There are some incidences from which you cannot recover what you so easily lost. The Major Hanshin/Awaji Earthquake qualifies as a significant social incidence. It was a disaster, which took its toll in human life, both mentally and physically creating a path of physical destruction and massive losses within a matter of just a few seconds. Many people who have been impacted by the disaster even though they did not experience the earthquake or a loss raise doubts about their future and the ability to go about their lives coping with and filling the voids left behind. Koji Mizutani, a graphic designer is one of those sympathetic individuals who have sensed these concerns.

Koji Mizutani took action to help the city recover from the earthquake by developing the "Merry Project" in Kobe. This project is quite straightforward. He takes photographs of people's smiles in Kobe and the Hanshin region to create posters with their handwritten dreams and hopes. The posters present ordinary smiles of ordinary people and include their personal messages rather than using celebrities or models. They are filled with a natural and open atmosphere, which is not available with arbitrarily created commercial posters.

It is not unusual for an artist to create a sculpture or to construct a building as a monument dedicated to a past incident. Such monuments have honorable intentions, not to forget but to remember such regrettable events. But Koji Mizutani's Merry Project has direction, which in essence is totally opposite from building monuments of stone and steel.

First, Merry Project does not rely on any physical material. It does not construct a massive monument, but rather visually appeals to people on a personal level one poster at a time. In the Merry Project, an artist or a designer does not create or point out his/her one-sided point of view of an event. This project involves people and it works only when various people take the initiative to participate in the project donating their smiles and messages for hope and the future. As the participants share the meaning and concept of the project, it spreads through them creating a sense of hope. Merry Project does not aim to be a centripetal force, which monuments are but rather, it focuses on the expansion of the mental health of people so they can share psychologically in a centrifugal manner. This project keeps in mind the recovery of individual inner aspects rather than reconstruction of physical materials. In other words, it focuses on the revitalization of the software rather than hardware.

Another characteristic of the Merry Project is that it dares to hammer out a positive vision for the future in order to overcome the sorrows of the past. It is truly difficult to forget the past tragedy but we live today and must overcome our hardships. In this respect, the Merry Project aims to obtain that vision of strength to help us live the life confronting us daily.

This vision of strength to live through the reality of destruction caused by the earthquake is what is needed for Kobe but it is also desirable for our current Japanese society. So many Japanese people are dissatisfied with their current situations and are cornered at a level where they cannot maintain a positive attitude. Mass media indulging in accusing other's violations and the many disturbing incidences on people's impulsiveness and their inability to solve their problems in a rational manner, symbolize this point. Koji Mizutani has felt crises for today's troubled Japanese society and recognizes the importance of recovering a positive mentality towards the concerning situations and to share that spirit among a wide range of people. This is why Merry Project in Kobe exceeds the scope of recovery of the disastrous earthquake, and influences the issues of psychological recovery in the Japanese society. For the graphic designer, Koji Mizutani, the Merry Project is the "Strongest Design" to recover positive spirits in the Japanese society.