Group of 100 Devotees of Koyasan and Kumano

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Chairman of the Japan Satellite Broadcasting Association

Naoji Ono

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Naoji Ono was born in 1947. He comes from Kushimoto Town in Wakayama Prefecture, where he attended Tanami Junior High School and graduated from Koza HIgh School. After graduating from the University of Tokyo’s Faculty of Education, he went to work at NHK. After working at NHK’s Okayama Broadcasting Station, he became a producer of science programs, including Kagaku Dokyumento, Chikyu Daikiko, Ginga Uchu Odessei, and Robotto Kontesuto. He later served as the president of NHK Enterprises and a deputy chairman of NHK. Currently, he serves as the chairman of the Japan Satellite Broadcasting Association. He was involved in the production of other types of shows as well, including serving as a producer of Geo Japan (first broadcast in July 2017), an NHK special about the history of the Japanese archipelago. The show explored the geological history of the Kii Peninsula and included a computer rendering of an enormous caldera eruption that occurred on the peninsula 14 million years ago.

I was born in Kushimoto Town at the tip of the Kii Peninsula, and during my childhood the forests and oceans of Kumano were my playground. There was a geological formation sticking out at an angle at the beach. I recall feeling a child’s wonder, asking why this angled formation could go on and on like it did. I obtained a clear answer in my own way when we explored the geological history of the Kii Peninsula in the NHK special Geo Japan.
An enormous caldera eruption occurred in the Kii Peninsula 14 million years ago. The great natural wilderness of the place was shaped over a long period of time, forming the stage on which we live our lives today. Learning about the history of the peninsula has made the land of my birth even more familiar to me. Gaining an understanding of the geological history of the place has helped me learn more about myself and about my hometown. You could also say that it was my own way of returning to the Kii Peninsula. I will always be proud to have been a product of the deep forests and blue-green ocean waters of Kumano.

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