but i can point out that people in the tohoku regions are more traditional and they're very polite and also respectful people in japan. so i think some of you pointed out that there was no panic in terms of people receiving goods and food after the earthquake and tsunami happened. so i think those people in tohoku, their culture and also their characteristic mitigated so much of panic in such an awful disaster. but you will be questionable if there such a larger scale disaster in a metropolitan area such as tokyo or osaka. i'm not sure if people would behave in the same manner. and so i think we can definitely utilize some technological advancements to mitigate some panic and also risk damages to the people. and i think information technology is such a critical issue that we have to continue to work on and also discuss. and i think if we -- if people are given an accurate and fair information, i believe that people would eventually reach to a right answer or a right decision. so as a fact, we temporarily lost all the communication resources and devices and infrastructure right after th

this is a map of the tohoku region that was disaster and then this shows some highway constructions. and also development. so, this is construction and the black line shows highways that are completed. so, in this particular area, you can see some missed, some parts that are not built yet. to reconstruct the normal lives for the people and also revive the industries in this area, we should be able to complete these highway projects and those are very critical to the restoration. for public works in japan, those were strongly monitored by the public. for the last few years. and due to the disaster and there was a change of discussion because people started recognizing that diverse infrastructure networks are very important for recovering from a disaster. and we have to recognize that we had some difficulties in terms of energy and also communications capacities when this type of large scale disaster occurred to us. back in march, this was wintertime in the area so there was some snow accumulation as well, so we're lacking some of the gasoline supplies and also, there were some planned

that we were able to raise so much money and to of the people of japan, especially in the region of tohoku. thank you for the honor and letting us continue to do our job in san francisco. thank you. [applause] president chiu: our next acknowledgement will be made by supervisor mar. >> thank yosupervisor mar: than. i am so glad that claudine cheng and others have put their efforts into presenting a pan asian heritage month and current starters -- heritage month. also with the community-based organizations that supported him. it is a story of a worker in san francisco standing up with tremendous courage, being involved with a struggle to stand up for his rights and the rights of his co-workers and a tremendous victory but with the support of a comedy based and grass-roots organizations in the committee. let me ask if he would come up. also from the chinese progressive association, we have a number of staff and representatives. we have jessie yu, and fay chen could not be here today. also from the asian law caucus is. thank you for being here. in the crowd also is lin chin as well. your treme

iwasaki is the vice director general of the tohoku regional bureau of the ministry of land, infrastructuretransport, and tourism in the region. this is a key role in the subject we are discussing. a very difficult portfolio in this kind of situation. we're honored to have him here to share with us what he has learned and experienced in the last year. without further ado and to not take up any more time, i will give you the floor. [applause] >> good afternoon. my name is yasuhiko iwasaki. i want to thank you for offering me the opportunity to attend. i am especially honored to be asked to be on the panel today. i want to tell you about the recovery efforts our translation department was involved in after the earthquake and tsunami. i was assigned to the u.s. federal highway administration in 1997 and 1998. your invitation to come to washington brings me back to happy memories of that time. [speaking japanese] >> i will deliver my presentation in japanese. >> [speaking japanese] >> i would like to give a brief overview of the earthquake and tsunami. in 2011, an earthquake hit the northeaster