Fukushima learning journey 2026 in Iitate village

Bob Stilger

Founder and board chair, New Stories For decades, Stilger has supported people, communities, and organizations as they co-create the futures they hope for. He first came to Japan in 1970 to study at Waseda University, and went on to earn his doctorate at the California Institute of Integral Studies (CIIS) in the United States. In the six years after the Great East Japan Earthquake, he worked side by side with people and communities determined to open new possibilities across the affected areas, and he drew that experience together in a book published in Japanese by Eiji Press. Through the dialogue he designs to bring innovation into organizations, Stilger works today across North America, Japan, South Africa, and beyond.

Susan Virnig

Fifty-five years ago, Virnig came to Japan to study in Waseda University’s international division, and the country has held her interest ever since. Across the decades she has kept up friendships and exchanges with many people here. Together with Bob Stilger, her partner in work and in life, she has helped carry the Fukushima Learning Journey through its past ten years. Her work runs from the boards of small nonprofits to national conferences of several hundred people, where she designs the processes of dialogue and builds the spaces that hold them.

Jun Yano

Representative director, ZUTTO SOKO Co., Ltd., Founder of FabCafe Fukushima

Yano grew up under the influence of his father, Yoichi Tao, and has been part of Iitate Village since his high school years. After studying architecture at Tokyo University of the Arts, he took the site of a former home-improvement store and, working alongside residents with materials drawn from Iitate itself, planned and built ZUTTO SOKO, an experimental base for dialogue with the environment, which he runs today. Much of his work carries news of the environmental research and grassroots efforts now under way in the village to a wider audience.

Yoichi Tao

Representative Director, Resurrection of Fukushima (Certified NPO)

Tao holds a master’s degree in physics from the University of Tokyo, specializing in high-energy accelerator physics. After a diverse career that included managing IT ventures and researching social systems design, he relocated to Iitate Village. There, he founded the certified nonprofit Resurrection of Fukushima, uniting the energy of youth with the wisdom of seniors to support the recovery of the disaster-affected region. He is also the author of “The Challenge from Iitate Village: Living in Harmony with Nature.”  

Hiroaki Misawa

Associate professor, Planetary Plasma and Atmospheric Research Center, Tohoku University 

Misawa‘s research focuses on the characteristics of solar energetic particle events that occur during heightened solar activity, as well as early warning methods, based on ground-based solar radio observations.

Yutaka Yamada

The Owner of Niku no Utopia

Yamada is the sixth generation of a livestock-farming family in Iitate Village. Returning home to Fukushima in 2016, Yamada put the herd back out to pasture, and in 2023 opened a butcher shop. (Photo: Ryuichiro Suzuki)

Norio Kimura

Head of Okuma Mirai Juku

In 2020, Kimura founded Okuma Mirai Juku to carry the memory of the disaster, and its lessons, to the generations that follow. Inside the difficult-to-return zone of Okuma Town, Kimura works as a storyteller and guide.

Yoshio Satomi

16th-generation owner of Furutakiya, Iwaki Yumoto Onsen

Satomi opened the Nuclear Disaster Archive furusato inside the family inn and keeps the memory of the disaster and the nuclear accident from fading.