We founded the Open Home Project overnight in Berlin, Germany, on March 15, 2011, as an immediate response to the earthquake and arising nuclear disaster in Japan. We saw an urgent need to offer places for living abroad in a situation of extreme uncertainty.
In a powerful display of international solidarity, the project saw an immediate surge of support from 1,000 hosts worldwide offering refuge to those in Japan. To channel this humanity into action, a collaborative team of ten artists and web designers across Berlin, Tokyo, and California launched a streamlined web platform. The site featured a radically simple interface with only two options: “Yes, I want to leave Japan” and “Yes, I have a room for a guest.” Propelled by a viral wave on Facebook and Twitter, the initiative’s impact grew exponentially, with approximately 500 volunteers in Germany alone opening their doors within the first five days.
It quickly became clear that a roof over their heads was only the beginning. Our guests arrived facing complex challenges that required immediate, hands-on intervention: from securing visas and legal standing to coordinating flights and medical care. Beyond the logistics of school enrollment and financial aid, we provided the emotional and technical support needed to navigate the deep-seated fears of radiation and contamination.
Acting as the primary liaison, Acci Baba managed the mediation between suitable hosts and incoming guests while coordinating complex travel logistics. A cornerstone of the project was a commitment to cultural sensitivity: ensuring that every individual was welcomed as a respected visitor rather than being labeled as a refugee. While guests generally covered their own airfare (ranging from 900 to 2000 Euro), the group drew upon its limited resources to subsidize these costs in exceptional cases, ensuring that financial hardship was not an absolute barrier to safety.
Ultimately, 27 guests from Japan – primarily women, children, and expectant mothers – availed themselves of the project’s support. As the perceived risks of returning home remained high, the majority of these guests chose to transition from temporary visitors to long-term residents, beginning new lives in Germany far beyond the three-month limit of a standard tourist visa.
- https://www.tagesspiegel.de/gesellschaft/panorama/japanische-familien-finden-bleibe-in-deutschland-6732793.html
- Zehn Künstler und Webdesigner aus Berlin, Tokio und Kalifornien entwickelten eine einfache Webseite mit zwei Buttons: „Ja, ich möchte Japan verlassen“ und „Ja, ich habe einen Raum für einen Gast“.
- Die Initiative verbreitete sich schnell über Facebook und Twitter. Innerhalb von fünf Tagen meldeten sich etwa 500 Menschen aus Deutschland, die bereit waren, japanische Gäste aufzunehmen. Bisher haben sich zehn Japaner aus dem Raum Tokio gemeldet, von denen einige bereits in Deutschland untergebracht wurden, unter anderem in Potsdam, Berlin-Mitte und Friedrichshain.
- Acci Baba, japanischer Künstler in Berlin, fungiert als Ansprechpartner für die Interessenten, vermittelt passende Gastgeber und organisiert die Anreise. Dabei wird besonderer Wert auf kulturelle Sensibilität gelegt: Die Gäste werden nicht als Flüchtlinge, sondern als Besucher behandelt.
- Die Kosten für die Flüge müssen die Hilfesuchenden selbst tragen, zwischen 900 und 2000 Euro. In Ausnahmefällen übernahm die Gruppe die Kosten, ihre Mittel sind jedoch begrenzt.
photos by Sandra Weller
the beginning
==========
[ORIGINAL POST]
Now how about everyone of us clear a room in their house, collect or invest some money for flights and invite the Japanese over and be good hosts. Who knows about how to organise something like that? How big is Tokyo these days, 20 Million, 30 Million? Let us send our otherwise useless military engine over there to evacuate all these brave people. The Japanese are waiting for that ugly ugly cloud.
# [ Gestern um 03:36 · Nur Freunde ] [ AN AB, DI und 18 anderen gefällt das. ]
==========
**<MS>** [Gestern um 03:37]
We kindly invite a party of 3 to our modest home in Berlin. Feel free to mail me or Julia.
**<EP>** [Gestern um 05:18]
Its getting scary by the day. Do you think the meltdown will happen?
**<MS>** [Gestern um 06:13]
EP, it is a nightmare already with longterm suffering. we need to help the ones who want to be helped. the predicted nuclear zen garden leaves no doubt about that at all. it is so devastating already and we are loosing the dimension of this crisis by more and more continous news about further devastation. it is time to place the call for help.
**<RW>** [Gestern um 07:11]
The news is getting worse each day on these damaged nuclear plants, isn't it? Let's hope that plant #3 doesn't leak... that's the scary one with plutonium. My feelings go to the people in that area!
**<MS>** [Gestern um 08:39]
the gamma-radiation levels inside the stations are very high. they say 400 millisievert/h. one should comprehend that 50 meters in front of chernobyl i measured 6 mikrosievert/h (mikro) which is as a matter of fact just a little little bit ...more than in any regular long distance airplane (!). this value rises drastically getting closer to the reactor.
this leaves the question about the rescue teams in japan, since just 10 times more radiation is considered to be deadly.
the question of alpha- and beta radiation is still unanswered. the danger there comes with inhaling particles. inhaling 1 single plutonium particle is certain death. that is what the facial masks are for.Mehr anzeigen
**<SF>** [Gestern um 10:08]
thanks for thinking about us, michael. it seems so, japan is very used to support or help another, but not be used to be helped or supported... we have almost same information in same time, it is nice world indeed.
**<AB>** [Gestern um 10:43]
MS, I'm with you. I am telling every japanese family, friends to use my house. If there is a need for flights, i was thinking of chartering a airplane and picking them up.
**<MM>** [Gestern um 10:51]
very good! you can count on support from us in stuttgart and london, too — we'll find some space to live for friends and people in need here as well. let us know. best, matthias
**<VVK>** [Gestern um 14:58]
Me too I can host somebody.
Back in Berlin in this minute.
**<FP>** [Gestern um 15:55]
me too i can host some people and i dont want to choose if they are from japan, libya or elsewhere. i want the broders of europe to open radical to everyone who feels in danger where he or she is
**<MS>** [Gestern um 16:07]
thank you friends, this defines us to be human
**<MS>** [Gestern um 16:08]
@AB&SF: how can we get in touch with japanese people who want to be helped and come to berlin?
**<FP>** [Gestern um 16:10]
or to berne
**<AB>** [Gestern um 16:12]
i am opening the offer through FB and twitter, starting with the pregnant women and kids. My be we should open a wiki site for those have will to evacuate. When the number reaches certain amount, we can consider the ways of logistics. Asking German minister or Lufthansa perhaps. Just need to think of a strategy of financing, donation, corporate, governmental support is crucial.
**<MS>** [Gestern um 16:17]
beautiful idea! do you know how to put up such a website? we should use the simplest approach. let us collect our poiltical and financial contacts. a facebooik group? what is the best way?
**<MS>** [Gestern um 16:25]
@SF: i see your point. we are concerned about radiation and contamination, which you cannot escape once it is there.
**<AR>** [Gestern um 16:26]
i am also open for helping and offer my flats in karlsruhe and berlin. but i cant personly afford money for flights
**<MS>** [Gestern um 16:30]
adam, we will have to collect the money. i am sure nobody in berlin has any.
**<AB>** [Gestern um 17:17]
We need a website that can organize number of people who is willing to evacuate. Perhaps Google sites may be useful, anyone familiar with these kind of web development?
**<MS>** [Gestern um 17:17]
@SF: allow me to say something: this a repeating pattern. people in the workers city of prypjat next to chernobyl did NOT want to get evacuated. they were the engineering elite of russia, average age 26 (!) thus there was a babyboom. ...they had privilidges. they were on top of their lives. it is hard to accept a sudden change in life, out of the blue. all the belongings, memories, families. beloved home. belongings.
there is a ugly chain coming after: contaminated food, ground, water. radiation disease. social instability. seeing this changed my life.
on the other hand i can accept the fact that you want to stay your life through all obstacles. no question. but the young ones may not be able to choose or decide or comprehend.
radiation and contamination is a sad byproduct of modern life, a part of machine and energy culture. imposing the most unpleasant of diseases.Mehr anzeigen
**<MS>** [Gestern um 17:18]
@AB i will call l you
**<AB>** [Gestern um 17:19]
okay,
**<SF>** [Gestern um 17:50]
hi MS and co.,
thank you for your calling for evacuation and preparing to accept from deepest. actually my site tokyo is not yet in highest emergency. i will stay here with families, friends and colleagues. our government gives a most ...and biggest effort to stop leaking. if they gives up, then we move to south at first and thenafter i can start to think about evacuation. i lick so many drops called atomic energy in my life and now not only i will not evacuate from here without seeing effort of people in fukushima and afflicted area of disaster. otherwise, you see in massmedia only a news of disaster, but most people in tokyo work from yesterday as usural, though traffic difficulties.
people, who already evacuated from 30km by kraftwork, should not ready to think about evacuation to another country. i guess, many of them have no idea to go abroad, at least not now just after moving, because of anxious, habit, love in their hometown.
of course that is just my idea and i found your plan is speciall, for making homepage i will help you, now i have also a work then f.e. translation and coordination.
i hope that i could tell you what i want to tell in english!
shuichiMehr anzeigen
**<MS>** [Gestern um 18:14]
we are working on the website, acci is writing a text
**<MS>** [Gestern um 18:15]
soon back to you, yes, please help shuichi, thank you
**<SF>** [Gestern um 18:18]
oui monsieur, thank you for your big effort!
**<AB>** [Gestern um 18:20]
MS > just sent the text to your email.
**<MS>** [Gestern um 18:25]
i have a domain. friends look for platforms and software
**<AB>** [vor 19 Stunden]
of course we would make space for people from japan in case they wanted to leave - but I fear flights are so expensive right now, it will be around 25000 Euro for a family of four - who will be able to raise that kind of money?
@SF - we really think of you people, every day, every hour, every minute! And hope hope hope that worse damage still can be avoided - after everything that has already happened to your beautiful country!Mehr anzeigen
**<MS>** [vor 18 Stunden]
thank you all for this humanity which will overcome the nuclear. our website is up!
**<MS>** [vor 18 Stunden]
[http://love4japan.com/](http://love4japan.com/)
**<MS>** [vor 18 Stunden]
please share, we are serious about this
**PRESS RELEASE**
**OPEN HOME PROJECT**
Berlin, March 18, 2011
The after-effects of last Friday's tsunami are greater than the catastrophic loss of lives and homes highlighted by the drastic weather conditions currently in the international media spotlight. Most political leaders and members of the press are remaining tight-lipped about the consequences of the potential nuclear meltdown resulting from leaks at the atomic reactors in Fukushima Daiichi.
An internet campaign launched by concerned European citizens two days ago is quickly catching the attention of humanitarians across the world. With a membership growth rate rivaling the staggering radiation levels in Northern Japan, the OPEN HOME PROJECT is already supported by over 2,000 people.
Over 200 people in Germany have already offered their homes to Japanese refugees wishing to leave their homeland in light of the threatening situation. Similar networks are being created in France, Brazil, and the U.K., among other countries.
The German-Japanese community is touched by this gesture of solidarity. The question now posed is how to reach those wishing to leave, as most forms of communication are under heavy strain and many international carriers are suspending transportation to and from Tokyo.
A change in winds could endanger millions of lives, with Tokyo being only a few hundred kilometers away from the reactor, and many are already fleeing to the south. Most major airlines are still operating flights to Osaka. Lufthansa has redirected its Tokyo flights to Osaka, and the German Embassy has advised all German citizens to leave Eastern Japan.
A petition is being organized for the German government and Lufthansa to charter flights for those wishing to leave, and funds are being sought to make this possible. An appeal is also being made to celebrities and others with access to private jets to collaborate by lending their aircraft for the cause.
Currently, the OPEN HOME PROJECT is focused on three concrete fronts:
1. Opening opportunities for people in Japan who wish to stay outside the country during the period of nuclear uncertainty.
2. Organizing an international network of people willing to receive guests, and trying to find the closest match between hosts and guests.
3. Supporting organizations wishing to send relief supplies to Japan. Switzerland has already suspended all postal services to the country, which may set a precedent for other nations; quick alternative means will need to be found.
The OPEN HOME PROJECT is a non-profit, non-political community project started by people concerned about the uncertainty surrounding the current nuclear risks. They are appealing to humanitarians from all professional fields to contribute their skills. In particular, there will be a need for financial support for those with no money to evacuate Japan (priority will be given to mothers and children) and for those who can assist with immigration-related matters.
Local logistics in Tokyo will aim to inform citizens of the high risk of remaining there and encourage them to move to Osaka in order to be able to fly out.
For more information on how to get involved, send an email to contact (at) love4japan.com or visit [www.love4japan.com](http://www.love4japan.com).
Press enquiries can be sent to:
<FdC>
