While Japan might have been the one country in the world best prepared to deal with a magnitude 9.0 earthquake, it’s not clear if the country has the political system needed to rebuild. From stories about bureaucratic ineptitude to policies that might be influenced by xenophobia, it’s clear that Japan’s institutions might be botching their own recovery.
A friend of mine in Japan shared the following image on twitter of a road which was damaged by the earthquake and is now almost entirely repaired: (the image has been making its way around other blogs and forums on the internet).
While there are some problems with the image (for a start there is no “Tokiwa Prefecture”, but a Tokiwa city within Fukushima prefecture) in this case, the source on the image is authentic: it’s from a press release from the East Nippon Expressway Company. Other similar “Before/After” shots can be seen here.
This is clearly Japan at its best, responding quickly and efficiently to the crisis with the knowledge and resources available. While this is laudable, what good are working roads if red tape is holding up delivering the supplies? A news report in The Yomiuri Shimbun describes how some tanker trucks are having difficulty delivering fuel due to lacking the proper permits:
Tanker trucks carrying gas, light oil, heating oil and other essential fuel have been able to be certified as emergency vehicles by the police since Sunday. But many transport companies were not properly notified, meaning some trucks unnecessarily took gridlocked national roads or gave up on reaching the disaster region entirely. Some trucking companies have complained of difficulty getting pass permits.
“Tanker trucks can be easily recognized [as emergency vehicles],” Nippon Keidanren Chairman Hiromasa Yonekura said Wednesday. “[The government] shouldn’t insist on rigidly sticking to regulations. Flexibly is needed to quickly get aid to afflicted areas.”
It is the classic story of Japan at its worst: government bureaucrats being inflexible and rule-bound in the face of a disaster which demands quick thinking and initiative.
This adherence to protocol makes an appearance in all aspects of the Japanese recovery. Consider this story in The Japan Times about the restrictions being placed on foreign medical workers coming to Japan to provide assistance. It’s clear that even though Japan would benefit from the assistance, that the government is still limiting what those helping can do.
Although it is illegal for doctors without Japanese medical licenses to practice, the health ministry has sent a notice to local governments in Iwate, Miyagi and Fukushima prefectures saying the minimum necessary medical procedures may be taken by foreign doctors, given the unprecedented catastrophe.
According to a health ministry official, this was only the second time he was aware of that such a notice had been sent out. The last time was in 1995 after the Great Hanshin Earthquake, which claimed the lives of over 6,000 people.
…
The doctors who have foreign medical licenses will be able to give treatment only in disaster areas, Sato said, adding that the doctors would likely be focusing on giving first-aid assistance to the injured.
In a time of unprecedented emergency, is now really the time to impose strict restrictions such as this? While there may be practical reasons (possibly the language barrier) it’s hard not to read this and suspect that the real driver behind the policy is Japanese xenophobia.
It’s been the response of the government itself and its dealings with TEPCO, the company which manages the Fukushima nuclear power plant, which have been most frustrating. A friend of mine in Tokyo contacted me on the Monday after the earthquake telling me about her situation:
I’m so worried about the nuclear power plant. the government suddenly stopped telling us what is happening. which is always not a good sign.
That was only on Monday. The Daily Yomiuri reports that the government was slow to get TEPCO to inform them of what the status of the reactor was until nearly four days after the fact:
Things changed drastically a day later, Saturday afternoon: A hydrogen explosion blew off all but the framework of the No. 1 reactor’s external containment structure.
Nonetheless, in a press conference five hours after the blast, Edano [Chief Cabinet Secretary]continued stressing that the reactor’s inner components were “kept under control,” repeating that the public should “act calmly.”
It was not until Sunday morning that TEPCO informed the Fukushima prefectural government’s disaster countermeasures headquarters that the No. 3 reactor cooling system had stopped functioning. The firm at that time did not provide any detailed information about radiation levels in areas surrounding the plant.
Each time problems with the nuclear plant took a new turn, Edano held a press conference, but always came up short of providing specific details about what was going on. TEPCO, for its part, made a point of parroting Edano’s words, a far-from-responsible position for the company, which should have been expected to offer intelligible explanations about the quake-hit nuclear facility.
This story of Japan’s political class being unable to give a forthright explanation of the problems facing the country is not a new one. The New York Times reported on this Wednesday but it has been the subject of numerous bestselling books.
Immediately after the earthquake, I praised Japan for being prepared. It’s only fair to condemn them if they are botching the recovery effort. It’s a shame that the policies and structural habits which seem to be harming Japan at this very moment are the same ones which have plagued the country after the bubble burst and the nation began its ‘lost decades’.
Follow Noah on Twitter: @noahkgreen