Jun 29, 2012

Tepco's self-justifying report

Tokyo Electric Power Co. on June 20 released its final report on the disaster at its Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant. Tepco stated that the main cause of the accidents was the enormous scale of the tsunami that hit the plant, saying that ...

Jun 28, 2012

Better disaster planning needed

The Noda Cabinet on June 19 adopted a 2012 white book on disaster prevention that deals with not only the 3/11 earthquake and tsunami and the subsequent Fukushima nuclear crisis but also major earthquakes expected to occur close to the Tokyo metropolitan area and ...

Apr 19, 2012

New worst-case scenario

A panel of the Cabinet Office announced late last month that if a megaquake occurs in the Nankai Trough, a tsunami higher than 20 meters may hit 23 municipalities in six prefectures stretching from Kanto to Shikoku on Japan’s Pacific side. The prediction represents ...

Mar 19, 2012

Preparing for the next big one

A year after the 3/11 earthquake and tsunami devastated the Pacific coastal areas of the Tohoku region, the government and people need to realize that 3/11 will not be the last large-scale natural disaster to hit Japan. The nation needs to prepare for powerful ...

Mar 9, 2012

Mental health must match post-3/11 recovery

by Davinder Kumar

Over the past year, the tsunami-ravaged coastline of Japan’s northeast has undergone a cleanup never seen before in history for its sheer scale and speed. From Ishinomaki to Onagawa, Shichigahama to Kesennuma, the landscape has been drastically altered as the nation presses on with ...