Earthquake, Tsunami, & Meltdown

As quite a few sites are doing bland, unoriginal retrospectives on last year's earthquake today, I thought I might provide the much less common "foreigner living and working in Japan" perspective as well as a comparison of Eastern and Western media reports on the disaster.


On this date exactly one year ago, space and time changed.

745km (463 miles) from where I am now sitting and drinking beer, a earthquake occurred off the coast of Japan. An earthquake so strong that it actually shifted the Earth's axis and moved the entire country 8 feet. This change in the earth's axis actually shortened a day on the planet by 1.8 microseconds. You can hear it here.

As we all remember, the earthquake set off tsunami waves (some up to 128 feet high. After striking the shore, at least 15 thousand people lost their lives. Entire towns were literally wiped off the face of the earth. Thousands of buildings disappeared. I saw an interview with one old fellow on TV. He had gone to work that morning and come home to find his family - all three generations -, his house, and his job and city all gone. Though he choked back a cry, his emotional restraint was striking - I couldn't help thinking that, had this same situation occurred in North America, the victim there would be overwrought.

Of course, the most threatening damage was that to the Fukushima nuclear reactors. There was a meltdown and those local residents remaining after the tsunami devastation were forced to leave everything.

Here in Kyoto, I had no knowledge of the quake until a student mentioned it to me. He told me that there were only 10 fatalities, so I assumed it was a minor quake (which are relatively common here). Later, some students (oddly, only women - no men) told me that they had felt the quake when it occurred but their friends assured them it must have been their imagination. So, it seems only a few people were able to detect it.

Fear and stress were thick in the next few weeks. Convenience and grocery stores were instantly sold out of batteries and water, purchased to be sent to loved ones in the Kanto (north east) region. Lights in stores were off or on low for weeks following. Requests for donations were (and still are) virtually everywhere. Already energy-conscious (home of the Kyoto Protocol) Japan cut down on usage of gas, water, and electricity (even though I am told the affected area is powered by a different grid). Despite being relatively far from the affected areas, I was stressed. Radiation began entering the atmosphere, water, and earth at unhealthy levels. Fish might be affected yet be caught in a different area. I started checking the labels of spinach and other produce a bit more carefully.

Local and foreign media focussed on this spirit of group support. While it was the main theme, I was surprised to learn that many Japanese had few fond feelings for the former residents of the area around the Fukushima plants. Apparently, since the construction of the plant, they had received financial subsidies due to their living within the threat of radiation and many envied them such subsidies. One (Japanese) student of mine told me some referred to them as the "boat people" because they were able to purchase large boats with the money. Another (Japanese) friend of mine told of suspiciously elaborate spa/hotels near there, despite the rest of the town being fairly low-rent. Anyway, many of those allegedly formerly-wealthy residents were (and some remain) displaced.

This triple threat of earthquakes (aftershocks), tsunamis, and nuclear meltdowns not surprisingly scared the crap out of tourists and foreign workers in Japan, most of whom most likely had never experienced even a mild earthquake before. Flights were packed for days with panicked foreigners escaping. Some foreign wags on Twitter dubbed these folk "flyjin" (a play on the words "fly" (as in flee or flight) and "gaijin", which means "foreigner" in Japanese). Though I chose to stay in Japan because of my work responsibilities (I have several jobs) and distance from the danger, I do not scorn anyone who chose to leave. Earthquakes are as certain as death and taxes in Japan and just as welcome. Many tsunami barriers were too low and thus ineffective. Radiation - that stuff'll kill ya.


So, it is with a small measure of chagrin to read the words of Mutsuko Izawa, who states, "It's not good that they all left so suddenly,Of course this means that in the future, when a company has a choice between hiring a Japanese and a foreigner they will not hire the foreigner because they will be worried if they are going to stay.
"I think this has reinforced the impression amongst Japanese that a lot of foreigners only look at Japan as a place to work for a few years, earn a lot of money and then they go again," she said. "They're not really interested in the society or the country. This isn't their real home. These disasters have really just shown how true that is."

Given the fact that in 2009 the Japanese government actually paid foreign workers to leave the country (“I do not think that Japan should ever become a multiethnic society.” says Jiro Kawasaki, a former health minister and senior lawmaker of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party.) and this state continues ("the government is … actively encouraging both foreign workers and foreign graduates of its universities and professional schools to return home while protecting tiny interest groups") to this day, Mrs. Izawa's criticisms seem a trifle unfair.

Hiragana Times is a magazine geared towards foreigners interested in learning Japanese and bills itself as "Japan to the World". As it is some foreigners only view of Japan, it occasionally serves as a propaganda vehicle for essentially racist but basically annoying Nihonjinron views. They also couldn't help remarking in their June 2011 issue, "Because of the Great Eastern Japanese Earthquake, many non-Japanese left Tokyo, which hadn't suffered any radiation poising itself. Ironically, those who fled Japan were exposed to more radiation on the flights out that they took. " (From the Editorial Desk).

One month prior, in their paradoxically exclamatory May issue article "How the Japanese media Calmly reported on the Great Disaster! ", they wrote , "most of the foreign media sensationally reported on the Tohoku region's complete devastation and the risks at the Fukushima nuclear power plant as if all of Japan was at peril".

- In progress -