ABOUT US
FOUNDER
Yoshiomi Tamai
President & Founder of the
Ashinaga Foundation
Yoshiomi Tamai was born in Osaka in 1935. Following the loss of his mother in a traffic accident in 1964, he began investigating the state of traffic accidents in Japan. He became a critic, attacking the inadequacies of the healthcare and legal systems. In 1969 he founded the Association for Traffic Accident Orphans. From 1998 he took on the role of President at Ashinaga, which he continues to this day.
He has received numerous awards for his work, including the Asahi Social Welfare Award (1989, 2003), the Brazilian Order of Rio Branco Medal (1995), the Global Award for Fundraising (2012), the Eleanor Roosevelt Val-Kill Medal (2015), and Eiji Yoshikawa Bunka Award (2016). He has also published numerous works over the years about the Ashinaga movement.
“The value of one’s life is determined by the height of one’s selfless ambitions. Of course the individual is important, but living just for oneself is terribly lonely.
Even as the ages pass, it is those who live for the sake of others who will continue to progress and evolve.
Success could be said to be the reward of an altruistic way of life. Holding onto those lofty, selfless ambitions makes one’s life abundantly rich.”