As you all know, about 2 years ago, a tremendous earthquake (magnitude 9) followed by a lethal “tsunami”, countless aftershocks and a major nuclear accident at Fukushima, struck the North-East coast of Japan. With nearly 20000 people dead or missing, still over 342000 evacuees, this has been a major challenge for the country. Let us share a thought or a prayer for the victims.

About 10 days ago, I attended a high-level Conference on the Reconstruction Process at the Chamber of Commerce in Paris. Fed with a lot of data and presentations about what had been done for the past 2 years, I was impressed to see how well the Japanese nation had rebounded after the disaster: solidarity, volunteer work, 10 year reconstruction plan, new reconstruction agency, new investments, tax breaks, grants for reconstruction projects ….

What I found most remarkable is that, rather than just rebuilding the same communities, the Japanese took the opportunity to rethink how and what to build, further, came up with a new concept of “Smart Community” where renewable and clean energies (solar, wind, geothermal) will be produced locally and feeding the new town, where all cars and buses will be electric vehicles, where the whole town energy consumption will be monitored by a Control Center or Energy Management System ….

Well done ! As stated during the presentations, revitalizing disaster hit areas will play a leading role in the emergence of a dynamic new Japan:
RECONSTRUCTION + REVITALIZATION = DYNAMIC GROWTH !

東北の皆様へ、頑張れ !!