The Power of Community

As my office shook and swayed around me, I huddled under my desk.

It was 2:46 on the afternoon of March 11, 2011, and the strongest recorded earthquake in Japanese history had just erupted off the northeast coast of Honshu.

As the aftershocks continued, we watched in horror at the live TV pictures of surging tsunami waves washing away entire coastal communities.

Nearly two months had passed since the opening of the new Azabudai Club after a three-year, ¥28 billion redevelopment. We had once worried about the structural integrity of the old Azabudai Club, which was built before Japan adopted strict building codes. Thankfully, we never had to find out how it would have fared in a large quake. Our huge investment in an earthquake-safe facility had paid off.

While rescue teams rushed to the Tohoku region, another crisis was just beginning. Damage to the reactors at the Fukushima No 1 nuclear power plant ignited fears over radioactive isotopes reaching the Japanese capital more than 200 kilometers to the south. Overnight, the most popular website became a webcam shot of a Geiger counter. The US Embassy then began distributing iodine pills to prevent radiation poisoning.

Residents grew more anxious. Some governments sent planes to evacuate their nationals from what we had always considered to be a super-safe city. At the urging of their embassies, many Members and their families left. Some never to return.

The impact on the Club was severe. The global financial crisis of 2008 and the Club’s long redevelopment had already reduced membership numbers to an unsustainable level. With fewer Members, we were concerned about the Club’s ability to service the burden of its large redevelopment loan. The events of 2011 only exacerbated the situation.

Emerging from the immediate calamity, we began to tackle the Club’s fiscal emergency. With some creativity, we sourced enough cash to pay down nearly 10 percent of our debt. That triggered interest from a Japanese bank and a deal to refinance our loan.

With the Club’s finances on the right track, we turned our attention to growing the membership and restoring the Club’s reputation as a world-class institution. Over the following years, we enjoyed record financial results (by last year, we had paid down almost half of our redevelopment loan), high levels of Member satisfaction and the largest number of Members in Club history.

In 2016, five years after the catastrophe, I had difficulty holding back tears while presenting a Tokyo Fire Department official with a token of our community’s appreciation for the courageous efforts of firefighters at the Fukushima plant.

We shall never forget the terrible events of 2011. And neither should we forget how Members and management came together in the aftermath to ensure the Club’s sustainability.

As we mark the 10th anniversary of the Tohoku disaster, we face another crisis. The global pandemic has had a significant impact on the Club’s operations and its finances. But just as our community united 10 years ago to overcome the challenges, we need to do the same again. Through working together, we can help the Club emerge stronger than ever.