Japan Press Weekly

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2011 June 8 - 14 [GREAT EAST JAPAN DISASTER]

Three months after the 3.11 disaster

Editorial (excerpts)

Three months have passed since the March 11 massive earthquake and the resultant nuclear accident at TEPCO’s Fukushima plant. Nearly 100,000 people are still forced to endure lives of inconvenience at evacuation centers. Despite efforts to continue on with their daily lives, they are far short of obtaining full-fledged recovery. There even seems to be no certain prospect for an end to the on-going nuclear crisis.

Disaster sufferers are attempting to restore their lives either in temporary dwellings or in their own homes. However, many choose to stay in shelters because once they get out of there, their access to necessary information, relief supplies, or food will be difficult.

The disaster areas are enveloped in clouds of dust because of the ongoing salvage work to remove the debris. Their farmland, fishing ports, and small factories still remain untouched. In Miyagi, fishermen are angry at their authorities for seeking to invite private businesses to enter into the local fishing industry by taking advantage of disaster reconstruction plans.

The central government consistently leaves every measure needed to cope with the nuclear crisis to TEPCO. It even leaves the question of payment of compensation to TEPCO. Evacuees’ frustrations are approaching the limit. At the very least, the government should come up with a specific timetable for when they will be able to go home and resume their livelihoods.

At the Diet in Tokyo, the Democratic Party, the Liberal Party, and the Komei Party are eager to have a basic reconstruction law enacted without guaranteeing the appropriate recovery of victims’ livelihoods and local communities. The first supplementary budget will run short of funds to relieve all victims, but they are shelving for now the start of discussions on the second supplementary budget. What they are engaged in instead is a political fight to protect their party interests. Ignoring the disaster victims, they are contemplating forming a grand coalition on the one hand and are looking forward to the resignation of the present prime minister on the other.

The need now is for all political parties to cooperate to work for victims’ support and bring the nuclear disaster under control as quickly as possible.