If the legions of pedestrians who battle through the jam-packed “scramble crossing” in Tokyo’s Shibuya district look up, they will see the charms of the Tohoku region promoted by young people.
If the legions of pedestrians who battle through the jam-packed “scramble crossing” in Tokyo’s Shibuya district look up, they will see the charms of the Tohoku region promoted by young people.
A 30-second video on a gigantic screen at the intersection introduces culinary delicacies, traditional crafts and other delights from an area still recovering from the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake, tsunami and Fukushima nuclear disaster.
The video is screened once every hour at the busy junction. A total of four videos will be shown through late December.
The promotional videos were picked at a contest hosted by My Japan, a Tokyo-based group. Twenty-eight teams of creators 29 years old or younger visited the disaster-stricken areas this summer to produce a video for the competition.
“If you put aside that the area suffered from the disaster, you can see how the region still offers so many enjoyable sightseeing experiences,” said Minami Nakazawa, a senior at Tokyo’s Hitotsubashi University. Her team’s video about Ishinomaki, Miyagi Prefecture, received the highest award.
“We created the video in a way that conveys the region’s charms,” she added.
Nakazawa, 22, who made the video with two other female university students in Tokyo, said her team traveled to Ishinomaki, met local people face to face, and recorded them.