"Oraho Radio Exercise” is a project to regain a sense of community led by Ishinomaki, in Miyagi prefecture, Japan. It was one of the areas struck by the Great East Japan Earthquake. Although the government starts the rebuilding with a uniquely Japanese efficiency and relief organizations provided living essentials to the affected region, we felt that it was also crucial to protect the local community and its culture. Tohoku has a strong unique regional culture, with its own delicacies and dialect, and it was being endangered.
We turned to Japan’s recent history to find a uniquely Japanese solution. Radio Taiso is a routine of simple exercise set to music started in 1951 to help Japan to rebuild its physical and community strength after World War II. We rerecorded it in the Tohoku Dialect, and made it available through social media.
It was quickly taken up by mass media and local communities prove even in dire circumstances, a solution deeply rooted in history and tradition still has an enormous effect.