Rebuilding Fukushima

207 Pages·2017·0.89 MB·English

by  Mitsuo Yamakawa

Rebuilding Fukushima
Five years after the one of the worst nuclear accidents in history, Fukushima now
only occasionally headlines national and international media. However, the disas-
ter is far from over, as evidenced by a hundred thousand people from Fukushima
still in the state of evacuation, rising levels of radiation in streams and rivers, and
failing attempts to control the leakage of radioactive materials at the Fukushima
Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant. Despite these dismal conditions, efforts to recover
and rebuild livelihoods in the afflicted regions of Fukushima did start immedi-
ately after the outset of the accident.
Rebuilding Fukushima gives an account of how citizens, local governments,
and businesses responded to and coped with the crisis of Fukushima. It addresses
principles to guide reconstruction and international policy environments in which
the current disaster is situated. It explores how reconstruction is articulated and
experienced at different spatial scales, ranging from individuals to communities
and municipalities, and details recovery efforts, achievements, and challenges in
the realms of public transportation, agriculture and food production, manufac-
turing industries, retail sectors, and renewable-energy industries. The book also
critically investigates the nature of the current reconstruction policy schemes, and
seeks to articulate what may be required in order to achieve more sustainable and
equitable (re)development in afflicted regions and other nuclear host regions.
Drawing on extensive fieldwork and local surveys, this volume is one of the
first books in English that captures the knowledge and insights of native Japanese
social scientists who dealt with the complexities of nuclear disaster on a day-to-
day basis. It will be of great interest to students and scholars of disaster-manage-
ment studies and nuclear policy.
Mitsuo Yamakawa is Professor of Economic Geography at Teikyo University
and Extraordinary Professor of the Fukushima Future Center for Regional
Revitalization (FURE) at Fukushima University.
Daisaku Yamamoto is Associate Professor of Geography and Asian Studies at
Colgate University, Hamilton, New York. His recent work focuses on community
resilience, regional inequality, and uneven development.
Routledge Studies in Hazards, Disaster Risk and Climate
Change
Series Editor: Ilan Kelman, Reader in Risk, Resilience and Global
Health at the Institute for Risk and Disaster Reduction (IRDR) and
the Institute for Global Health (IGH), University College London
(UCL).
This series provides a forum for original and vibrant research. It offers contributions from
each of these communities as well as innovative titles that examine the links between
hazards, disasters and climate change, to bring these schools of thought closer together.
This series promotes interdisciplinary scholarly work that is empirically and theoretically
informed, with titles reflecting the wealth of research being undertaken in these diverse
and exciting fields.
Published:
Cultures and Disasters
Understanding cultural framings in disaster risk reduction
Edited by Fred Krüger, Greg Bankoff, Terry Cannon, Benedikt Orlowski
and E. Lisa F. Schipper
Recovery from Disasters
Ian Davis and David Alexander
Men, Masculinities and Disaster
Edited by Elaine Enarson and Bob Pease
Unravelling the Fukushima Disaster
Edited by Mitsuo Yamakawa and Daisaku Yamamoto
Rebuilding Fukushima
Edited by Mitsuo Yamakawa and Daisaku Yamamoto
Climate Hazard Crises in Asian Societies and Environments
Edited by Troy Sternberg
Rebuilding Fukushima
Edited by Mitsuo Yamakawa and
Daisaku Yamamoto
First published 2017
by Routledge
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and by Routledge
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Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2017 selection and editorial matter, Mitsuo Yamakawa and Daisaku
Yamamoto; individual chapters, the contributors
The right of Mitsuo Yamakawa and Daisaku Yamamoto to be identified as
the authors of the editorial material, and of the authors for their individual
chapters, has been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the
Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or
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Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or regis-
tered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation with-
out intent to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Names: Yamakawa, Mitsuo, 1947-editor. | Yamamoto, Daisaku, editor.
Title: Rebuilding Fukushima / edited by Mitsuo Yamakawa and Daisaku
Yamamoto.
Description: Abingdon, Oxon ; New York, NY : Routledge, 2017. | Includes
index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2016036626| ISBN 9781138193796 (hardback) | ISBN
9781315639147 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Fukushima Nuclear Disaster, Japan, 2011. | Radioactive
pollution–Japan–Fukushima-ken. | Radioactive waste sites–Cleanup–
Japan–Fukushima-ken. | Environmental disasters–Japan–Fukushima-ken. |
Fukushima-ken (Japan)–Environmental conditions.
Classification: LCC TK1365.J3 R44 2017 | DDC 363.17/9970952117–dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016036626
ISBN: 978-1-138-19379-6 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-315-63914-7 (ebk)
Typeset in Times New Roman
by Sunrise Setting Ltd, Brixham, UK
Contents
List of figures vii
List of tables ix
List of contributors x
Preface and acknowledgments xiii
Map of Fukushima Prefecture xviii
Introduction 1
MITSUO YAMAKAWA AND DAISAKU YAMAMOTO
1 F ive principles for the reconstruction of the nuclear
disaster-afflicted areas 8
MITSUO YAMAKAWA AND KATSUMI NAKAI
2 International efforts to support disaster risk reduction 27
SATORU MIMURA
3 C hallenges of just rebuilding: case studies of Iitate Village
and Tomioka Town, Fukushima Prefecture 39
AKIHIKO SATO
4 W hy do local residents continue to use potentially contaminated
stream water after the nuclear accident? A case study of Kawauchi
Village, Fukushima 53
TAKEHITO NODA
5 S ecuring mobility in the nuclear disaster-afflicted region: a case
study of Minami-Soma 69
ITSUKI YOSHIDA
6 Toward effective radioactivity countermeasures for agricultural
products 86
HIDEKI ISHII
vi Contents
7 R esilience of local food systems to the Fukushima nuclear disaster:
a case study of the Fukushima Soybean Project 99
TAKASHI NORITO
8 I mpacts of the disaster and future tasks for the recovery of small
and medium-sized manufacturing firms in Fukushima 116
TOSHIO HATSUZAWA
9 Bringing businesses back, bringing residents back: efforts and
challenges to restore commerce in formerly evacuated areas 133
AKIRA TAKAGI AND MASAYUKI SETO
10 R enewable-energy policies and economic revitalization in
Fukushima: issues and prospects 148
YOSHIO OHIRA
11 Beyond developmental reconstruction in post-Fukushima Japan 164
DAISAKU YAMAMOTO AND MITSUO YAMAKAWA
Index 182
Figures
2.1 Number of disasters in the world and associated damages 28
2.2 O utcome, goals, and priorities of the Hyogo Framework for
Action 2005–2015 31
2.3 O utcome, goals, and priorities of the Sendai Framework for
Disaster Risk Reduction 2015–2030 33
3.1 S tructure of the problems faced by evacuees, revealed through
town meetings in Tomioka 46
4.1 Sawa community and Yamanokami water system 58
5.1 Map of Minami-Soma 70
5.2 Timeline of evacuation orders and evacuation zones 71
5.3 Operation of the “Jumbo Taxi” 76
6.1 M odel distributions for the contamination of radioactive
materials in food 88
6.2 Tools of soil-radiation measurement 89
6.3 Transfer coefficients for different crops 92
6.4 E ffects of exchangeable potassium in soil on the level of
cesium in rice 93
7.1 Concept of industrial links on food and agriculture 102
7.2 Local food systems damaged by the nuclear disaster 104
7.3 T rends of agricultural output and food-manufacturing
production and shipment values in Fukushima Prefecture 104
7.4 The Fukushima Soybean Project illustrated 106
7.5 Trends in raw procurement volume and product sales for FSP 107
7.6 Uchiike Jozo factory just after the disaster (March 11, 2011) 109
7.7 Number of members registered with the FSP 111
7.8 Inspection systems at the FSP 111
8.1 C hanges in sales, employment, firms in the manufacturing
industry in Minami-Soma City 119
8.2 E stimated values of damage to properties as a result of the
disaster 125
8.3 Obstacles to the resumption of operation 126
viii Figures
8.4 Changes in sales and investment among manufacturing firms in
Haramachi 126
9.1 M ajor facilities around Kawauchi Village before the Great
East Japan Earthquake Disaster 137
10.1 Changes in certified capacity and operation rate for solar-power
generation in Fukushima Prefecture 154
10.2 Schematic image of chisan-chisho (local production for local
consumption) for energy in the seven regions of Fukushima
Prefecture 159
11.1 Scenes of Tomioka Town in June 2016 164
11.2 Landscapes of decontamination bags 167
Tables
4.1 T imeline of events pertaining to Kawauchi Village immediately
after the earthquake 56
4.2 Events leading up to the call for return 56
4.3 Status of Yamanokami water usage and evacuee return
(August, 2014) 59
4.4 Yamanokami water-supply association: duty roster
(January 2011–March 2014) 63
5.1 Y early population by residence type in the city of
Minami-Soma 72
5.2 Changes in trip-related behaviors after the nuclear accident 75
5.3 D amage from the disaster and restoration of service by local public
bus operators in Ofunato and Minami-Soma 78
5.4 C hanges in the number of large-size motor vehicle, second-class
license holders and their average ages 81
6.1 Results of Total-Volume-All-Bag Testing between 2012 and 2015 96
8.1 Changes in the evacuation orders that pertain to Minami-Soma City 122
8.2 Resumption of production by major companies 123
8.3 C apacity utilization rates by manufacturing establishments in
Haramachi, compared to the pre-disaster levels 127
8.4 Number of employees, by category, of studied establishments,
2011–2014 128
8.5 P revious work experience of employees who were hired after
the disaster, 2014 129
8.6 Wage differentials before and after the disaster 130
9.1 Population change in Kawauchi Village 136
9.2 C hanges in business conditions of retail stores in Kawauchi
Village (August, 2012) 141
10.1 C hanges in FIT surcharge based on the German Renewable
Energy Purchase Law 152
10.2 A pproved solar power-generation projects and implementing
agencies in Japan 157