Suguru Kikuchi, an employee of the Yamamoto town government in Miyagi Prefecture, worked to support recovery and reconstruction in a disaster-hit area of the Noto Peninsula following the powerful earthquake that struck there on New Year¡¯s Day in 2024.

¡°I felt I had finally reached a point where I could offer help,¡± recalls Kikuchi, who had long hoped to repay the assistance his hometown received after the March 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami.

The northeastern town of Yamamoto suffered devastating damage from the tsunami and received support from about 700 personnel, mainly dispatched from municipalities across Japan. The last of them returned to the Reconstruction Agency in March 2024.