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As of March 20, 2014
3,666,000miles
The JAL Group has been running the Tohoku Support Project "VISIT TOHOKU!" since June 2013, engaging in a wide variety of activities to contribute to the reconstruction of the Tohoku region through "local promotion" and "support offered to the disaster-affected inhabitants."
More than two years after the Great East Japan Earthquake, the memory of the devastation caused by the earthquake-tsunami disaster is beginning to fade. At the same time, the Tohoku region is seeing a dramatic decrease in the number of volunteer workers and significant delays in reconstruction efforts. Based on this reality, there is a strong need to provide ongoing support for the long term. In response to this situation, the JAL Group will launch a new project, SKY BATON. This project will pass the reconstruction "baton" from working adults to the younger generations in an effort to both help foster future generations and to support the areas affected by the earthquake-tsunami disaster.
Under this project, working adults will provide financial support (i.e. pass the baton) to the younger generations (university students) who will be responsible for building the future of Tohoku and Japan, 10 years to 20 years from now. Sending students to participate in local visits and volunteer activities will provide them with the opportunity to better understand the issues faced by the disaster-affected areas, help enable them to think for themselves and translate those ideas into action (i.e. foster future generations), and encourage them to develop deeper ongoing interest and involvement in the disaster-affected areas over the long term (support to disaster-affected areas).
As the first phase of SKY BATON, we will be supporting the KIKKAKE BUS 47 Project organized by Tasukeai Japan, a public interest incorporated association with a proven track record in activities that provide assistance to the disaster-affected areas. The JAL Group will be offering support to this project by providing air transport and will also be asking JMB members to provide their support under a charity miles program.
We will be accepting Charity Miles from JAL Mileage Bank members from 10:00am, Tuesday, December 24, 2013 through Sunday, March 16, 2014. Charity Miles will be accepted in units of 3,000 miles.
The JAL Group will donate the equivalent amount in cash to Tasukeai Japan's KIKKAKE BUS Project.
Tasukeai Japan is a non-profit public interest incorporated association that was launched in the wake of the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake. Tasukeai Japan cooperated with the Japan Cabinet Office's volunteer liaison office (current Reconstruction Agency) in the aftermath of the earthquake-tsunami and currently continues to operate tasukeaijapan.jp, a portal that provides information on reconstruction aid. The organization received approval as a public interest incorporated association one year after its launch and is currently engaging in reconstruction efforts over a wide geographical area consisting of the Iwate, Miyagi, and Fukushima prefectures.
Tasukeai Japan is also responsible for the KIKKAKE BUS 47 Project. In Japanese, "kikkake" means "opportunity" or "turning point." Under this project, students from Japan's 47 prefectures make respective plans and arrangements to take a bus full of volunteer workers to the three prefectures that were hit by the earthquake-tsunami disaster.
Students have the time to volunteer their services, whereas working adults may not have the time to volunteer their efforts but do have the money to donate to various causes. Bringing together the available resources of these two groups, a total of 2,000 students will serve as volunteer workers while working adults will provide the financial assistance in operating the buses, thereby creating opportunities for both students and working adults to become more involved in reconstruction efforts.