×

Our award-winning reporting has moved

Context provides news and analysis on three of the world’s most critical issues:

climate change, the impact of technology on society, and inclusive economies.

What's happened to Japan's tsunami survivors?

by megan-rowling | @meganrowling | Thomson Reuters Foundation
Wednesday, 3 August 2011 16:44 GMT

* Any views expressed in this opinion piece are those of the author and not of Thomson Reuters Foundation.

Tens of thousands of survivors are still displaced, many living in evacuation centres or hotels

A visit by the U.N. secretary-general to Japan's tsunami-hit northeastern region could draw valuable international attention back to the survivors of the Asian nation's triple disaster.

Nearly five months after a 9-magnitude quake triggered a huge tsunami that devastated towns and villages along the coast and sparked a nuclear crisis in Fukushima, tens of thousands of homeless survivors are still living in evacuation centres in schools and other public buildings, or in hotels, waiting for suitable accommodation.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon leaves on Saturday for Japan, where he'll visit Fukushima to see the devastation firsthand.

Ban will go to an evacuation centre and meet students at a high school in Fukushima city, his spokesman said on Tuesday. In Tokyo, he'll meet Prime Minister Naoto Kan and Foreign Minister Takeaki Matsumoto.

Soon after radiation began leaking from Japan's quake-hit Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, the U.N. chief called for a stronger international nuclear safety regime.

The quake and tsunami killed more than 15,500 people and left nearly 5,000 missing. Several thousand more are recovering from injuries.

But since the world's media flooded into the country, beaming back horrific pictures of the destruction, international coverage of the lives of those affected has pretty much dried to a trickle.

These days it's more about the impact on the economy - especially car companies and farming - and the ongoing battle to make Fukushima Daiichi's reactors safe. 

MANY STILL IN LIMBO

Yet for those living amid the rubble of tsunami-hit areas, life is far from back to normal.

As of mid-July, around 91,500 people were still displaced from their homes, staying in evacuation centres, public housing, hotels and other facilities, or with family and friends, according to the Japanese government.

Japanese media say many have yet to move out of evacuation centres because the process of building temporary homes has been beset by problems.

One of the main issues slowing down construction is a lack of suitable land in hilly coastal areas. Some local authorities are reluctant to build prefab homes on prime sites on higher ground near the coast because they will get in the way of reconstruction of permanent houses.

But locating interim houses further away means people don't want to move into them because they aren't close enough to schools and other amenities. Some don't want to lose their entitlement to aid. Others want to stick with the people they know, and stay in their communities.

An aid worker with Church World Service who visited Ishinomaki city in Miyagi prefecture in late June said he saw some shelters built right next to huge mounds of debris, and others located in car parks and school playgrounds.

Nonetheless, the Fukushima prefectural government has said all 557 shelters in the prefecture will shut at the end of October, as alternative accommodation for some 15,000 evacuees is close to being secured, according to Kyodo news agency.

And the BBC reported on Wednesday that people are trying to get on with their lives, even though recovering from the disaster could take decades.

A video report from Kesennuma and Rikuzentakata towns in the disaster zone shows fishermen back on their boats, children playing baseball - despite losing eight of their teammates - and friends planting a garden with sunflowers.

"Just doing this joyful thing together makes me smile," one woman tells BBC reporter Jenny Hill.

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

-->