In March, Kigyo Mecenat Kyogikai（KMK: the Association for Corporate Support of the Arts）established the Earthquake Restoration Fund called “GBFund” which promotes recovery support activities through the arts and culture, and a total of 34,601,455 yen in donation has made so far. Thanks to this donation, GBFund could have supported 61 activities from a cultural standpoint with 30,179,489 yen .
Overall relief efforts now move from the initial stage of emergency rescue efforts and assistance for basic human needs such as food and shelter to the stage of focusing on sustainable recovery and rebuilding communities. KMK believes that culture is closely connected with the fundamental part of the human condition in every aspect of people’s life (see the resume PDF:188KB). That special linkage can be leveraged to make support for recovery efforts in next stage for more effective. Damage wrought by the disaster could be the loss of “diverse local cultures”. Diverse local cultures have developed over hundreds of years in the devastated regions, and restoring those cultures can help affected communities recover mentally and emotionally.
KMK hopes that more and more people would kindly extend a helping hand to GBFund to support recovery efforts through the arts and culture, and the rescue of tangible and intangible cultural properties. Immediate goal of GBFund is 100, 000,000 and KMK continues to commit myself to make it happen.
（2011/9/11）
