Social Entrepreneurs of Japan's Disaster-Hit Areas

Dear GlobalGiving Donors,

We are excited to share our latest update in completing a successful event in New York City to commemorate the sixth anniversary of the Great East Japan Earthquake. On March 6^th, WIT held a special event, “Resilience for the Future: Cross-Border Dialogue with Post-Disaster Social Entrepreneurs”, with the generous support of Peatix Inc., Sapporo USA Inc., T.I.C. Restaurant Group., JAMSNET, JASSA (Japan Study Student Association) at Columbia University, NY Ichokai  and others.

At this event, Wataru Kainuma, Executive Director and Founder of UrushiRocks, Inc. spoke about his social venture in Fukushima and his vision to create a sustainable economy and society, through promoting the long-standing tradition of Urushi, a beautiful Japanese lacquerware. Mio Yamamoto, Executive Director and Co-Founder of WIT, also spoke about WIT’s cross-border initiatives, including its flagship program, Learning Journeys, to spur social innovation and accelerate the growth of the social ventures WIT supports across Japan.

This was also an exciting time for UrushiRocks, Inc., as it had just released its English online store website (https://meguru-eng.stores.jp/) and a beautiful short documentary "In the Heart of Aizu" on the craftsmanship of Urushi (the video can be found here), which was created by Steve Sakanashi, WIT Associate Accelerator, and his creator friends. The film is now featured on Booooooom.com, one of the most highly trafficked art blogs in the world.

The success of this event would not have been possible without your generous support and belief in the mission of our work. This was an especially unique event for both WIT and for UrushiRocks, in that it was WIT’s first-ever big event to showcase the success and global efforts of UrushiRocks, Inc.,  one of the social ventures WIT has been supporting for the past year.

WIT is excited to continue working with social entrepreneurs like Urushi Rocks to bring their social impact to the world, in collaboration with global citizens like you!

Thank you once again for your continued support!