Osaka - Monday, January 9, 2012
Nikkei, Japanese leading newspaper specialized in business and economy, reported on January 8 that Japanese general construction companies are to heavily invest resources (human resources, leading-edge technologies) in Tohoku region to meet the needs of post-disaster reconstruction from the Japan disaster of earthquake and tsunami that occurred on March 11, 2011.
This is because in the next 3 years, it is estimated that 1.7 trillion yen equivalent post-disaster reconstruction demand is to be created in Tohoku, when Japan construction market is currently just above 40 trillion yen, which is half of its peak in the middle of the bubble economy (around 1990).
1. How much demand and jobs are estimated to be created from post-disaster reconstruction?
A leading human resource company in Japan estimated that post-disaster-related construction demand for the 3 fiscal years of 2011 - 2013 (ending in March 2014) is to be approximately 1.67 trillion yen.
Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism (MLIT) estimates that in fiscal year of 2011 (ending in March 2012), 500,000 jobs will be created. This is equivalent to approximately 10% of nationwide jobs in construction industry in Japan.
Thus, in the budgeting plan for 2012, the Japanese government has allocated 3.9 billion yen as the newly created “special budget for post-disaster reconstruction of Japan”.
And the industry association created a committee collaborating with MLIT, local government etc. in the devastated area and associations of small and mid-sized companies with the objective of smoothly acquiring human resource.
2. Why such demand and jobs are estimated to be created?
It is because from fiscal year 2012 (starting April 2012), many of the construction in the Tohoku region is to start in earnest.
Some of the (re-)constructions include motorway and other main roads, railways, and levees for shore protection.
3. How are leading Japanese construction companies to take actions to meet such demand increase?
They are to focus their resources including human resources and leading-edge technologies in the Tohoku region to avoid their projects getting behind schedule and/or increase in cost attributing to insufficient materials and human resources.
Currently, the top 4 Japanese general construction companies (Kashima, Shimizu, Taisei and Obayashi) have allocated 300 – 600 human resources in the region but plan to increase by 10 – 20% when they win the order of project(s) related to post-disaster (re)construction.
Regarding technologies, Obayashi plans to utilize cement whose strengths do not deteriorate even exposed to sea water in constructions in coastal area. Applying technologies of waste segregation and recycling, Kashima developed a technology that increases recycling by 80% in handling disaster wastes, which they would like to leverage in post-disaster (re)construction.
4. How would large general construction companies to work with local small and mid-sized construction companies?
Small and mid-sized local construction companies have been preferentially winning orders (projects) that are related to post-disaster reconstruction from the perspective of providing jobs to local people.
The large, general construction companies operating nationwide (and also overseas) will be responsible of (re)constructions of roads, railways and levees for seashore protection, mostly of large scale projects that local companies cannot handle.
General construction companies will take consideration of providing jobs to local people in planning and executing such (re)construction projects. For example, they are thinking of making local construction companies to join their Joint Venture companies or to work for them as subcontractors.
5. What are the author’s final thoughts?
1) Jobs/employment and social infrastructure issues in Tohoku must be solved
This is a critical issue. The author recently saw a TV programme in which they reported that almost 50% of the respondents of their survey answered victims of the disaster lost their jobs. Even those who still have jobs say that their income has drastically decreased.
It is quite true that many victims still live in temporary housing and housing is also a critical issue, the victims cannot lead the lives they used to lead unless they have jobs to make ends meet.
Another critical issue for victims to lead normal lives is reconstruction of social infrastructure such as roads and railways, and ultimately cities/villages accompanied with such facilities as shops, hospitals and schools, and housing.
The above Nikkei article is the first step for such a social infrastructure reconstruction.
2) All organizations (public, private, academia) and all individuals need to take responsibility in post-disaster reconstruction
The above article is about the case in construction sector. It is true that at this stage construction sector is one of the sectors to take the lead but it is not the only one and there should be something that all sectors of all organizations/individuals can help and/or are responsible in the post-disaster reconstruction.
The previous article Sendai Girls Lead Post-Disaster Reconstruction Initiative – Japan Disaster, initiated by Muratac Co. Ltd., a company based in Sendai (one of the hard-hit cities by the disaster) is something that they came up with as what they can help and be responsible for the post-disaster reconstruction.
If there should be any sector, organization or individual that cannot help and/or be responsible in the post-disaster even it is may be something small, it means they do not contribute to the society and economy and their raison d’etre as a member of the society needs to be reconsidered. This is because post-disaster reconstruction is reconstruction of the total area covering all aspects of economy, society and people’s lives.
Resources:-
With estimated 1.7 trillion yen post-disaster reconstruction demand to be created in the next 3 years, Japanese general construction companies are to heavily invest resources (HR, leading-edge technologies) in Tohoku region to meet the needs of the new demand. This is the first step of reconstruction of the region (reconstruction of social infrastructure including facilities such as shops, hospitals and schools) to help victims to once again lead normal lives. Other critical issues for reconstruction include job creation. This is the reconstruction of construction sector and all sectors of all organizations and individuals are responsible for the reconstruction.
2011年12月18日日曜日
Sendai Girls Lead Post-Disaster Reconstruction Initiative – Japan Disaster
Osaka – Sunday, December 18, 2011
It is over 9 months since the Japan disaster of earthquake and tsunami hit Tohoku district on March 11 this year. There are yet so many wreckages that need to be removed, people living in temporary housing, and so forth. Large-scale post-disaster reconstruction is about to start. The journey of the reconstruction, a nation-level issue, will be a long one.
In such a situation, Christmas Live Charity Events http://kitekesain.com/evtdisp.php?id=3905 have been held in Sendai, an important central city as the hub of Tohoku district that was hardly hit by the Japan disaster, in the afternoons of this weekend on 17th and 18th.
1. Who are the girls?
They are 8 members in early teens of a Japan pop group/idol unit called “Michinoku Sendai ORI☆HIMETAI” http://orihimetai.com/. The girls are all from Sendai, Miyagi prefecture; i.e. they are the victims of the Japan disaster. “Micninoku” is a Japanese word that means “Tohoku”, the North Eastern Japan.
“Orihime” literally means a female weaver but in this case, ORIHIME is the legendary Princess Weaver for whom Sendai holds famous Star Festival called “Tanabata” festival. According to the legend, ORIHIME meets the prince she loves called Hikoboshi once a year on July 7. The day is called “Tanabata” day and on this day people write their wish on Origami papers and put it on a bamboo tree, which is decorated like a Christmas tree. 4 famous festivals are held in Tohoku in summer and Tanabata festival the one held in Sendai, often called “City of Trees”.
2. Who produced Michinoku Sendai ORI☆HIMETAI?
It was a company called Muratac http://muratac.com/ based in Sendai. The company originally started its business from designing, manufacturing and supplying unique T-shirts upon request for events etc. and indeed it is the designer and supplier of the T-shirt for “24-Hour TV Programme” that has become a nationwide TV programme broadcasted every August. The events are also held aligning with the programme in major places/cities throughout Japan and the T-shirts are worn by the MCs and all staff members of the programme and the events.
The company has expanded the business to overall apparel such as stage costumes and festival costumes, and to planning and hosting events/stages including promotions (promotional goods, human resources for the events/stages).
With such business expansion, the company recently has entered scouting, developing and utilizing models and TV stars as well. For this reason, the company already had core competencies of producing and promoting a Japan pop group of Michinoku Sendai ORI☆HIMETAI.
3. What has Michinoku Sendai ORI☆HIMETAI been doing and why?
Since the group was produced in August, the members, although still amateurs, have been practicing hard to sing and dance day in day out so that they can deliver smile and courage to the people in the area where the progress in reconstruction has been slow through their stage event activities as well as reaching out to reconstruction-markets and visiting temporary houses.
With the earthquake and tsunami, everyone from adults to children has suffered from unprecedented damage, devastating them all. Everything from houses, schools and everything washed away and flattened.
The group wants to support areas which still face many hard-to-solve challenges in not only Miyagi but also Iwate and Fukushima. They also want to extend their gratitude to all people who sent money and goods from Japan and abroad for the sake of disaster victim children ever since immediately after the disaster outbreak.
They are determined to continue supporting not only disaster from victim children to elders side by side in the disaster-hit areas through their volunteer activities. Taking the advantage of their location, Sendai, they aim to send out information on not only the disaster but also wonderful charm of Sendai, Miyagi and Tohoku district to people around the globe.
They will be happy if readers of this blog post find people here in Tohoku forward-looking, cheerful and strong through ORIHIMETAI as seen in the lyric of ORI☆HIMETAI reconstruction supporting song “I’m Home” – “Once I was a bird I could not fly. But now no tear no time to cry. Believing you, it's nice to know you'll standby me〜”
It was with such a background that the Christmas live events performed by the group have been held in Sendai this weekend.
4. What are the author’s final thoughts?
The company and the group members must have overcome mental hardships as well as physical ones to have started this kind of initiative. It is because the author assumes that the victims of the disaster had been (or still are) mentally damaged and that there are so many things they would not really want to think or say about the disaster.
The author, just like many other people, feels it was with the characteristics of Tohoku people who are known for their patience that there has not been violence, chaos etc. even if the reconstruction process has been slow. If it had been in Kansai (western Japan), for example in Osaka, it probably had been quite different because Osaka people are known for being rather short-tempered.
The author is very much impressed with the initiative originated from Sendai by the company based in Sendai and their girls and that the initiative is planned to be spread to Iwate and Fukushima. Large-scale post-disaster reconstruction initiative is about to start and she believes there are things that each one of us around the globe can do to help drive such an initiative.
Resources:-
When post-disaster reconstruction has been slow, Muratac, an apparel company based in Sendai (an important city as a hub in Tohoku region, hardly hit by the Japan disaster in March 2011), produced Michinoku Sendai ORI☆HIMETAI, Japanese pop group of 8 girls in early teens from Sendai established in August to deliver smiles and encouragement through singing, dancing and visiting temporary housings. Large-scale reconstruction is about to start. Each one of us has something that we can do to help such an initiative.
It is over 9 months since the Japan disaster of earthquake and tsunami hit Tohoku district on March 11 this year. There are yet so many wreckages that need to be removed, people living in temporary housing, and so forth. Large-scale post-disaster reconstruction is about to start. The journey of the reconstruction, a nation-level issue, will be a long one.
In such a situation, Christmas Live Charity Events http://kitekesain.com/evtdisp.php?id=3905 have been held in Sendai, an important central city as the hub of Tohoku district that was hardly hit by the Japan disaster, in the afternoons of this weekend on 17th and 18th.
1. Who are the girls?
They are 8 members in early teens of a Japan pop group/idol unit called “Michinoku Sendai ORI☆HIMETAI” http://orihimetai.com/. The girls are all from Sendai, Miyagi prefecture; i.e. they are the victims of the Japan disaster. “Micninoku” is a Japanese word that means “Tohoku”, the North Eastern Japan.
“Orihime” literally means a female weaver but in this case, ORIHIME is the legendary Princess Weaver for whom Sendai holds famous Star Festival called “Tanabata” festival. According to the legend, ORIHIME meets the prince she loves called Hikoboshi once a year on July 7. The day is called “Tanabata” day and on this day people write their wish on Origami papers and put it on a bamboo tree, which is decorated like a Christmas tree. 4 famous festivals are held in Tohoku in summer and Tanabata festival the one held in Sendai, often called “City of Trees”.
2. Who produced Michinoku Sendai ORI☆HIMETAI?
It was a company called Muratac http://muratac.com/ based in Sendai. The company originally started its business from designing, manufacturing and supplying unique T-shirts upon request for events etc. and indeed it is the designer and supplier of the T-shirt for “24-Hour TV Programme” that has become a nationwide TV programme broadcasted every August. The events are also held aligning with the programme in major places/cities throughout Japan and the T-shirts are worn by the MCs and all staff members of the programme and the events.
The company has expanded the business to overall apparel such as stage costumes and festival costumes, and to planning and hosting events/stages including promotions (promotional goods, human resources for the events/stages).
With such business expansion, the company recently has entered scouting, developing and utilizing models and TV stars as well. For this reason, the company already had core competencies of producing and promoting a Japan pop group of Michinoku Sendai ORI☆HIMETAI.
3. What has Michinoku Sendai ORI☆HIMETAI been doing and why?
Since the group was produced in August, the members, although still amateurs, have been practicing hard to sing and dance day in day out so that they can deliver smile and courage to the people in the area where the progress in reconstruction has been slow through their stage event activities as well as reaching out to reconstruction-markets and visiting temporary houses.
With the earthquake and tsunami, everyone from adults to children has suffered from unprecedented damage, devastating them all. Everything from houses, schools and everything washed away and flattened.
The group wants to support areas which still face many hard-to-solve challenges in not only Miyagi but also Iwate and Fukushima. They also want to extend their gratitude to all people who sent money and goods from Japan and abroad for the sake of disaster victim children ever since immediately after the disaster outbreak.
They are determined to continue supporting not only disaster from victim children to elders side by side in the disaster-hit areas through their volunteer activities. Taking the advantage of their location, Sendai, they aim to send out information on not only the disaster but also wonderful charm of Sendai, Miyagi and Tohoku district to people around the globe.
They will be happy if readers of this blog post find people here in Tohoku forward-looking, cheerful and strong through ORIHIMETAI as seen in the lyric of ORI☆HIMETAI reconstruction supporting song “I’m Home” – “Once I was a bird I could not fly. But now no tear no time to cry. Believing you, it's nice to know you'll standby me〜”
It was with such a background that the Christmas live events performed by the group have been held in Sendai this weekend.
4. What are the author’s final thoughts?
The company and the group members must have overcome mental hardships as well as physical ones to have started this kind of initiative. It is because the author assumes that the victims of the disaster had been (or still are) mentally damaged and that there are so many things they would not really want to think or say about the disaster.
The author, just like many other people, feels it was with the characteristics of Tohoku people who are known for their patience that there has not been violence, chaos etc. even if the reconstruction process has been slow. If it had been in Kansai (western Japan), for example in Osaka, it probably had been quite different because Osaka people are known for being rather short-tempered.
The author is very much impressed with the initiative originated from Sendai by the company based in Sendai and their girls and that the initiative is planned to be spread to Iwate and Fukushima. Large-scale post-disaster reconstruction initiative is about to start and she believes there are things that each one of us around the globe can do to help drive such an initiative.
Resources:-
When post-disaster reconstruction has been slow, Muratac, an apparel company based in Sendai (an important city as a hub in Tohoku region, hardly hit by the Japan disaster in March 2011), produced Michinoku Sendai ORI☆HIMETAI, Japanese pop group of 8 girls in early teens from Sendai established in August to deliver smiles and encouragement through singing, dancing and visiting temporary housings. Large-scale reconstruction is about to start. Each one of us has something that we can do to help such an initiative.
2011年3月26日土曜日
How Japan Can Make the Third Miracle from the Disaster
Osaka - Saturday, March 26, 2011
Japan has made miracles twice in its history. The first one is of 140 years ago, of Meiji Revolution in which after almost 300 years of isolation from the rest of the world of the Edo period Japan opened the door to the rest of the world and made drastic innovation to realize revolution. The second one is of 70 years ago, of reconstruction from the defeat of World War II in which atomic bomb was dropped to Hiroshima and Nagaski and it was believed that the country would not be able to revive. But with support from the U.S. and other countries, Japan, the only country ever to suffer an atomic attack, managed to recover and reconstruct, to realize substantial economic growth to become the second biggest economy.
What Dr. Neal calls “natech” (“Na”ture + “Tech”nology combined) disaster in the interviewed introduced in the previous article How the World and Japan Should Handle Japan Disaster is the worst disaster since the World War II defeat. Recovery has started and it is reported in media that the world is surprised at the speed to rebuilding of roads in Sendai; however, and recovery and reconstruction from the “natech” disaster is like making the two previous miracles, as mentioned in an article issued on March 25, of Nikkei, the Japan’s leading newspaper specialized in business and economy.
Following the previous article Japan Disaster to Hit Global and Japanese Economy in which she outlined the size of the affect of the disaster, the author would like to outline what needs to be done to make the third miracle, of recovery and “creation” of a new country, to conclude her (first) series of blog articles about the disaster.
1. First and foremost, rescue people who are still missing
As of 9:00 on March 24, as announced by the National Police Agency and reported by Nikkei, 9,811 people are dead, 17,541 are missing, and 2,779 are injured. It is two weeks from the earthquake and tsunami and the rate of survival is extremely low, but a woman of 80 years old and her grandchild survived for 9 days and were rescued. Some cities/villages are totally swept out by tsunami and wreckage remains in wide a scope of areas so rescuing the remaining people missing is taking time. However, rescue needs to be proceeded.
2. Immediate recovery of Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Plant is critical
It goes without saying that immediate recovery of Fukushima nuclear plant is inevitable to avoid further negative effects on lives of residents in the area, on agriculture and fishery of the area and prefectures near by, on water supply to regions including Kanto (e.g. Tokyo, Chiba, Saitama), and on global environment. Engineers of Tepco have been doing everything they can for recovery in extremely tough situation as reported in online news on March 25 in website of Asahi, a major Japanese newspaper, based on the information from wives of the engineers; very little time to sleep and when they sleep they do so sitting on chairs, food is only biscuits with minerals, and so forth.
3. Smooth recovery of electricity supply in Kanto area is inevitable
Halt of Fukushima nuclear plant led to shortage of electricity supply in Kanto area and thus “planned” blackout has been ongoing, which is likely to continue for months. This has been causing many problems in the society, business and people’s everyday lives, as mentioned in the previous article The Reality of Japan Disaster – Affecting Nationwide. Without recovery of electricity supply, people’s lives would not return to what it was before the disaster, nor business activities which is the source of economy and capital necessary for reconstruction.
Organizations and individuals are making upmost efforts to save energy to avoid “planned” blackout but the experts estimated that blackouts cannot be avoided in summer and winter, when electricity usage reaches at the peak due to use of air conditioning. Some experts also point out that transferring electricity from Kansai (western Japan) and Hokkaido (northern island) to Kanto would be extremely limited because of technical reasons for Kansai and need to cross over sea for Hokkaido.
Noguchi proposes that such measures as immediately reviewing jacking up of basic rate of electricity and fetching down amperage under contract could avoid “planned” blackout until the end of April. However, he also says that even such measures would not be sufficient to avoid “planned” blackout in summer. Other experts and the government are pursuing other measures such as implementation of summer time.
After recovery of the plant, the government and energy supply related parties would need to reconsider total energy supply system. The key concept in reconsideration would be diversification of energy supply to minimize risk of energy supply shortage, and pursuing green and safe energy.
4. Of course, reconstruction of lifeline and social infrastructure is a big issue
Since everything is destroyed including local government office of many cities even if the cities were not 100% swept away by the tsunami, reconstruction of social infrastructure including roads, public and commercial facilities, housing, energy and water supply is necessary. It is just like creating new cities/prefectures from scratch.
This process would not necessarily mean reconstructing exactly what it used to be. Process needs to be that of determining what to recover/leverage and what to change/create to improve/eliminate the weaknesses the Tohoku and Japan had before the disaster. In fact, this could be a great opportunity to eliminate weakness and correct “contradictions” the country had and transform the total economic, industrial and social structures.
As in the case of Kobe earthquake in 1995, the region was condensed in terms of both population and business activity sites thus it was quite logical to reconstruct as what is used to be. However, Tohoku in this case is quite different, how the region geographically extends and how the structure of the industry extends.
Moreover, as pointed out by Nikkei in its article issued on March 25, the “natech” disaster shed light upon the contradictions and weaknesses of Japan system. They are the fact that the regions in which functions/systems of healthcare, government and lives are dispersed when the country was facing decreasing and aging population and the reality that the country operation and management have been centralized in Tokyo when the electricity supply of Tokyo relied from local regions.
5. Companies/organizations and people need to get back to work as soon as possible
Nikkei online article reported on March 25 that more than 1,000 listed companies in Japan are affected by the disaster, large or small. The most affected are in general of automotive and electronic manufactures because many of they have core plants in Tohoku area and they have been unable to operate. Such plants include those that produce and supply core components to worldwide market and already is pointed out by worldwide media that it would affect many global companies operating outside Japan.
Of course, smooth reconstruction already mentioned to reconstruct global supply chain network as Kishi mentions would be the requirement.
5. And, consumption is also a requirement to get everything going
Events and entertainments are currently restrained voluntarily but excessive voluntary restraints would be a negative factor for smooth recovery. General construction industry is likely to benefit from reconstruction as long as the government would give clear direction and support the industry; however, construction industry alone cannot drive economic maintenance and growth. Consumer spending is a requirement to drive economy and thus it is wise not to excessively restraint events, entertainments and so forth. This was pointed out and discussed in a few recent online articles in Japan’s leading business media.
6. The author’s final thoughts – The country and its citizens are strong enough to make the third miracle a reality
It is true that people suffered directly and indirectly from the disaster were first shocked and was at a loss what to do but are now determined to do what they can and actually started to take proactive actions to recover and reconstruct. The author believes that the country and its people are strong enough to make the third miracle a reality. Japan cannot possibly remain to be a big burden of the international community because of the disaster.
In fact, the recovery and reconstruction from the “natech” disaster are expected to be converted to an opportunity of eliminating the weaknesses and contradictions the country had, transform the total structure of society, economy and industry. In other words, this is to be a catalyst the country needed to boost its economy for decades.
Last but not least, the author would like to introduce an idea she happened to listen to and was extremely was compassionate, which was introduced in Kansai local TV evening news on March 25 in which they introduced some ideas of some audience of what people in Kansai can do now to help the east, suffering directly from the disaster. The author believes that this is the mindset and behaviour that we all need to have, together with integrity, flexibility and teamwork/collaboration, and that the fact that a normal citizen has courage to share such mindset and behaviour indicates that the country and its citizen have the strengths of realizing the third miracle to create a new country, although it might be a long journey.
It is that every individuals need to unleash their own skills, competencies and strengths in this urgent situation. For example, entertainers focus on entertaining people and athletes playing games to perform well, to encourage and inspire people including those in the devastated area and make them feel better. Of course, business person are to focus on their business while doing what they can to help the people in need, and rescuers health care experts in the devastated area, each people playing an active role and fulfilling his/her mission.
References:-
Kishi, Hiroyuki (March 18, 2011) Discussion on economy management after rebuilt of Japan (in Japanese)
http://diamond.jp/articles/-/11538
Kishi, Hiroyuki (March 25, 2011) Anxiety of hollow out of eastern Japan attributing to the natural disaster and nuclear plant issue and future of Japanese economy (in Japanese)
http://diamond.jp/articles/-/11613
Koya, Tomoyuki (March 17, 2011) Three crisis that companies suffer from the disaster – resource crisis, demand crisis and mind crisis (in Japanese)
http://business.nikkeibp.co.jp/article/manage/20110316/219006/
Noguchi, Yukio (March 22, 2011) Reviewing basic rate of electricity for assumed electricity shortage this coming summer has much meaning (in Japanese)
http://diamond.jp/articles/-/11597
Resources:-
The natech (nature and technology) disaster is the most severe since the World War II and the economic loss from the disaster, direct and indirect combined, is enormous. However, Japan has made two miracles in its history, Meiji Revolution and recovery/reconstruction from World War II and the country and its citizen are strong enough to make the third miracle. The disaster is expected to be converted to an opportunity to transform total structure of society, economy and industry, to create a new country, thus a catalyst the country needed for decades to boost its economy.
Japan has made miracles twice in its history. The first one is of 140 years ago, of Meiji Revolution in which after almost 300 years of isolation from the rest of the world of the Edo period Japan opened the door to the rest of the world and made drastic innovation to realize revolution. The second one is of 70 years ago, of reconstruction from the defeat of World War II in which atomic bomb was dropped to Hiroshima and Nagaski and it was believed that the country would not be able to revive. But with support from the U.S. and other countries, Japan, the only country ever to suffer an atomic attack, managed to recover and reconstruct, to realize substantial economic growth to become the second biggest economy.
What Dr. Neal calls “natech” (“Na”ture + “Tech”nology combined) disaster in the interviewed introduced in the previous article How the World and Japan Should Handle Japan Disaster is the worst disaster since the World War II defeat. Recovery has started and it is reported in media that the world is surprised at the speed to rebuilding of roads in Sendai; however, and recovery and reconstruction from the “natech” disaster is like making the two previous miracles, as mentioned in an article issued on March 25, of Nikkei, the Japan’s leading newspaper specialized in business and economy.
Following the previous article Japan Disaster to Hit Global and Japanese Economy in which she outlined the size of the affect of the disaster, the author would like to outline what needs to be done to make the third miracle, of recovery and “creation” of a new country, to conclude her (first) series of blog articles about the disaster.
1. First and foremost, rescue people who are still missing
As of 9:00 on March 24, as announced by the National Police Agency and reported by Nikkei, 9,811 people are dead, 17,541 are missing, and 2,779 are injured. It is two weeks from the earthquake and tsunami and the rate of survival is extremely low, but a woman of 80 years old and her grandchild survived for 9 days and were rescued. Some cities/villages are totally swept out by tsunami and wreckage remains in wide a scope of areas so rescuing the remaining people missing is taking time. However, rescue needs to be proceeded.
2. Immediate recovery of Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Plant is critical
It goes without saying that immediate recovery of Fukushima nuclear plant is inevitable to avoid further negative effects on lives of residents in the area, on agriculture and fishery of the area and prefectures near by, on water supply to regions including Kanto (e.g. Tokyo, Chiba, Saitama), and on global environment. Engineers of Tepco have been doing everything they can for recovery in extremely tough situation as reported in online news on March 25 in website of Asahi, a major Japanese newspaper, based on the information from wives of the engineers; very little time to sleep and when they sleep they do so sitting on chairs, food is only biscuits with minerals, and so forth.
3. Smooth recovery of electricity supply in Kanto area is inevitable
Halt of Fukushima nuclear plant led to shortage of electricity supply in Kanto area and thus “planned” blackout has been ongoing, which is likely to continue for months. This has been causing many problems in the society, business and people’s everyday lives, as mentioned in the previous article The Reality of Japan Disaster – Affecting Nationwide. Without recovery of electricity supply, people’s lives would not return to what it was before the disaster, nor business activities which is the source of economy and capital necessary for reconstruction.
Organizations and individuals are making upmost efforts to save energy to avoid “planned” blackout but the experts estimated that blackouts cannot be avoided in summer and winter, when electricity usage reaches at the peak due to use of air conditioning. Some experts also point out that transferring electricity from Kansai (western Japan) and Hokkaido (northern island) to Kanto would be extremely limited because of technical reasons for Kansai and need to cross over sea for Hokkaido.
Noguchi proposes that such measures as immediately reviewing jacking up of basic rate of electricity and fetching down amperage under contract could avoid “planned” blackout until the end of April. However, he also says that even such measures would not be sufficient to avoid “planned” blackout in summer. Other experts and the government are pursuing other measures such as implementation of summer time.
After recovery of the plant, the government and energy supply related parties would need to reconsider total energy supply system. The key concept in reconsideration would be diversification of energy supply to minimize risk of energy supply shortage, and pursuing green and safe energy.
4. Of course, reconstruction of lifeline and social infrastructure is a big issue
Since everything is destroyed including local government office of many cities even if the cities were not 100% swept away by the tsunami, reconstruction of social infrastructure including roads, public and commercial facilities, housing, energy and water supply is necessary. It is just like creating new cities/prefectures from scratch.
This process would not necessarily mean reconstructing exactly what it used to be. Process needs to be that of determining what to recover/leverage and what to change/create to improve/eliminate the weaknesses the Tohoku and Japan had before the disaster. In fact, this could be a great opportunity to eliminate weakness and correct “contradictions” the country had and transform the total economic, industrial and social structures.
As in the case of Kobe earthquake in 1995, the region was condensed in terms of both population and business activity sites thus it was quite logical to reconstruct as what is used to be. However, Tohoku in this case is quite different, how the region geographically extends and how the structure of the industry extends.
Moreover, as pointed out by Nikkei in its article issued on March 25, the “natech” disaster shed light upon the contradictions and weaknesses of Japan system. They are the fact that the regions in which functions/systems of healthcare, government and lives are dispersed when the country was facing decreasing and aging population and the reality that the country operation and management have been centralized in Tokyo when the electricity supply of Tokyo relied from local regions.
5. Companies/organizations and people need to get back to work as soon as possible
Nikkei online article reported on March 25 that more than 1,000 listed companies in Japan are affected by the disaster, large or small. The most affected are in general of automotive and electronic manufactures because many of they have core plants in Tohoku area and they have been unable to operate. Such plants include those that produce and supply core components to worldwide market and already is pointed out by worldwide media that it would affect many global companies operating outside Japan.
Of course, smooth reconstruction already mentioned to reconstruct global supply chain network as Kishi mentions would be the requirement.
5. And, consumption is also a requirement to get everything going
Events and entertainments are currently restrained voluntarily but excessive voluntary restraints would be a negative factor for smooth recovery. General construction industry is likely to benefit from reconstruction as long as the government would give clear direction and support the industry; however, construction industry alone cannot drive economic maintenance and growth. Consumer spending is a requirement to drive economy and thus it is wise not to excessively restraint events, entertainments and so forth. This was pointed out and discussed in a few recent online articles in Japan’s leading business media.
6. The author’s final thoughts – The country and its citizens are strong enough to make the third miracle a reality
It is true that people suffered directly and indirectly from the disaster were first shocked and was at a loss what to do but are now determined to do what they can and actually started to take proactive actions to recover and reconstruct. The author believes that the country and its people are strong enough to make the third miracle a reality. Japan cannot possibly remain to be a big burden of the international community because of the disaster.
In fact, the recovery and reconstruction from the “natech” disaster are expected to be converted to an opportunity of eliminating the weaknesses and contradictions the country had, transform the total structure of society, economy and industry. In other words, this is to be a catalyst the country needed to boost its economy for decades.
Last but not least, the author would like to introduce an idea she happened to listen to and was extremely was compassionate, which was introduced in Kansai local TV evening news on March 25 in which they introduced some ideas of some audience of what people in Kansai can do now to help the east, suffering directly from the disaster. The author believes that this is the mindset and behaviour that we all need to have, together with integrity, flexibility and teamwork/collaboration, and that the fact that a normal citizen has courage to share such mindset and behaviour indicates that the country and its citizen have the strengths of realizing the third miracle to create a new country, although it might be a long journey.
It is that every individuals need to unleash their own skills, competencies and strengths in this urgent situation. For example, entertainers focus on entertaining people and athletes playing games to perform well, to encourage and inspire people including those in the devastated area and make them feel better. Of course, business person are to focus on their business while doing what they can to help the people in need, and rescuers health care experts in the devastated area, each people playing an active role and fulfilling his/her mission.
References:-
Kishi, Hiroyuki (March 18, 2011) Discussion on economy management after rebuilt of Japan (in Japanese)
http://diamond.jp/articles/-/11538
Kishi, Hiroyuki (March 25, 2011) Anxiety of hollow out of eastern Japan attributing to the natural disaster and nuclear plant issue and future of Japanese economy (in Japanese)
http://diamond.jp/articles/-/11613
Koya, Tomoyuki (March 17, 2011) Three crisis that companies suffer from the disaster – resource crisis, demand crisis and mind crisis (in Japanese)
http://business.nikkeibp.co.jp/article/manage/20110316/219006/
Noguchi, Yukio (March 22, 2011) Reviewing basic rate of electricity for assumed electricity shortage this coming summer has much meaning (in Japanese)
http://diamond.jp/articles/-/11597
Resources:-
The natech (nature and technology) disaster is the most severe since the World War II and the economic loss from the disaster, direct and indirect combined, is enormous. However, Japan has made two miracles in its history, Meiji Revolution and recovery/reconstruction from World War II and the country and its citizen are strong enough to make the third miracle. The disaster is expected to be converted to an opportunity to transform total structure of society, economy and industry, to create a new country, thus a catalyst the country needed for decades to boost its economy.
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