Fukushima 2012

19 months have passed since Japan was victim of one of the biggest natural and nuclear distasters in the last years. After the distaster happened, a lot of work had to be done regarding the reconstruction of the whole infrastructure. Next to the visible destruction, the japanese society had to cope with the unknown effects of the nuclear meltdown and fear of what the future might bring. During the last week I did research on how the situation in Japan is today, after the people have returned to their everyday life.

The probably most obvious effect the catastrophy had was destruction of buildings ans street. After the danger was over and the people could safely return to their villages, the first thing to find out was if they still had a home to return to. Many houses were destroyed and people who have been evacuated had been living in crowded public buildings and shelters for weeks. When they finally were allowed to go back to their homes, most of them were only able to grab some personal belongings from the destroyed buildings.
This short video shows the situation in Ishinomaki as the inhabitants return to the village:

People were scared of the future and most of them still didn't know if or when they could return home. One year after the evacuation process started, over 80,000 citizens still lived in shelters, waiting for their houses to be rebuilt but most of them will never see that happen.

Another problem that came with the reconstruction work was that many families were seperated due to work and living conditions. Many women and children moved to bigger cities where they had better chances of finding a new home and food. Most of the men, however, returned to their villages to help rebuild their former houses or build new ones to provide a new home for their families to return to. The government provided temporary shelter but space was rare and people had to live together very closely for months.

The disaster also added to problems that already existed before, such as the steadily falling birth rate in Japan. Most young couples do not think about starting a family if they do not even have home and food for themselves. In addition, concerns about radiation levels and the knowledge about what happened to the babies that were born after the chernobyl meltdown caused worries amongst the society.

The triple disaster, how it is called, also hat a huge impact on the tourism in the Fukishima Prefection. Most of the beach resorts along the coast were partly or entirely destroyed by the tsunami and the earth quakes. In addition, many tourists cancelled their flights because they were afraid of radiation in the area. According to the Dhaka Courier, arrivals in April 2011 were 62% lower than in the year before. Luckily, however, Japan recovered quite fast from this throwback. By January, the decrease of arrivals only amounted to 4,5% and the numbers are increasing.

Sources: The Ecologist, io9.com, Dhaka Courier