Thursday, August 8: At a hotel in Tokyo, venture entrepreneurs and business leaders gathered for a charity dinner put on by the leader of the “Next Generation Creative Factory” NPO Mr. Atsushi Akisawa, to commemorate Yojiro Terada's class-win in the six-hour race at Watkins Glen.

At the dinner, praising the achievements of the 66 year-old, which include his taking a Mazda6 SKYACTIV-D Racing to the GX-class victory in the GRAND-AM event at Watkins Glen in New York state on June 30th, host Akisawa urged the next generation to “continue to take up challenges as Mr. Terada has done,” and that “Young men of the future need to have a burning desire to become heroes.”

In addition, junior and senior high school students from the affected areas of Fukushima Prefecture participated in a short-term language course supported by Mazda prior to their going to Le Mans (France) in June to watch the 24-hour race. On behalf of the 10 participants, Ms. Haruka Hanzawa gave the following speech: “Many, many thanks for your support, we all had a great time and a wonderful experience. Also, being able to watch the Le Mans 24 Hours, thanks to Mr. Terada, allowed me to speak with technicians, and since I also want to become an engineer and to support Japan, this experience allowed me to live my dream," to which the audience gave rapturous applause.

In promoting the “Support Our Kids” program, the Secretariat of Next Generation Creative Factory said, “We are in our third year of activities that support the children in the northeast, but are working to prepare for another ten years.”

It was also decided that proceeds from the dinner would be used as working capital for the Support Our Kids program.