When you think about countries struggling with poverty issues, Japan may not come up at first. However, this country that has such standing in the global economic network is still saddled with the destruction that the devastating tsunami left. Attention from the global media may have shifted elsewhere, yet many in Japan have to deal with the aftereffects of the tsunami/nuclear disaster on a daily basis.

On March 11, 2011, the fifth-largest earthquake ever recorded in the world changed the lives of countless Japanese citizens. A result of the earthquake was the formation of a 130-foot tsunami that crashed the shores of Japan. The giant wave reached six miles inland, causing three nuclear meltdowns at the nation’s Fukushima nuclear power plant.

All these circumstances resulted in $300 billion of damage and the death of 19,000 Japanese people. By all accounts, the natural disaster ranked as one of the worst in world history and would be a challenge for even a country as developed as Japan. The immediate outpouring of relief efforts for Japan was substantial and certainly put the country on a path back to normalcy.

Japan still has a long way to go on that path, though. There are still 270,000 left homeless from the tsunami and Japan is still working to rebuild the million buildings destroyed from the disaster. The country is in the midst of a five-year, $250 billion rebuilding project that will hopefully solve many of the needs that the Japanese face after the tsunami, but there are still new challenges popping up in the aftermath of the nuclear meltdowns.

One of the main worries going forward in Japan is the affect of the tsunami disaster on the nation’s fishing industry. For the island nation, fishing has always been an important factor of the national diet and has been influential economically as well. Extensive testing has been done on fish caught in Japanese waters, and after three years, most of the fish in the area may be caught and sold. However, there are still low levels of radioactivity in some of the fish being caught, and bottom fish like flounder still may not be sold.

Japan may have an enormous trade presence in Asia and the West, that trade presence can not quite offset what ended up being the most costly natural disaster in the history of the world. Issues in the Middle East and in other parts of Asia may have superseded Japan’s tsunami in the eyes of the West, yet in Japan these issues are an everyday struggle. The ongoing rebuilding efforts there exemplify the importance of foreign aid, even where media coverage may not be prevalent.

– Eric Gustafsson

Sources: PBS, Japan Talk, The Star
Photo: BBC