The year of the earthquake and tsunami is how 2011 will be remembered in Japan. No bounen-kai (forget-the-year party) has passed without thoughts of those who lost so much in the triple earthquake-tsunami-nuclear disaster on or after March 11. The powerful 9.0-magnitude earthquake devastated the northeast of Japan and left the country in shock.
More than nine months later, some progress has been made on removing rubble and restoring order in Tohoku, but not nearly enough. The meltdown at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant, in particular, is a serious concern for everyone in Japan, and abroad. A 20-km no-go zone has become a fact of life. Radiation exposure levels are now a regular topic in all Japanese newspapers. Consumers continue to worry about cesium levels in food products. Cleanup of the area has been slow and not helped by the belated, confused responses from Tokyo Electric Power Co. (Tepco).
Revelations that Tepco ignored scientific warnings about the plant and then mishandled the response after the tsunami hit have pushed distrust of nuclear energy to record-high levels. Few of the hundreds of thousands of people evacuated and displaced have completely returned to their former way of life. The ¥1.5 trillion it will take to restructure and effectively nationalize Tepco could be better spent on helping those citizens get on with their lives.