Relief Activities of Religious Organizations

1. Relief Activities of Religious Organizations Hiroyuki Kurosaki (Kokugakuin University) hkuro@kokugakuin.ac.jp

2. Academic Scholars Religious People Collaboration in Disaster Relief A Result: 宗教者災害救援マップ (A Map of Disaster Relief by Religious People) http://sites.google.com/site/fbnerjmap/

7. “Social Contribution by Religion” Research Project • A project in the Japanese Association for the Study of Religion and Society （「宗教と社会」学会）between 2006 and 2011. • Caretakers: Keishin INABA (Osaka Univ.), Eiichi OTANI (Bukkyo Univ.), Yorio FUJIMOTO (Kokugakuin Univ.), Yoshihide SAKURAI (Hokkaido Univ.) and Hiroyuki KUROSAKI (Kokugakuin Univ.)

8. Sharing information on disaster relief by religion • Initially proposed by Keishin INABA (Osaka Univ.) • Opening a page, entitled 宗教者災害救援ネットワーク (Religious Peoples’ Disaster Relief Network), on Facebookhttp://www.facebook.com/FBNERJ

9. 宗教者災害救援ネットワークhttp://www.facebook.com/FBNERJ宗教者災害救援ネットワークhttp://www.facebook.com/FBNERJ Announcements by Emergency Operations Center of each religious organization Blogs Tweets • Prayer and grief support • Shelters • Donation • Support materials • Emergency rice feeding • Mental care • Other relief activities Facebook posts

10. Religious facilities functioned as relief bases as well as shelters e.g. ŌsakiHachimangū, a Shinto shrine located in Sendai City, Miyagi Prefecture

11. Religious facilities functioned as relief bases as well as shelters e.g. IshinomakiEikō Church, a christian church located in Ishinomaki City, Miyagi Prefecture

12. Next Idea • Providing information on religious facilities as relief bases • Promoting collaboration between religious people and other volunteers

13. Two Difficulties • Technical matter: how to construct a web map • Ask for collaboration with religious organizations, concerning about: • Keeping up-to-date information • Security • Privacy

14. Another Need and Activity • Evacuation from the Fukushima nuclear accident • Some religious organizations announced the acceptance to their facilities of evacuation. • Mamiko OKADA (Univ. of Hyogo) proposed the inter-religious network to share the information. →宗教者災害支援連絡会

16. Collaboration • Construction of the map system: Sotetsu TAKEI (Shingon-shuChizanSect), Takeo NAKATANI (Konkokyo) • Input: students and graduate students of Osaka Univ., Tokyo Univ., Kogakkan Univ. and Kokugakuin Univ. • Offering the data: many religious organizations, shrines, temples, churches and other particular facilities

17. Google Fusion Tables Google Documents (Spreadsheet) Import Query, Map Google Sites Export Link (CSV)

18. Current Status

19. Result • Visualization of the relief activities by religious organizations after the Great East Japan Earthquake • The map itself was of little use to the promotion of the support cooperation of goods and refugee acceptance; the real trust and network in the ordinary life in the local community is more important.

20. Next Step • Keishin INABA plans to construct a disaster prevention map which can be used in the ordinary life to promote the network in the local community. It will include the locations of religious facilities.

21. Thank you.