Cultural Anthropology Blog

 Owen Siegel

                           Cultural Anthropology Blog - Politics In Disaster Japan, Ten Years Later

On March 11th, 2011, many events occurred that later caused the general population of Japan that usually yielded to the government’s word due to its nationalist and capitalist manner to become much less unwilling as to how the government reacted and acted to fatal situations occurring in the country. On March 11th, both a devastating tsunami and the largest earthquake to hit Japan harshly affected the country. Nuclear reactors were also hit and destabilized by the two disasters that occurred on the 11th, leading to long-lasting effects that spread throughout the country of Japan over time. Over 40,000 people were displaced by these disasters, and 23,000 people passed away/went missing. This issue became even more problematic when the government of Japan underestimated the devastating effects on the country. Typically quiet voices from various parts of Japan spoke out on the streets against the way the government was handling the situation, which continued even years after the event. It’s now been a little over 10 years since the events occurred, and the total number of demonstrations within these 10 years has been more than the total number of demonstrations in Japan ever before.

Japan hasn’t only seen a spark of political activism through demonstrations, but also through changes in personal daily activities to both improve the lives of everyone living in Japan, and to show the government that they wouldn’t just sit and do nothing. One example of this mentioned in the article is that farmers who had a distrust for government inspectors that shared radiation measurements with them came together to collect radiation data on their own, both for self-protection and to show the inconsistencies in the government. While all of these protests are both a safe and good way to create awareness within the government, overtime the sparks created by the events that occurred on March 11th have died down, and many early activists have gone back to a nationalist mindset, believing that they must put trust into their country and living in fear won’t solve anything. This isn’t to say that there aren’t any remaining activists, as the message that the government needs to take these events more seriously still continues to be spread throughout Japan. 

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