At the G1 Summit held in Aomori this year, we had a special workshop to discuss concrete ways to make Japan better. Participants discussed what actions should be taken in the next 12 months in small workshop groups formed around themes such as politics, education, agriculture, sports, non-profit organizations, and information technology, and presented the discussion results to other group members. We named these “G1-originated Initiatives” to create a mechanism through which all G1 participants can support the realization of the actions proposed at this workshop.

Among the initiatives from the G1 Summit that have been launched to date, there are “The Athlete Society” started by Dai Tamesue, “Eat, and Energize the East” established by Oisix Inc. President Kohei Takashima and Cafe Company President Shujiro Kusumoto, and the KIBOW Project.

At this year’s G1 Summit, the sports workshop group came up with the idea of invigorating disaster-stricken areas through sports. Specifically, the group proposed an initiative to lift the spirits of people in a devastated area by sending relay teams to take part in the Sendai Bay Shichigahama Triathlon, which had been cancelled last year because of damage caused by the Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami.

I liked the idea so much that I decided on the spot to join in the triathlon team myself. In this way, the initiative started under the leadership of Seino Transportation President Yoshitaka Taguchi. I had never swum 1,500 meters in my life, nor had I ever competed in an ocean race. I was told I would need to wear a wet suit for this swim. So I began to swim long distances in training, purchased a wet suit, and started to make other preparations for this big event.

On the morning of the day before the triathlon, I was in Osaka. Returning to Tokyo, I visited a “go” school to pick up my children, taught an MBA class after lunch, and attended the graduation ceremony for the Young Presidents’ Organization (YPO) followed by a get-together after the ceremony. It was an extremely busy day. I took the last bullet train to leave Tokyo that day and went to Sendai. I finally reached my hotel in Tagajo by taxi. It was past 2 a.m. by the time I got to bed.

On Sunday, I met the other KIBOW triathlon team members in the hotel’s lobby at 6 a.m. We took taxis from there to the race venue. Ten KIBOW teams will enter this relay triathlon. The photos of some of the KIBOW team members can be viewed on the Just Giving Japan website (http://justgiving.jp/c/8190). These KIBOW team members will join forces with seven members of the track-and-field club at a senior high school in Tagajo in an effort to bring cheer to the people in this disaster-struck community. In other words, the KIBOW teams would participate in the race in collaboration with the local high school. We donated running shoes and book coupons to the cooperating high school students, using the Just Giving platform. I would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who supported our initiative with their donations. We’re very grateful for your support.

We arrived at the triathlon venue. It was raining lightly. I surveyed the sea that was going to be my competitive arena. According to the driver of the cab I took yesterday, hundreds of corpses floated to shore here after the tsunami on March 11. The sea looked somehow stagnant. Perhaps the heavy sky was the reason. I had decided to pray for the victims while I swam. I had made up my mind on making each and every stroke a prayer for them.

I changed into my wet suit and stepped into the sea for a trial swim. The temperature of the seawater was said to be around 21 degrees centigrade, but it didn’t bother me much because I had the wet suit on.

The opening ceremony for the Sendai Bay Shichigahama Triathlon began with a silent prayer. Then, the mayor of Shichigahama Town and the director of the Triathlon Association delivered their speeches. We heard that the secretary general of this race had been killed in the tsunami. Three top triathletes who would represent Japan in the London Olympics were there to take part, too. I could understand that everyone came to this event with special feelings of their own.

The swim event of the triathlon race began at 8 a.m. I put on a swimming cap and goggles, walked into the sea until water rose to my knees, and waited for the starting pistol. I was standing next to Mr. Taguchi from Seino Transportation and Hideaki Inoue from Aoyama Flower Market. We bumped fists to wish each other good luck. The tension began to build.

The starting pistol sounded, and we all dove into the sea. To avoid congestion, I swam at breakneck speed for 200 meters or so. With my heart pounding, I decided to slow down and swim at a comfortable pace. The water was extremely opaque. I couldn’t see much ahead. I ended up gulping seawater whenever I took a breath at the wrong moment because the waves were high in the open sea. I couldn’t tell which way to swim, because there was no course rope in the ocean. A few times, I swam in the wrong direction and hit other swimmers because I wasn’t used to raising my head and checking goal signs while swimming. I also swam about 20 meters extra without realizing that I had reached the first turning point. I really didn’t know what I was doing.

Nonetheless, I kept swimming doggedly. From time to time, when I raised my head to take a breath, I could see the legs of people swimming nearby and their yellow caps. Basically, though, I swam alone in the opaque water, trying as hard as I could to find my way to the finish.

The swimming course seemed very long to me because it was a long-distance event. Again and again, I caught my hands on the rope set to mark the course boundary. I felt miserable, swimming in a zigzag. Halfway through, my breathing started to become labored. Still, I kept repeating my strokes single-mindedly, praying for the victims and feeling grateful to be alive, living up to my pledge to think about the tsunami victims throughout the swim. And I began to feel surprisingly energized.

This swim event required participants to complete a reverse triangle course set offshore from the beach twice, swimming in a clockwise direction. I finally completed the first round, reached the shore and began dashing to the turnaround point. I heard someone cheering me. “You’re the lead swimmer in the relay.” Nodding lightly to the encouraging comment, “Mr. Hori, you’re fast,” I circled a red cone marked “turnaround point” and jumped into the sea again.

It was the same course again. I tried to increase my pace in the second half of the round, but again I found the course marks hard to distinguish. After negotiating the last curve, I made a final spurt. Finally, I landed on the beach and ran up the stairs to the relay point. My triathlon challenge ended once I was sure Mr. Otani, who was doing the bike leg, was wearing the band with the built-in microchip around his ankle.

It took me a while just to recover my breath. According to what people told me, I completed the swim event first among the members of the 10 KIBOW teams that took part in the relay category of this race. On hearing this, I gave a little victory pose for the benefit of the photographer at work there.

On confirming that all KIBOW swimmers had completed their leg, I stepped out of my wet suit and put on a KIBOW T-shirt, a cap and shorts. It was time for me to root for my teammates.

The race had moved from sea to land. I saw tents pitched on a grassy park. A live broadcast blared from loud speakers set up in the park. It seemed that a radio station was covering the event live. A triathlete who would represent Japan at the London Olympics was providing the commentary for the station. I heard him say: “After that great earthquake and tsunami, I asked myself what I could do and sought to answer that question. I realized the only thing I could do was to cheer as many people as possible through triathlon races. That’s why I’m here,” the triathlete said.

After the live race broadcast, musicians encouraged the participants and spectators with live music performances. There were senior ladies from the local community working as volunteers around the race venue, distributing bottles of mineral water and bananas to participating athletes. “These people must have gone through great difficulties themselves,” I thought, feeling very moved. The importance of this race to the volunteers was clear through their hospitality.

The race moved from the cycling leg to the running leg. The bike course was set to go around a road that had subsided under the effects of the tsunami. The running course passed through villages the tsunami had washed away. A ship had been washed up on a hilltop and abandoned. Residential districts in flat areas were now empty blocks. The anchor for my team was a second-year student at a senior high school in Tagajo who belongs to the school’s track-and-field club. At Mr. Taguchi’s initiative, KIBOW team members had joined forces with local high school students. Seven track-and-field club members from the local senior high school were competing as our teammates.

The school runners for our teams returned and crossed the finish line one after another. It was a moving scene. Our KIBOW teams finished in the fifth, sixth, and seventh places. Everyone did an excellent job. After the race was over, I took a photo with the anchors for the top three teams. All these students had run as fast as they could, wearing the same KIBOW cap. We had bridged generations and communities at this triathlon.

While I was taking part in the triathlon in Shichigahama, Miyagi Prefecture, my kids (my three younger sons, to be precise) were participating in a “go” competition for elementary school teams in Tokyo. I couldn’t help but call home to find out how their team was doing. The elementary school my children attend has won this Tokyo go championship four years in a row. Judging from the talent of the players, the school should be able to emerge victorious once again.

After taking group photos with all the other participants, I left the race venue and went back to my hotel. I washed my wet suit in fresh water and prepared to check out. GLOBIS staff members assembled at the hotel and started making preparations for the KIBOW Shichigahama Meeting. The Meeting was scheduled to begin at 3 p.m. While the staff members prepared for the event, I decided to join my triathlon teammates at a Korean barbecue restaurant where a party to celebrate the race’s completion was in progress.

The KIBOW Shichigahama Meeting was soon to start, and I was excited. But there was one problem. I had drained four mugs of draft beer at the party for the triathlon teams already. I told myself that being relaxed and getting into the rhythm of things would help make this KIBOW Meeting spirited and lively because its purpose was to offer a place where people could share positive awareness and build networks. Having convinced myself of this, I walked into the KIBOW Meeting venue, somewhat tipsy.

The KIBOW Shichigahama Meeting got underway. To start with, I explained the history of the KIBOW and the course of events that led to our participation in the triathlon race. I then passed the baton to Captain Taguchi. He gave us a boost by proposing a toast. I donated running shoes and book coupons to a student representative of the track-and-field club at the local senior high school on behalf of KIBOW, telling the club members to “excel in both academics and athletics.” The gifts reflected our wish to see many leaders emerge from the Tohoku region in the future.

In addition to Mr. Taguchi from Seino Transportation, leading figures from various fields were taking part in this meeting, including President Hiroshi Aoi of Marui Group Co., Ltd., Chairman Kunio Yamada of Rohto Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd., Hideaki Inoue from Aoyama Flower Market, and Shihoko Urushi, the principal of Shinagawa Joshi Gakuin. Everyone who participated was enthusiastic about helping people who live in areas damaged by the earthquake and tsunami. Their shared concern and enthusiasm came through in a pleasant way.

Besides the host prefecture of Miyagi, people came to the KIBOW Shichigahama Meeting from Yamagata, Iwate, and Fukushima prefectures. We even had participants from such faraway places as the United States, China (Beijing), Sweden, and Britain. It was a very international gathering. The participants ranged in age from senior high school students to people in their 50s. Many people who study at the Sendai Campus of the Graduate School of Management, GLOBIS University came to the meeting, as well. After group discussions, we shuffled group members and held discussions again.

Finally, the KIBOW Shichigahama Meeting closed, and the participants left the venue in groups of twos and threes. It was an extremely lively gathering.

I received a report from Tokyo which said that Kudan Elementary School had won the Tokyo metropolitan go championship for the fifth consecutive year. This news delighted me. Both father and sons fought well today. The next competition for my kids will be the national go championship. I’m hoping the team can win the second national championship for their school.

In the meantime, I swore to take part in this race again next year. I really wanted to turn this Sendai Bay Shichigahama Triathlon into an annual event for me, competing each year in step with the reconstruction of the community. Participation in the race would give me a chance to observe Shichigahama’s reconstruction and my own growth from a fixed point. I want to return to the race with many more KIBOW teams next year.

I resume training for the Japan Masters swimming competition tomorrow. The competition is only two weeks away. The 200-meter individual medley is my specialty. For the triathlon, I had concentrated on long-distance, freestyle swimming. I have had little training in the butterfly, backstroke, and breaststroke as a result. I want to start training in the hope of winning a Japan Masters medal again.

The Japan Masters competition will take place in a swimming pool. That should be a lot easier than what I experienced in Shichigahama. The water will be clear and calm. There will be course ropes, too. But as I did today, I’m planning to think about the victims of the disaster while I swim in the Japan Masters race. I’m going to swim steadily toward my goal, stroke by stroke, remembering to be very grateful to be alive.