Sugawara Market.
Mar.1996
Sugawara Market has become well-known as it was widely reported in Japan.
The market is flowing with relief supplies but as the customers has not yet been able to come back, the shops are in financial difficulties.
I think that if the things would not change, they could no longer run their business.
The town has been kind to elderly people.
You can buy just a small amount of vegetables of fish.
Even if you are blind and cannot tell the difference between the coins, you can do shopping.
Even if you cannot read, you can ask a shopman(woman) to help you do your shopping.
For elderly people, it is very important to do shopping for themselves.
In acting on their own at will, making decision at their own discretion, handling money which puts you under tension, and talking with shopmen(women) - doing shopping at a market in short, there is the essence to prevent elderly people from becoming senile.
Variety of people used to come to live in Nagata.
I think that this was because the market had been providing welfare services, which were far better than the services provided in the political system.
How do the Japanese government and the municipal government of Kobe see the market like this?
They think that if there is a supermarket or a convenience store, a market is no longer needed.
They do not have any intention to protect the market or the people who need it.
Though it is the welfare services provided by the market that had been protecting the people, the government do not care.
The people of the market has been making sacrifices for running the shops and waiting for the people to come back.
However, the reconstruction is slow, the houses have not been rebuilt and the people still cannot come back.
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