During the decade since the strongest earthquake in Japan’s history caused a 32-foot tsunami that crashed against the east coast, the cleanup effort has become one of the most expensive in the world and has cost up to now about $ 300 billion.
Thousands of people died when the wave hit and more than half a million people were displaced. The worst nuclear accident in the world since Chernobyl was developed when three reactors were blown up at the Fukushima Daiichi plant.
The country expanded its reconstruction budget four times in ten years and has set the equivalent of $ 2,400 per person in Japan to revive Tohoku, the tsunami-affected northeast region, and mitigate nuclear power plant radiation. Although the docks are increasing and the houses are being rebuilt, many people have not returned.
Recovery budget
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Most of the money went to housing reconstruction, the addition of sea docks and the repair of other damaged infrastructure with the aim of recovering people and reviving major industries such as fishing, agriculture. and tourism.
Expenditure by category, 2011-2020 financial year
Infrastructure reconstruction *
Subsidies for damaged cities
Infrastructure reconstruction *
Subsidies for damaged cities
Infrastructure reconstruction *
Subsidies for damaged cities
Infrastructure reconstruction *
Subsidies for damaged cities
The Tohoku region, where 7% of the Japanese population lives, has been experiencing a population decline for more than a generation as young people move to larger cities. Half of the tsunami victims were 65 or older.
In the three tsunami-affected prefectures, Iwate, Miyagi and Fukushima, the collective population has fallen by 6% since the disaster.
Hundreds of miles of docks, some of them up to 50 feet, have climbed along the coast and cost about $ 13 billion. About 80% of the planned 268 miles of docks have been completed.
In Ishinomaki, waves of up to 33 feet traveled more than 3 miles inland and killed more than 3,000 people, including 74 of the 78 children who attended Okawa Elementary School that day. The city is now protected by docks up to 32 feet high.
A 2006 vision of Ishinomaki, the second largest city in Miyagi prefecture, where more than 160,000 people lived when the earthquake and tsunami occurred in March 2011. Some 4,000 people were lost.
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Ishinomaki eight days after the disaster, which destroyed more than 20,000 homes. The city’s economy is based on fishing and fish processing, and the area around the port was heavily populated.
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Ishinomaki in 2020, behind new docks. Memorial parks where houses once stood are being set up in the maritime district of Minamihama, which lost 500 people.
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Ishinomaki, the second largest city in Miyagi prefecture, was home to more than 160,000 people when the earthquake and tsunami occurred on March 11, 2011. Some 4,000 people were lost. Memorial parks where houses once stood are being set up in the maritime district of Minamihama, which lost 500 people. Views of Minamihama in 2006, 2011 and 2020.
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The tsunami crashed more than 1,000 miles offshore, flooding some communities up to 6 miles inland. Some cities saw the widespread destruction of houses, such as Rikuzentakata in Iwate, where 99.5% of houses were damaged. In Ishinomaki, 4,000 people died or are still unaccounted for and 76.6% of all houses in the city were at least partially destroyed.
The Japanese coast of $ 300 billion
The country has spent billions rebuilding houses and erecting docks in the decade since the tsunami devastated more than 1,000 miles of coastline.
Note: Only cities in which the total number of dead and missing exceeds is shown 15050.
Sources: Japan Geospatial Information Authority (flooded area); Fire and Disaster Management Agency (death, disappearance, destruction); Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (evacuation zone); Reconstruction Agency, local governments (annotations); European Space Agency (satellite image); NASA (elevation data)
When the earthquake struck, the Fukushima Daiichi reactors shut down automatically. Safety diesel generators operated the cooling pumps until two tsunami waves flooded the plant and left the generators out. In the following days, the accumulation of hydrogen caused explosions in reactors 1, 2 and 3; a fire broke out on the 4th. Radiation levels increased to 400 millisieverts per hour (people are usually exposed to 2.4 millisieverts per year). The government declared an evacuation zone with a radius of 12.5 miles.
Now, a forest of steel tanks containing more than a million tons of water with radioactive elements grows off the plant. Water circulates through the plant every second keeping the reactors cool, which adds to the problem. The Japanese government and Tokyo Electric Power Co.
, owner of the plant, is studying releasing water with radioactive tritium in the Pacific. They say it is safe and other countries are doing the same in their nuclear plants, but people in the fishing industry are worried.
Officials estimate that there are still 30 years of work left before Fukushima Daiichi is completely dismantled. The biggest task, which has not yet begun, is to remove fuel from reactors 1, 2 and 3. Because the inner parts of the reactors are too radioactive for humans and often inaccessible to robots, they have not yet been fully mapped. or photographed.
Remembering what is sometimes called the “triple disaster” (earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear defeats) is an annual event in Japan. On March 11 this year, the government will hold a ceremony to commemorate the tenth anniversary of the disaster at the Tokyo National Theater, offering a minute of silent prayer at 2:46 p.m., the time the earthquake occurred. Emperor Naruhito and Empress Masako will attend.
—Alex Newman contributed to this article.
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