Teachers From Across Japan Help Rebuild Quake-Hit Schools

When a powerful earthquake shook Kumamoto Prefecture last month, teachers hundreds of miles away started packing their bags to help.

Teams of educators from across Japan are now in Kumamoto, cleaning flooded classrooms, organizing supplies, and preparing schools to reopen after summer break. They're part of a teaching assistance network launched after the 1995 Hanshin-Awaji earthquake, when people across Japan rallied to support the devastated Hyogo Prefecture.

The July 28 earthquake hit level 7 on Japan's seismic intensity scale, the highest possible rating. Schools in cities like Uki and Yatsushiro faced broken pipes, water damage, and displaced students now staying in evacuation centers or with relatives.

Enter Earth, a Hyogo-based disaster response team that has supported earthquake-affected schools since 2000. Seventeen members are currently in Uki, mopping floors, fixing classrooms, and giving local teachers a much-needed break.

Seiji Hattori, 36, was only four when the Hanshin-Awaji earthquake struck his hometown. Now an elementary school teacher himself, he recently returned from helping after the 2024 Noto Peninsula earthquake in Ishikawa Prefecture. "I saw many exhausted teachers," he said. "I want to ease the burden on teachers so that they can devote their energy to children."

At Toyofuku Elementary School in Uki, the support couldn't come at a better time. Principal Kimihisa Mimaki, 59, is checking on students before classes restart on August 31st, tracking down children scattered across evacuation centers. "The school is short of hands as it is," he said. "Teachers understand how things work in schools, so their help gives us encouragement."

The Ripple Effect

What began as one prefecture helping another has grown into a nationwide network. Support teams from Saitama, Mie, Kyoto, Osaka, Hyogo, Okayama, and within Kumamoto itself have answered the call. According to Japan's education ministry, 13 prefectures now maintain disaster response teaching teams ready to deploy when schools face crisis.

This is Earth's second mission to Kumamoto. The team also helped after powerful earthquakes struck the prefecture in 2016, bringing expertise in disaster prevention and the understanding that comes from lived experience.

For Hattori and his colleagues, it's about paying forward the kindness Hyogo received decades ago. Their presence means local teachers can focus on what matters most: welcoming traumatized students back to a sense of normalcy and safety.