Fukushima 1-Year Anniversary NYT Coverage

WIT Life is a periodic series written by professional Writer/Interpreter/Translator Stacy Smith (Kumamoto-ken CIR, 2000-03). She starts her day by watching Fujisankei’s newscast in Japanese, and here she shares some of the interesting tidbits and trends together with her own observations.

Tomorrow’s one-year anniversary of the earthquake/tsunami and subsequent nuclear meltdown in Fukushima gives us a lot to reflect on.  Not only the status of the recovery/reconstruction efforts, but also domestic policies being updated based on lessons learned from the accident.  In light of this, the New York Times has recently had some interesting articles addressing many of these issues.

The first set comes from Martin Fackler, who has been covering the aftermath of the disaster, particularly regulatory issues and changing Japanese attitudes toward nuclear power.  In today’s article he addresses the pre-Fukushima collusion that existed between the nuclear industry and its regulators, and how it may have hindered prevention of what happened as well as the government’s current efforts to remedy this.  In yesterday’s article, he discusses how all but two of Japan’s 54 nuclear reactors have been shut down, and how the country is grappling trying to replace the much needed energy supply that they provided.

An article this morning from Hiroko Tabuchi focuses on economic developments in the disaster area.  She highlights the pursuit of overseas investors, particularly from China.  In an attempt to lure foreign business, the central government has designated “special disaster reconstruction zones” that offer incentives and tax breaks to new investors.  However, the closing quote from a consultant at Accenture which just set up shop in Fukushima reveals true aspirations: “Investment from China is fine, but ultimately, we want to be more like Silicon Valley.”