This is an internet radio program where the knowledge, insights and technology that emerged out of disaster will converge as “voices.” Through readings and music, guest interviews and letters/emails from listeners, the program will lend an ear to the present, ten years on from the Great East Japan Earthquake. Presenting the program will be Sendai-based Natsumi Seo (artist/founder of NOOK) and Kazushige Monou (Granny Rideto), with writer/director Daichi Nakamura handling production.

2020 marks ten years since the Great East Japan Earthquake. Newly forming communities and towns are emerging as reconstruction work proceeds in coastal areas of Tohoku. While it is harder to find old scars, people are perhaps now able to find the words to talk about it, precisely because time has passed.

We believe that everyone living in the aftermath has these words inside of them; not just those who have got on with life and work since the disaster, but also people who were children at the time, people who would like to engage with disaster-hit communities, those who wish to take another look at the disaster, etc.

This radio program will act as an interchange for the knowledge and insights, thought, technology and emotion that came out of the aftermath of the disaster. We will document and broadcast the voices of diverse people, regardless of where they live, or whether they experienced the disaster or not.

*The name of the radio program Mononook comes from its resemblance to the Japanese phrase meaning “the things inside,” but also references the historical name of the Tohoku region (Michinoku) as well as the name of presenter Monou.