Thank you, Nadeshiko Japan!!

Early morning on 18th, I got up at 3:30 to watch the women’s soccer game on TV because Japanese team was playing in World Cup.

As you know, the result made the entire nation extremely happy. Japanese team endured attack by strong American team, then in the second half when everyone must have thought they would lose, they made miraculous goal twice. And on top of that, they fought so well in the PK game to win the title.

It has passed more than a day since then, but I am still very exited. Probably many Japanese people are feeling the same way. Especially, people who are affected by the earthquake, tsunami, or nuclear accident must feel very encouraged by this game better than by any other words of sympathy or encouragement.

I do feel that this victory of Nadeshiko Japan in the World Cup Soccer has a very remarkable significance in the history of mankind.

The  disaster that occurred in the Tohoku region, Japan was really　one of the worst in our history. Of course, there must have been bigger ones in ancient time on this planet.

But it is not easy to track back what exactly happened since they did not have good system to transfer the information back then. We know that the population of the world was much smaller and there wasn’t any big city.

The earthquake and tsunami occurred off Sumatra in December, 2004 was probably as big as this one happened to Japan, and the numbers of the victims and people who are lost are about 10 times bigger. However, it seems like the latest disaster had the impact 10 times bigger. People around the world were very sympathetic. Why is it so?

One reason could be that we did not see as many visual images of the disaster area in live broadcast due to lack of infrastructure back then. On the other hand the disaster in Japan was shown so vividly on screen almost simultaneously when it occurred, and people in each and every corner of the world were able to see and feel exactly what it was like as if it was happening to them so that they were able to share the sentiment of Japanese people so closely.

Another reason could be that it was not only natural disaster such as earthquake and tsunami but also manmade disaster nuclear accident was involved in this tragedy.

In other words, nuclear accident is not something that could only happen to Japan, there is a possibility that any other country that has nuclear power plant has the danger of the same type of accident. People in those countries must have felt like they were on the same boat.

The women’s soccer world cup was held in this kind of vibration on the planet level. How many Japanese were even aware that Nadeshiko Japan team was selected when they left Narita airport? Probably only families and relatives knew that. I am a big soccer lover, but even I didn’t know about that.

However, more and more news were reported from Frankfurt, Germany as they kept winning the game. The whole country was getting excited gradually as we hear the news such as “Nadeshiko Japan beats xx team” or “Nadeshiko Japan passed preliminary round.” And the news became so big when they went to semi final after winning against German team which was supposed to be very tough. The semi final match against Swedish team was held and had a kick off at 3:30 in the morning Japan time, but, rarely enough, 10 % of the whole nation watched the TV program. 

I haven’t heard how many people watched the final game yet, but I am sure that the number was much greater. That day happened to be a holiday in Japan.

When the team members were playing the final game, more than several million people in Japan were sending their prayer to support the team in the soccer field in Frankfurt. I also think that the same kind of support was sent to them from most countries except the USA.

The reason was that Japan was severely victimized by the disaster and people were sympathetic on the planet level as I mentioned earlier.

As a result, miracle occurred. Japan was able to get the victory even though it was never able to win against world number one America in last 25 games.

It seems like the team members were feeling the vibration. They felt that they could send encouragement to the people in afflicted areas by playing well in the game, therefore they should never give up. It was almost divine inspiration.

We will be having a prayer ceremony in Fukushima on July 25, and the huge typhoon is attacking Japan now, 6 days before the event. It is supposed to leave here soon and will be far away in the eastern Pacific Ocean around 24. I think even this typhoon could be the divine water blessing by our great nature. Our event to send the prayer of love and gratitude was blessed by water.

I am looking forward to having many of you join in our prayer ceremony with a beautiful sunrise in Fukushima via webcast.