[2026] Notte Stellata 2026 + 15th Anniversary of the Great East Japan Earthquake

[Wintek]

*machine translation, inaccuracies exist*

 

2026.03.19

 

Source: https://deepedgeplus.kyodonews.jp/feature/hanyu-3-11-interview/

Archive: https://web.archive.org/web/20260319053025/https://deepedgeplus.kyodonews.jp/feature/hanyu-3-11-interview/ 

 

DeepEdge Plus

Yuzuru Hanyu’s thoughts on the 15th year since the Great East Japan Earthquake:
“I will continue to convey it 5 years, 10 years into the future.”

Fifteen years have passed since the occurrence of the Great East Japan Earthquake. On March 10, Yuzuru Hanyu (31), a two-time consecutive Winter Olympic champion in men’s figure skating, responded to a Kyodo News interview in his hometown of Sendai and spoke of his resolve:
“It is necessary to keep preparing for disasters that may happen again at any time. As someone who experienced ‘3.11,’ I want to continue sending out messages 5 years from now and 10 years from now so that it can be connected to disaster-damage reduction.”

Spoiler

The full interview is as follows.

“The time when I only felt sadness has become less.”

— Fifteen years have passed since the Great East Japan Earthquake.

“I really feel that all sorts of things have happened. For me, these 15 years included three Olympics, and within those three Olympics there were each four-year periods, and within those four years there are, after all, truly all kinds of memories day by day. Of course, when I think about reconstruction and about how to stay close to pain, I do think that every single day of these 15 years has been something precious, but when I feel it anew, there is also the feeling that 15 years have already passed, and really, it’s many different feelings.”

— You have continued to face the disaster for half of your life. Have your feelings changed?

“I feel that the time that was just about being sad has become less. Of course there are still times when I think, it’s sad, and when I face it I remember various things, but there’s no mistake that we are moving forward, and time moves forward equally for everyone, so while entrusting myself to that flow of time, I also want to properly turn my eyes toward the town that is moving forward step by step, and toward our hearts as well, and live on.”

“Even if I cannot be close to everyone.”

— Looking back again, what is the Great East Japan Earthquake to you?

“I think it would have been better if it hadn’t happened. It doesn’t go beyond that. Of course, because that happened, it’s true that I learned many things and lived while feeling many things because of it, but for me those are after-the-fact meanings. I still continue to think that it would have been better if it hadn’t happened.”

— Through words and performance, you have continued your activities as a storyteller.

“I am a figure skater. I think physical expression crosses borders, and precisely because it is not expression through words, some kind of emotion is conveyed, and because it becomes completely different depending on each culture and on each recipient, I feel it is rewarding, and I do think I am glad to be involved in figure skating.”

“However, whether it is words or skating as physical expression, just as these 15 years and the days that each person has lived are different, everyone’s feelings toward the disaster are also completely different, so while realizing that I cannot be close to everything, I always want to be gentle and kind toward each person’s feelings.”

— You have struggled with the difficulty of being close to everyone.

“There is no answer to this. I think I will change again as time goes on and as I have various experiences in the future, but as I am now, I feel that at last I have become able not to leave myself behind. Certainly, the pain of the tsunami, the pain of losing something, the pain of having the foundation of daily life or work destroyed, honestly, I myself did not experience those things, so I cannot say I completely understand. Precisely because I don’t understand, there were times when I felt I couldn’t truly be close to others. But until now I was in a phase of saying, I’m sorry, I don’t understand, but I am trying to be close. From there, little by little, I’ve begun to feel that it was okay for me to feel pain too, and to acknowledge that as someone who also experienced the disaster, I had this kind of pain as well, and while valuing the desire to be close to others, to value both sides, that’s something I feel I’ve gradually become able to do, just a little.”

“I began to re-examine emotions I didn’t want to see in myself.”

— You have spoken about living while carrying emotional wounds and trauma. When do those memories resurface?

“It’s really in sudden moments. Also, earthquakes are very frequent in Tohoku, so even if it’s a small shaking, like intensity 1 or 2, there’s the fear that it might grow bigger from here, and if the initial shaking is vertical, I feel fear. There are times when my body moves reflexively or freezes.”

— At the ice show “notte stellata” held in early March, you performed the new program “Happy End,” depicting moving forward while carrying wounds. Was there difficulty or burden in creating a program while confronting those memories?

“I’ve always expressed things that are outside of my feelings, but I hadn’t really done the kind of work of focusing on my inner side and directly connecting that to expression when I choreograph myself. Not only the disaster, but also the ways in which I myself have been hurt, well, I don’t live only through the disaster. I have my own life, and within that life there are various pains and wounds. Digging into those areas is painful, but in a sense it’s like a drastic treatment, or perhaps a form of counseling. It became an opportunity to re-examine a kind of story deep in my heart, feelings I had, feelings I had tried not to look at, and how those feelings changed from there.”

“Because it is expression without words, there are things it can do.”

— You have visited many disaster-affected areas. Did you feel that people continuing to convey their experiences contributed to disaster mitigation?

“Really, in every region. After 3.11, every region was completely different. I was born in December 1994, so regarding January 17, 1995, the Great Hanshin Earthquake, I was in Tohoku and didn’t experience that shaking, and even if it was on TV, I didn’t really understand the news and don’t remember it. But buildings built after that and changes in building standards and seismic standards have shaped the towns we live in now. In that sense, we ourselves are receiving those benefits, and what was learned from 1.17 has continued to protect our lives. I realized that again as I visited areas that experienced disasters after 3.11.”

“That’s why, as someone who experienced 3.11, I want to keep conveying it continuously, and when I think that because there was a disaster like 1.17, which should never happen again, we may be alive today, I feel gratitude to those who conveyed their experiences. And because of that, I must convey it as well. I feel that a cycle like that has formed.”

— While carrying the fear that the disaster might fade from memory.

“Rather than the fear of it fading, I honestly think there are children who don’t need to know the details of the disaster. They don’t need to experience that pain. But I want them to know that we faced problems like the nuclear accident and the tsunami, thought about many things, and reached various conclusions. While continuing to convey that, we must also keep preparing for disasters that may occur again and continue conveying things so that lives and towns that should be protected are truly protected.”

— What do you see as your role in the next 5 or 10 years?

“Recently I’ve been thinking that we must not become textbooks[1]. Textbooks aren’t something people read voluntarily. You only look at them when a teacher tells you which page to read. So we must not become just textbooks or history. We must continue to be a trigger for learning. People don’t really remember things that are just given to them. What is most important, I think, is that events and emotions become a trigger for people to feel interest, to think, and to realize that what was important to others might also be important to themselves. In that sense, physical expression, because it is expression without words, is something that can do that, and I think it may be a kind of mission.”

“I don’t want to use the word ‘milestone,’ but…”

— You took a recharge period last year and returned at “notte stellata.” What were your thoughts?

“I had the feeling that I wanted to somehow make it in time for this. I honestly don’t like to use the word milestone, but generally people feel something special about multiples of five. Because it was the 15th year, I thought it was a place where I could convey an even stronger message, so I wanted to return in time for this.”

— You often emphasize words like “hope” and “bonds.”

“My foundation hasn’t changed. Right after the disaster, I received courage and hope from many sports. I often felt like, I saw something good, I’ll do my best. The efforts of Vegalta Sendai and Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles were a great source of strength for me. But I don’t think I should be in a position of giving courage. It’s not that I give something; people simply feel something. Because they have interest and concern, they are able to feel it. So while sincerely facing those who show interest, I want to keep putting out things that can become strength for those who wish to receive it, and even if it is 5 or 10 years from now, even if the form changes, if possible I want to continue for as long as I can.”

* * * *

At the end of the interview, he handed over a calligraphy board on which he wrote:

「変わらない想いと共に、前へ」
“With unchanging feelings, we move forward.”

* * * *

— Why did you choose those words?

“While valuing the fact that even after 15 years some things haven’t changed, ‘together, forward’ has been a slogan for a long time, so I want to keep continuing that without change as well.”

NOTE:

[1] 「教科書になってはいけない」, where 教科書 (kyōkasho) implies a type of book that’s official, fixed, distant from daily life.