After the Great Eastern Japan earthquake and tsunami in March 2011, women in the disaster-affected areas of northern Japan joined an ongoing project called PhotoVoice, led by Professor Mieko Yoshihama. Since June 2011, this diverse group of women takes photographs of their lives and communities and discusses them. Participants question and identify limitations and failures of the current disaster response policies and practices, as well as those concerning nuclear energy.

These photographs taken by women from the prefectures of Fukushima, Miyagi, and Iwate, along with their “voices” that accompany the photographs, have been exhibited in Ann Arbor (U-M), Paris, and Tokyo. Currently, the exhibit is in Sendai from January 13 through 19. Please watch the video clip of NHK Tohoku's coverage on this exhibit:

http://www3.nhk.or.jp/tohoku-news/20140114/4269571.html


The overall goal of the PhotoVoice project, started by Professor Yoshihama with funding from the Center for Japanese Studies and other organizations, is to strengthen the disaster response policies and practices in Japan (and beyond) by engaging the very women affected by the disasters in the analyses of societal conditions and collective efforts to address them.