Nearly 2months have passed since the 3.11 Tohoku Earthquake. In central Sendai, where Tohoku University is located, life is slowly returning back to normal, at least on the surface. However, just a few kilometers away, where the tsunami washed away an entire town, wreckage still litters the coast. The second stage of recovering from the disaster has begun. What can we do to revive universities and communities in the affected areas?. © 2011 The Author. Journal compilation © 2011 by the Molecular Biology Society of Japan/Blackwell Publishing Ltd.