Tom Maehara spent several years struggling to feed himself, but he made it his mission to help others facing more dire circumstances.
Now, he has gone “pro” as a coordinator for relief measures in natural disasters.
“It’s OK to have professionals in disaster relief, just like we have professional soccer players, isn’t it?” Maehara, 47, said in Ishikawa Prefecture.
Once a globe-trotting backpacker, Maehara has spent the past 14 years traveling to disaster sites in Japan to help out.
He generally enters the disaster zones within 24 hours, rides a motorcycle to assess the situation and shares the information with relief nonprofits, social welfare councils and municipal governments.
He estimates the scale of support required and draws up relief plans with the available resources.
And he works directly with disaster victims to restore and reconstruct their communities.
Maehara, originally from Okinawa Prefecture, initially landed his dream job as a hairstylist.
But he found it uncomfortable competing against his colleagues for customers. He left the southern island prefecture when he was 24.
He traveled to many countries as a backpacker while working as a rafting guide.
However, his bicycle broke down on his way from Europe to Africa, and he had to return to Japan.
Shortly after he started working as a tour conductor in Tokyo to save money for a fresh start, the Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami struck in March 2011.
Stunned by footage of the disaster, Maehara headed to the Tohoku region to remove mud with a shovel.
After several days of this, he thought he could be more useful by coordinating the efforts of 1,000 people with shovels.
Using his experience as a guide and tour conductor, he consolidated over-the-counter services offered at a disaster relief volunteer center and set up an on-site hub.
While in disaster-stricken areas, Maehara realized that municipal officials had trouble setting up systems to accept relief supplies and coordinate volunteer workers, leading to delays in recovery.
No one was in charge of offering various support options or coordinating assistance activities for the many difficulties facing disaster survivors, such as secure housing, food and work.
Maehara made up his mind to take charge if there was no one in that position. In fact, he decided to make a career out of his new role.
His plan was to earn a living by winning support from online followers, much like professional athletes do. He began posting entries about his activities on his blog.
He traveled from one place to another, spending nights in a car and eating expired cooked and dry-packed rice and instant noodles.
Maehara decided not to ask for financial backing until his savings dried up.
But two years later, he cut his long hair and shaved before posting his bank account number on his blog.
“I’m embarrassed, but I’d like to ask for your assistance. Disaster NGO Yui,” he wrote.
“Yui” derives from “yuimaru,” a word in the Okinawan dialect that means “working together.”
When the Noto Peninsula Earthquake struck on New Year’s Day in 2024, Maehara went there the next day and visited almost all areas in the peninsula.
He set up a wide-area support center at a closed school in Nanao, Ishikawa Prefecture, on Jan. 7.
Maehara believed it was important to connect many people with the Noto region, especially when the population outflow was accelerating.
He worked with more than 12,000 volunteers to provide various forms of assistance in Okunoto, the northernmost area on the peninsula, such as running soup kitchens, setting up bathing facilities, delivering supplies and operating machinery to remove disaster debris.
Although Maehara started out solo, he now works with many supporters and raises several tens of millions of yen (several hundreds of thousands of dollars) in donations.
He shares his activities on his social media channels every day.
“Check it out to see whether I’m worthy of your support,” he said. “And I hope you will be interested in Noto.”
AloJapan.com