86-Yr-Old "Super Volunteer" Excited to Go Back to School

Oita, March 27 (Jiji Press)--Haruo Obata, an 86-year-old man who is known in Japan as the "super volunteer" for his disaster relief work throughout the country, looks forward to attending a night school from April.

Obata is set to attend the first night junior high school in Oita Prefecture, southwestern Japan. "Life is a never-ending learning process," he said. "I'm excited."

Obata was born as the third son in a family of seven children in what is now the Oita city of Kunisaki.

As his family was poor, Obata was sent to work on a farm in the fifth grade of elementary school. He worked on the farm during the day and made "zori" sandals at night. Therefore, he could not attend junior high school much until graduation.

Over the following 10 years, Obata trained, including in Shimonoseki in the nearby prefecture of Yamaguchi and the western city of Kobe, to become a fish merchant, after being told by his sister that the job would be perfect for him.

[Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]