Other Activities

Photo: OISCA Japan

In support of OISCA Japan's 10-Year Restoration Project for the Tohoku region's coastal forests, Nikon arranged to make donations to this cause.
In collaboration with the Association for Coastal Forest Restoration in Natori City, a body administered by the farmers of Natori, Miyagi Prefecture, the 10-year Restoration Project aims to restore black pine trees to those coastal forests devastated by the tsunami. Black pine trees are seeded, the seedlings then nursed, with young trees finally being planted to replenish trees lost to the tsunami. The OISCA furthermore aims to develop farmlands and to create jobs for regional development. Nikon employees will additionally involve themselves in volunteer activities in conjunction with the project.

• OISCA Japan: Support for 10-Year Restoration Project of the Coastal Forests of Tohoku Region

OISCA and the Association for Coastal Forest Restoration in Natori City hosted a tour of the coastal forests. In September 2012, Nikon employees participated. The tour will be taken over by project volunteers.

• Project activity blog (Japanese only)

The Sendai Tanabata Festival is an annual summer event held in Sendai, Miyagi.
Nikon Imaging Japan sponsored the Sendai Tanabata Festival in August 2012. That was the second time that Nikon Imaging sponsored the festival held with hope for the recovery from the Great East Japan Earthquake.
Nikon Imaging Japan ran a booth named "Capture a smile" where visitors could take photos. Nikon Imaging Japan also gave photography club students in Sendai an opportunity to record scenes of the festival. Pictures taken by the students were kept at the Sendai Tanabata Festival Support Association.

Nikon Imaging Japan has committed itself to holding photographic classes for a variety of high school photographic clubs in Iwate, Miyagi and Fukushima prefectures. Those photographic clubs applying to participate are invited via the Senior High School Cultural Federation to acquire a basic understanding of digital images and to actually take pictures using digital SLR cameras. Photographic classes have been held in many high schools to date. Nikon Imaging Japan will continue to support this activity in the future.

Nikon, as a member company of the Camera & Image Products Association (CIPA), both supports and finances the CIPA Photo Aid Fund which was established by CIPA and the Nippon Foundation. The fund's raison d'être is one of affording financial support to non-profit organizations (NPOs/NGOs), volunteer groups, schools, local public organizations and to others who are engaged in recovery aid throughout the disaster-stricken areas. In 2012, the fund continued to provide support for them.

• CIPA Photo Aid

Nikon endorsed the Japan Society for Social Service's Project to Restore Your Memories. Project members, mostly comprising student volunteers, were tasked with restoring quake-damaged photographs via the removal of any mud, scanning the images and modifying the image data. Entirely gratis, Nikon provided those volunteers across the world who were engaged in the restoration of damaged photos with an account of the photo-sharing service "NIKON IMAGE SPACE" so that image data might be shared.

• The Japan Society for Social Service [Japanese]

Nikon is fully supportive of the Recovery Assistance Media Team of the NPO Visual Media Producers Association for staging the photo exhibition "Messages for Our Children- 3/11: A New Beginning" in Sydney, Australia. This exhibition has been toured throughout Japan and held at various venues including Haneda Airport and at the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology. The exhibition was held overseas for the first time. The Japan Foundation in Australia hosted the exhibition from May 10 to June 2, 2012, in Sydney, Australia. During the exhibition, a collection of posters depicting personal thoughts belonging to those from the affected areas were on display.

• Japan Foundation, Sydney: Messages for Our Children- 3/11: a New Beginning

To commemorate the first year since the great earthquake, from the end of February 2012 a series of photo exhibitions and symposiums entitled "Remembrance 3.11" were held at Nikon Salons. Eight special photo exhibitions were staged to showcase pictures taken by professional photographers who had visited the stricken areas and have continued to take pictures of the scenes there. In tandem with the exhibitions, five symposiums were also staged inspired by a variety of themes, such as "Catastrophe and Japanese photography" and "Photography and Words: Beyond Records," many to the accompaniment of guest lecturers.

Nikon supports the UNICEF Photo Exhibition of the Great East Japan Earthquake hosted by the United Nations Children's Fund. In September 2011, the exhibition was held at the Tokyo International forum. 126 photographs were exhibited to show miserable scenes and states after the quake, condition of children, reconstruction assistance activities with the funds. The exhibited photographs were collated thanks to collaboration with newspaper and communication companies in Japan and care of well-known photographers. Over 50,000 people took the time to visit the event.
The exhibition will also be held in other Japanese cities and in other countries including USA, South Korea, Australia, Germany and England.

Nikon Imaging Japan Inc. supported the "3.11 Earthquake Disaster and Recovery Photo Exhibition" which comprised photographs archived by the Great East Japan Earthquake Photo Storage Project as hosted by Yahoo! JAPAN. The photo exhibition ran for one week from March 13, 2012 at Nikon Salon bis in Shinjuku.

• Yahoo! JAPAN "East Japan Earthquake Picture Project"

Photo: The All-Japan Association of Photographic Societies

Nikon Imaging Japan supported a photographic project called "Portrait Photos of Family Members Standing out for Recovery." The project was organized by the All-Japan Association of Photographic Societies for the victims living in temporary housing in Soma City, Fukushima. The association visited temporary accommodation sites in Soma between November 2011 and January 2012 to take family portraits and present the pictures to them. Nikon Imaging Japan provided equipment and assisted photographers in shooting.

In May 24, 2011, Nikon held an outdoor class for 678 students of the Elementary School Attached to Fukushima University, using Nikon digital camera and binocular products.

• Education: Education Support Using Nikon Products