The city of Tsukuba is located in the Kanto Plain adjacent to Mount Tsukuba. The area is referred to in the classical work of Japanese literature, the Man’yoshu, and is a rich farming area. The city was designed and planned from the ground up and is the location of numerous universities and research institutes and is often referred to as the “Brain of Japan.”

Recently, a high speed rail line, the “Tsukuba Express,” was opened, linking Tsukuba, also known as the “IT city of Japan” with Akihabara, the vast electronics retail district located in the heart of Tokyo. Travel time between both cities is now only 45 minutes.

The Tsukuba-san shrine located on Mount Tsukuba, honors the god of the parent and child. Spring and autumn festivals include a ceremony known as the “Replacing of the Throne,” in which the shrine erected for the child is moved in spring to the cooler mountain top, and the parents are moved down to the base of the mountain to endure the heat on behalf of their child, and vice versa in autumn, when the parents are sent to the mountain top to endure the freezing cold, while their child stays safe and warm at the base of the mountain.

In this worship of the caring bond that is shared by parent and child, one can see the spirit of OMOIYARI alive and well in the city of Tsukuba. Tsukuba wishes to pass on the spirit of OMOIYARI to the rest of the world, for the sake of World Peace.