The Reality of Japan Disaster – Affecting Nationwide

Osaka - Saturday, March 19, 2011




It is over one week since Japan experienced twin tragedies, earthquake plus tsunami, followed by Fukushima atomic plant issue, as mentioned in the previous article Reality and Lessons from the Japan Earthquake / Tsunami Tragedy. There have been so many aftershocks in the region and other parts of Japan including Nagano (midland, between Tokyo and Osaka) and Shizuoka (West of Kanagawa/Yokohama, famous for Mt. Fuji) that are as big as magnitude 6 or more.



In this article the author would like to briefly explain the situation as of Saturday, March 19 (Japan time).



1. People dead and without homes in Tohoku (north eastern Japan, the region hit the hardest by the earthquake and tsunami)



This area is still in extremely critical situation.



1) Thousands of lives lost and/or in emergency



More people are reported dead and missing, and the lifeline and social infrastructure remains totally destroyed.



Now people dead topped 7,100 and people missing 18,000 according to Sankei, a major newspaper and convey through Yahoo! Japan news. This is greater than 6,400t of Kobe earthquake in 1995, and it is estimated that it would be in 10ks. 100ks of people are without homes, and although necessities (food, water, batteries, blankets etc.) are on the way to evacuation centres in the devastated area of Tohoku, they are not reaching people in need smoothly.



This is because the lifeline and social infrastructure was completely destroyed, meaning broken links (roads still need to be cleared, etc.), lack of gasoline. Also, the fuel to carry the necessities is insufficient although parties are making upmost effort to provide gasoline from Japan Sea route. Moreover, the fact that the area covers such a wide range of scope, unlike other earthquakes Japan experienced such as of Kobe, Niigata, and Tokyo, make it extremely tough to distribute necessities to all the evacuation centres.



Medicine is also insufficient and a few elders died in evacuation centre. Flu broke out and experts in this realm are extremely anxious that in this situation the flu may well spread quickly from which many people die, after survived from the earthquake and tsunami.



2) An example from Fukushima



The situation is probably the worst in Iwaki City in Fukushima prefecture. This is in addition to the reasons mentioned above, the drivers of trucks carrying the necessities refrain from delivery and return because they are afraid of the radiation, although this city is outside 20km and 30km radius from Fukushima atomic plant. In NHK news in the evening of March 18, messages from people in evacuation centres in Iwaki were introduced. They believe the necessities and aids are on the way but psychological situation of them and the staff as well as necessities are almost the limitation, and they feel they just will die there.



3) Evacuation to other parts of Japan



People in Tohoku and around Tohoku area also started to evacuate voluntarily to other prefectures and prefectures/cities to nearby prefectures including Niigata (located in Japan Sea coast, that suffered from earthquake in 2007, and prepared 43 evacuation centres and welcomed 7,650 people without homes from the earthquake and tsunami by evening on March 17, as reported on March 18 by Yomiuri, a Japanese leading newspaper) and Saitama. Such prefectures/cities as Yokoyama and Osaka (in the western Japan) said that they will prepare to welcome such people as well.



2. Kanto (e.g. Tokyo, Kanagawa/Yokohama, Saitama, Chiba, Shizuoka)



This area is not functioning as usual.



1) “Planned” blackout



Due to electricity shortage (attributing to halting of Fukushima atomic plant as well as the initial effect of power down), there have been “planned” blackout, which is expected to continue until at least the end of April. This caused chaos in commuting by train because many trains became out of service or decrease in number of train in service and therefore companies made their employees to go home after they finally arrived in the office just before noon, and/or work from home. Also, many business people were forced to leave their office all of a sudden before the “planned” blackout. Retailers have been forced to operate in limited hours (evading blackout hours).



During the blackout hours, polices have been replacing traffic lights giving signals but still there have been many accidents. The blackout is especially critical in hospitals because some patients live on equipment operating on electricity and therefore finally blackout in hospital areas was avoided. The blackout was also very difficult to cope with in nursing schools and they prepared for it by making infants where extra clothes etc.



Much preparation is necessary in households, too. As in a case reported in TV news, bags full of ice were made and put into refrigerator. Of course, recharging was done. Mother made her children wear extra clothes. She also prepared to show her children see movies on recharging PCs so that they would not be scared in the darkness.



2) Little food in supermarkets and convenience stores



Soon after the earthquake on March 11, the shelves in supermarkets and convenience stores became empty, probably because people became anxious and started speculative stocking. This is why the author and her colleagues at work in Kansa (western Japan) went around shops near her office on March 14 and 15 to buy necessities to send to employees of her company in the devastated area. Tokyo HQ would usually take such initiative but it was impossible for them to do so.



With extremely limited circulation of foods in addition to blackouts, some schools closed because they simply could not provide children with school lunch. Some others kept open but children had to bring their lunch with them.



3) Biggest aftershock in Shizuoka among hundreds of aftershocks – messed up inside buildings, Shinkansen Bullet Train stopped temporarily



There have been hundreds of aftershocks of magnitude 3 – 6+. Perhaps the biggest one was of magnitude 6+ in Shizuoka on March 16. The shop floor of a retailer reported by a TV crew just after the earthquake was a complete mess; all goods cannot be sold as products anymore. Also, immediately after the aftershock, Shinkansen Bullet Train service stopped around Shizuoka, which took a few hours before the service became available again.





In the next article the author would like to briefly explain what aids Japan needs in this critical situation to minimize negative effect on economy, global and Japan.