Five years have passed since the Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami. On behalf of the people of Fukushima, I would like to express my sincere gratitude to those people at home and abroad for their overwhelming support during this period.

Fukushima Prefecture is still in the process of reconstruction as we face numerous issues, including many residents still living as evacuees, decommissioning the nuclear power plant, contaminated water, rebuilding the daily lives of disaster-affected people and working on reputational damage, as well as preventing disaster memories from fading and being forgotten.

On the other hand, I can feel that smiles are starting to come back to people's faces throughout Fukushima with a bright light steadily spreading, as we can see from the Futaba Mirai Gakuen High School opening in the disaster-affected area, progress in development of facilities that support reconstruction such as the Environmental Creation Center, in addition to bustling tourist sites in the prefecture and young people's success in culture and sports.