School in the U.S. city of Boston sent fifteen students led by three escorting staffs to Tanigawahama in Ishinomaki, Miyagi Prefecture, where the students had an opportunity to experience fishery and socialize with people in the community.
The students are from all parts of the world including Norway, Turkey, and China, whose engagement with JEN's project is as part of their school curriculum.

Tanigawahama's young fisherman Mr. Masao Atsumi, as a storyteller, welcomed the students and gave a talk about; what the situation of Tanigawahama was like in the post-quake period; the farming of ascidians and scallops having been prosperous since long ago and so on. As for ascidians Tanigawahama holds a 90% share of the national market for seed production as well as cultivation and it exports most of its sea products to Korea, as he told them. And he said through an interpreter Korea has imposed a controversial ban on the import of Tanigawahama's sea products as a consequence of Fukushima nuclear plant incident and so there remains a major problem for fishermen in the region.

【The fisherman gave the students a description of what happened when the earthquake occurred.】

After receiving Mr. Atsumi's explanation, the students worked on making mother shells for farming ascidians and the preparation of scallop farming as a hands-on activity. Braving the exposure to low wind-chill, they actively worked with fishermen.

【Hands-on experience, making mother shells for farming ascidians.】

For lunch, they savored a potluck barbecue with freshly-hauled scallops and oysters brought by fishermen and beef brought by the students.
It was impressing to see a woman who can't speak English responded with smile when one of the students who tried tonjiru, miso soup with pork and vegetables, for the first time said to the woman "Miso soup, oishi!,"

【The students and the people in the community all opened up to each other.】

JEN is committed to providing people working hard to overcome the disaster toward self-sustained development with continued assistance through its exchange program which offers participants opportunities to experience fisheries, to make inspection tours, and to socialize with people in the stricken areas.

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