Dr.Teruo Higa’s
Living A Dream

EM Mudballs, fermented mudballs made with EM Bokashi and soil, have been used around the world to help purify rivers, swamps, and oceans, help solve environmental problems and provide a new style of communication to bring society together.

It all started in December 2007, when Mr. Soo, a general consultant from Malaysia, came to Okinawa with a request from the governor of Penang State for cooperation. He told us that on August 8th, 2008, they were going to throw 1 million EM Mudballs into the bay of Penang and other rivers throughout the state of Penang and asked for our assistance. It was further proposed that Dr. Higa participate in the ceremony in Penang and throw in the EM Mudballs together with the governor. We made it clear that while it's easy to say one million balls, this could never be achieved without the entire state working together. Mr. Soo insisted they would definitely make it a reality.

Once the project was underway, Mr. Soo indeed realized the difficulty of making so many mudballs, but with the cooperation not only of the state government, but also schools, religious organizations, and the media, participants of this project were able to make 1,050,000 EM Mudballs. On August 8th, 2008 a ceremony was held with the participation of all the states. It should be noted that the Chinese character for "eight," used three times in the date, is an especially propitious number, shaped like an open fan gathering in good fortune, and symbolizes hopes for the project’s future growth and expansion, The day was declared “World EM Mudball Day” to commemorate the event. (Reference: The 28th Malaysian “World EM Mudball Day” in October 2009)

 

In response to the suggestion that these events should also become established in Japan, the home of EM, beginning in 2009 NPO U-net, United Networks for Earth Environment, organized events where EM Mudballs were thrown into bodies of water on Marine Day, and other events used Activated EM・1. The results have now been seen throughout Japan, and Japan’s rivers and oceans are on a path now towards becoming ever cleaner and more abundant.

The application of over one million EM Mudballs at one time significantly cleaned up Penang Bay and rivers in the state of Penang, with these bodies of water becoming richer and much more abundant. This method has spread throughout Malaysia, with people now using EM in numerous different fields. The application of EM Mudballs and Activated EM・1 by U-net on Marine Day has continued even during the COVID-19 Pandemic, and the Ise Bay Cleanup Project in Mie Prefecture has shown steady improvements.

As for U-net, they will continue their activities of throwing in EM Mudballs and applying Activated EM・1 into the ocean on Marine Day, and they will repeat these activities again on August 8th, “World EM Mudball Day”. The scale of activities has grown so large that in some areas it is difficult to complete them all in one day. Therefore they have been divided into two parts, the idea being to thereby double the fun, and eventually EM will be used in all aspects of production and daily life, leading to an essential solution to environmental problems.

Below are some examples from overseas.