About Us

Why start a new charity for Japanese orphans?

A message from the founder - Akemi Solloway Tanaka

After the tsunami and earthquake in Japan on 11 March 2011, I really thought about the orphans left behind.
According to the July 2011 newspapers, 229 children under 18 years old lost both parents and 1295 children lost one parent in these disasters. Some orphans have yet to be counted because their relatives are still in refuges and are yet to be reunited. Because I live in London as a lecturer of Japanese culture, I can see clearly that those orphans need help from outside Japan.

Our new charity was set up specifically to help and support those children's education. In Japan normally people do not adopt children because family connection is the most important thing, and almost all children are looked after by blood relations. People ask me why I feel strongly about this.
When my father was five, his mother died in childbirth. His father was a wealthy man and never worked because he inherited huge land. He took a second wife who bore their children. This second wife was not good at looking after the children of the first wife and they received neither good food nor good education. In spite of that, my father is very earnest and diligent with a lovely character. However it was difficult for him to find good work because of his poor education and his marriage to my mother was by family arrangement. For them the marriage is duty, but he worked very hard to support his family and my mother looked after the house and my younger sister's education. In spare moments she worked part-time.

In the past, in Japan, the first-born inherited everything. That was my father's elder brother. When my grand father died, the inheritance tax was 1,900,000,000 yen, a huge amount. I did not like my father's elder brother because he never worked. He has now passed away. When my grandfather died, there was a very ugly argument from the second wife's children over the inheritance, something which I found most distasteful. My father was the one who solved this problem satisfactorily. I really respect his action. Because he had a hard life when he was little, even when he was 60 years old, he cried thinking about his mother. My face is so similar to her. Without such good parents children have such a difficult time even though this is not by choice. I am a mother of one daughter. Her happiness is more important than mine. This is typical Japanese style thinking.

After the disaster in Japan, I feel a strong responsibility to find those orphans and support them from England for anther 19 years. In Japan 20 years old people celebrate " Adult Day". One baby needs support for 19 years.
We started this charity in 2011, and will find out what they need, and support. In my private life there have been crises.During those difficult times my parents and younger sister always supported and helped me. Without them my life would have been unbearable. A family's warmth and love is incomparable. I want to give something back.