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Title “Despair and Hope in Disaster Areas from the Perspective
of a Faith Leader”

• Psychological recovery from the Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami of March 2011
• How children in the disaster areas are faring
• How faith leaders deal with the fading away of memories and lack of interest in the issue.
• Using knowledge, wisdom and empathy to avoid causing disaster victims unnecessary
emotional distress
• Going from weak ties to strong ties and building a sharing, caring society

Speaker Taiko Kyuma (Japan)

While serving as the 18 head of the All Japan Young Soto Zen Buddhist Association
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participated in relief efforts following the March 11, 2011 earthquake and tsunami disaster.
In his capacity as advisor to the organization and its disaster relief support section, volunteered
and acted a volunteer coordinator in various affected areas from May 2011, has continued to
engage in relief activities as direction of the Soto Shu Reconstruction Support Section since May
2013. Psychological counselor, Secretariat head and director of the “Child Line Fukushima”,
a telephone counseling service which supports youths up to age 18.

Commentator Kenneth Kenshin Tanaka (U.S.A.)

He is Professor Emeritus at Musashino University, Tokyo. Educated at Stanford University
(B.A.), a temple in Thailand, Institute of Buddhist Studies, Berkeley (M.A.), Tokyo University (M.A.),
and University of California at Berkeley (Ph.D.). His publications include The Dawn of Chinese
Pure Land Buddhist Doctrine, Ocean: An Introduction to Jodo Shinshu Buddhism in America and
Amerika bukkyo (American Buddhism) (in Japanese). He has served as president of two academic
associations, and his books have been translated into Japanese, Chinese, and Portuguese.

Coordinator Yoshiharu Tomatsu (Japan)
Director and Secretary General of the Japan Buddhist Federation (JBF), Executive Council
Member of The World Fellowship of Buddhists (The WFB). After graduating from Keio
University and completing studies at the graduate school of Taisho University, he studied applied
theology and bioethics and obtained a Master’s degree in divinity from Harvard Divinity School.
Presently a priest at Jodo Shu temple Shinkoin in Tokyo’s Minato-ku. Lead researcher at the
Jodo Shu Research Institute and professor at International University of Health and Welfare.
Author of Never Die Alone, (Jodo Shu Press, 2008), Yorisoi no seishigaku: Gaikokujin ga kataru
Jodo no miryoku (Closeness in Life and Dath: Non-Japanese Discuss Jodo’s Appeal), Jodo
Shu Press, 2011, Buddhist Care for the Dying and Bereaved (Wisdom Publications, 2012)
and other works.

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RECORD OF PROCEEDING | THE 29 GENERAL CONFERENCE OF THE WFB
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