Launching the Web Magazine 'Ishinomaki Days: Ways of Living in a Future City'

"How many years will it take for the town where I was born and raised to return to how it was?"
Nine years have passed since the Great East Japan Earthquake, when I had that thought. The Ishinomaki Hibi Shimbun, which publishes an evening edition, was printing its newspaper that day as well. 2:46 PM was around the time our delivery staff would begin distributing the papers.
Since then, we have continued to publish the newspaper without change, but the appearance of Ishinomaki City, Higashimatsushima City, and Onagawa Town, where we distribute, has changed drastically.

The view looking down on Minamihama-cho and Kadonowaki-cho from Hiyoriyama Park on March 11, 2020. Although the wind was strong, people who had gathered little by little were looking out at the scenery of March 11.

Future City 'Ishinomaki'

Triggered by the Great East Japan Earthquake, population decline and the fragmentation of communities have progressed, and the local economy has experienced a major decline. In the Ishinomaki region, which has become a 'city advanced in challenges' even within Japan, a 'country advanced in challenges,' adults, children, companies, and the government have stood up to the 'many challenges thrust upon us ahead of the rest of the country.'

Amidst the outflow and decline of the population, there are those searching for ways to continue the traditional culture of the disaster-stricken area. There are those working on community formation and problem-solving in disaster public housing and new urban areas. There are those sweating over the development of new products to sell the region in order to open up new sales channels.

Regions that developed, expanded, and were developed through the mechanisms of the high economic growth of the Showa era are being forced to rethink their strategies due to population decline. There are not enough people, there is a shortage of workers, consumption is not increasing, and even if things are made, they do not sell easily locally. Human resources and capital are flowing steadily to Sendai and concentrating in Tokyo.

The daily topics we have been reporting since March 12, 2011, might perhaps be the appearance of 'future cities,' the state of regional cities across the country several years or several decades from now.

Continuing to be a circular bulletin

On October 1, 1912 (the first year of the Taisho era), the 'Tohoku Nippo,' the predecessor to the Ishinomaki Hibi Shimbun, was launched. The publisher and first president, 'Kiyoshi Yamakawa,' left behind the words'Be a circular bulletin for the region,'putting his resolve into consistently disseminating useful information.

'Ishinomaki Days,' operated by the Ishinomaki Hibi Shimbun, is a web magazine that allows people to feel Ishinomaki even in the internet world overflowing with information. In the articles we will publish from here on, we will introduce ways of living and life in the future city of 'Ishinomaki,' which has become a place advanced in challenges due to the Great East Japan Earthquake.

We chose a 'media name different from the newspaper' with the resolve to convey useful information in line with the current era.

Ishinomaki that we want to convey now

Right now, at this very moment, the number of people passing down local traditional culture is decreasing, and the history of the region is about to be lost rapidly. Precisely because globalization is accelerating now, what if this traditional culture and the history of the town were to disappear as if they never existed...?

The position of us who were born and raised in this land would be buried, and our existence would become blurred.

With the internet, we can broadcast to the whole country and the world while staying in Ishinomaki, butwe will continue to provide 'topics to know the local area' to the people of the Ishinomaki region as we have done until now.Our influence as a local newspaper company is not that great. However, we believe that if we have the 'bonds we have connected with the region' over a history of more than 100 years since our founding, it could become a power that reaches the whole country.

We would like to have you circulate the 'memories' and 'ideals' that we want to share in the region from now on, and we want to 'awaken' each and every one of you as 'localists' who care about the region. To have you take pride in your 'sense of belonging' to the region, we will publish columns about our 'attachment' to the town, introduce the past to know our own 'position,' and think about and propose an 'ideal future.'

The view overlooking Nakase from Hiyoriyama Park on March 11, 2020. The development of the new Uchikai Bridge and embankments is progressing.

Our activities are carried out with everyone's support. If there is a topic that interests you, we would be happy if you could support and circulate the information by tweeting or sharing it. Please enjoy.

Hiroshi Ishimori, Editor-in-Chief of Ishinomaki Days