Mar 11, 2021 The Great East Japan Earthquake on March 11, 2011, caused the deaths of 15,899 people and left 2,529 unaccounted for, mostly in Miyagi, Iwate and Fukushima prefectures in the Tohoku region. It also left 1,756 children without a father or mother, or both, according to a 2015 report by the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry. In response, Rohto Pharmaceutical Co. teamed up with Kagome Co. and Calbee Inc. to establish the Michinoku Future Fund, which supports those children financially so they can move on to attain higher education after graduating from high school. “Our company is based in Osaka and experienced the Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake (in 1995). At that time, our Chairman, Kunio Yamada, felt so sad to see a lot of kids choose not to return to the damaged area even after the recovery,’’ said Haruna Shibata of Rohto’s Public Relations and Creating Shared Value Division, who was temporarily transferred to the fund’s office from 2015 to 2017. “When the 3/11 disaster happened, Yamada wanted to support children who would be the center of the recovery effort in the future.’’