Chico Kanan, Okinawa: I’m proud to tell you that my Laughter Yoga Club (CHIBARIYO! Laughter Yoga Club of Okinawa) now has three days a week sessions, and it has really changed quite a few people’s lives. In fact, recently, laughter helped us to get over the sadness and grief due to sudden death of one of our members. We cried and laughed at the same time, doing Laughter Yoga exercises that our friend had created!

It was a huge transformation for many of us in the term of facing death. The beautiful young CLYL lady who had passed away gave us a great gift of her creation of these exercises, which have now become our favorite, and will always stay so in her memory.

Okinawa is the most southerly small island that is closer to Taiwan and Korea than to other islands of Japan and is very different from other parts of Japan. It has the long history of being exploited through wars including World War 2nd and is always the worst or the second worst with the average income in the nation. Adopting Laughter Yoga has helped us to cope with our troubles and difficulties with a more resilient and positive attitude.