Reconstruction Initiatives from the Great East Japan Earthquake Disaster

In the hope of a speedy recovery for the survivors of the Great East Japan Earthquake disaster, The CITIZEN Group donated 100 million yen through the headquarters of the Japan Red Cross, and CITIZEN WATCH CO. OF AMERICA donated 50,000 dollars through the American Red Cross. Furthermore, we provided 3,000 digital thermometers to the Japanese Red Cross Fukushima Hospital.

In June 2013, employees of CITIZEN WATCH MANUFACTURING’s Tohoku Plant visited Onagawa Town, Miyagi Prefecture, to hold a watchmaking workshop there. The event provided elementary school students in the fishing town, who normally have little exposure to "manufacturing," with the opportunity to experience the joy of making things through tasks such as painting dials and assembling hands.

In February 2012, in an effort to support the recovery efforts following the Great East Japan Earthquake disaster, CITIZEN WATCH ITALY and CITIZEN WATCH EUROPE, which are CITIZEN WATCH Group companies, donated a total of 453 musical instruments, including instruments for fife-and-drum bands, clarinets, horns, and harps, to elementary and junior high schools in Shinchi Town, Soma District of Fukushima Prefecture, which is also home to the CITIZEN Tohoku Soma Factory (currently CITIZEN WATCH MANUFACTURING). A commemorative concert was held together with a presentation ceremony for the donation. In FY2017, the Sendai Philharmonic Orchestra taught instrumental performance to students in the brass band club of Shoei Junior High School in Shinchi Town. Having witnessed the growth of the students and a certain amount of success in their performances six years after the disaster, we decided to end our support for the disaster relief through music. We will continue to support Shinchi Town in the future.

The building and surroundings of JR Joban Line Shinchi Station, the nearest station to the Tohoku Soma Plant, sustained enormous damage by the tsunamis generated by the Great East Japan Earthquake. After the reconstruction project, the entire area near the station was raised four meters, and the new station building, relocated 300 meters southwest of the old station building, resumed operations on December 10, 2016. CITIZEN WATCH MANUFACTURING, in cooperation with CITIZEN WATCH and CITIZEN TIC, donated a monument clock to be installed in the rotary in front of the station on January 30, 2017. The clock tower is five meters high with three clock faces and is atomic solar-powered.

CITIZEN WATCH has been holding a Reconstruction Marché since 2015 to support the recovery from the Great East Japan Earthquake by selling specialty products from Fukushima, Miyagi, and Iwate Prefectures. Many employees who wish for the recovery of the affected areas have purchased local products from those areas. The event is scheduled to continue in the future as an opportunity to remember the areas still in the process of recovery.

In November 2017, a CITIZEN Group table tennis exchange event was held in Shinchi Town, Fukushima Prefecture, where CITIZEN WATCH MANUFACTURING’s Tohoku Plant is located. Having "Ganbaro Soma!" ("Let’s do our best for Soma") as the event slogan, five members of the CITIZEN Table Tennis Club in the first division of the Japan Table Tennis League visited the disaster-stricken area, hoping for its early recovery. Elementary and junior high school students from Fukushima and Miyagi Prefectures gathered at the venue. They practiced serving and hitting a smash with the top players, received practical instruction, and watched a demonstration game between players with speedy rallies.