Illumination Event Livens up Miyagi Town

The Yomiuri Shimbun

14:45 JST, December 14, 2020

An ocean-themed illumination event with more than 50,000 light emitting diodes has been installed in front of JR Onagawa Station in Onagawa, Miyagi Prefecture. The event has been held in the town since 1998, but the area was hit hard during the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake, in which the subsequent tsunami claimed more than 800 lives and washed away about 80,000 light bulbs. That same year, however, 10,000 light bulbs were donated and the illumination event was held without interruption. The station, which was also destroyed by the tsunami, was rebuilt in 2015 on a higher site closer to the mountains about 200 meters away from the previous location.

Next March will mark 10 years since the earthquake. “I want to cheer up the townspeople who are trying to rebuild their lives,” said Kenji Nakajima, 58, a town official and the organizer of the event.

The illumination can be seen until Jan. 5 next year.