Multiple Effects of The Tohoku Earthquake on Japanese Agricultural Industry
The Tohoku earthquake on March 11th, 2011
in Japan has had a catastrophic impact on every industry in Tohoku area,
especially in Fukushima and Miyagi prefecture, which are located along the east
coast facing epicenter of the earthquake. Now, 14 months after the disaster,
most of non-agricultural industries seem to be restored by reconstruction of
industrial facilities, recovering population, and continuing aids from the
whole country. Japanese agricultural industry has also suffered from multipul
aftereffects of the earthquake, Tsunami, and a following nuclear disaster;
still, some of these influences is going on, and new effects of the disaster
revealed recently is going to damage Japan’s agricultural industry. In this
essay, these complex effects of the Tohoku earthquake are divided into four
groups in accordance with time axis and relation with the disaster; moreover,
typical and specific examples in each four divisions are introduced.
In a series of disaster, the earthquake
itself and Tsunami was a primary impact on Japanese agricultural industry. The
earthquake and Tsunami devastated the whole primary industry mainly in the east
coast of Tohoku area, destructing agricultural facilities, farmlands, and
fishing vessels; the whole economic loss in the industry by the disaster was
2.34 trillion yen (Fig.1). Moreover, many proficient farmers and fishermen in
coastal areas were killed by Tsunami, for the eastern coastal areas lying from
Iwate to Fukushima prefecture is a main agricultural zone supplying farm
products to Tokyo metropolitan area, where primary industries’ population is
relatively dense.
Figure 1. Economic loss in the primary industry
Industry
|
Amount (billion yen) |
Fishery
|
1,249
|
Farmlands & facilities
|
830
|
Farm products
|
62
|
Forestry
|
198
|
Total
|
2,341
|
Source: About the Tohoku earthquake, par. 2
In addition to these direct damages, the nuclear power plant disaster in
Fukushima prefecture, which is triggered by Tsunami, has released radioactive
materials such as Cesium 137 over Tohoku’s agricultural fields. According to an official report
(Japanese government’s
report for the cabinet conference of the IAEA, page. Ⅵ-1), the total amount of
Cesium 137 spilled from a nuclear reactor was 1.5*1016
becquerel: equivalent to 168.5 times as much as Hiroshima type atomic bomb
(Article on August 25, 2011, par. 3). This is a major indirect impact of the
Tohoku earthquake on the farm sector and have as much damages as the natural
disaster itself.
Both direct and indirect impacts
have caused significant aftereffects on Japan’s agricultural industry which
ranges from temporary disorder to permanent damages which have to be coped with
over generations, as shown in Figure 2. Though it is impossible to deal with
every consequence of the disaster by describing one by one, what has Japan’s
agricultural industry experienced in each of groups of effects, specifically?
Figure 2. Four groups of effects on the agricultural
industry
First, effects at the early stage of the
disaster were of short-term and directly-caused; for example, soil degradation
of farmlands flooded by Tsunami was a first major problem. The total damaged
area which is either flooded or washed away is accounted for by three
prefectures lying along the coast line (Fig. 3). Even after salt
water was removed from farmlands, loss of fertile topsoil and salty soil left
underground have prevented farmers from achieving as much yields as before the
disaster.
Figure 3. Damaged area of farmlands (ha)
Source: Estimation of damaged farmland area by
Tsunami, page. 1
Another directly-caused effect of the
earthquake on the farm sector are concerned about recently, which is a
long-term effect of absence of proficient farmers. Loosing farmers and
fishermen means that empirical skills in cultivation and fishing failed to be
inherited to young generations. Furthermore, even farming know-how with
survived people are going to be lost because many of them have given up to
re-engage in farming for ruined foundation for agricultural productions, such
as eroded farmlands.
On the other hand, radioactive materials
emitted from the nuclear power plant accident, which has indirect but powerful
effects on the agricultural production, cannot be overlooked. A few months
after the accident, it was feared that some farm products in Tohoku area may
have been contaminated with the radioactive. When highly-contaminated farm
products were discovered actually, most of which were juicy items like
mushrooms and vegetables (Radioactive examination of farm products, par. 2),
consumers avoided to buy whatever was produced in Tohoku area, even if they are
strictly examined and turned out to be safe. As a result, such concerns led to
bad reputations of every farm product from Tohoku without any scientific
foundation (Information of the Tohoku earthquake, page. 2).
Finally, an inevitable effect of the radioactive
contamination needs to be referred as a last category of aftereffects of the
disaster. Once radioactive materials spread over fields, it costs huge to
correct and dispose of them; besides, there is no way to neutralize
radioactivity of leaked nuclear fuels artificially, except waiting for them
decomposed for centuries. It is a fact that the soil throughout the Tohoku
region does include relatively higher density of radioactive materials, even
outside a 30 km radius as a evacuate zone (Fig. 4). This suggests that farm products from such a zone may
include comparatively much radioactive materials while those amount is kept
under a safety limit. Although eating farm products from such soil just for a
day does not damage human health, no one knows what happens if doing so for a
lifetime.
Figure 4. Radioactive contamination level of
topsoil
Note: The center of circles is the Fukushima Dai-ichi
nuclear power plant.
The second circle drawn with a
broken line shows the evacuate zone.
Source: Monitoring information of environmental
radioactivity level
To sum up, the Tohoku earthquake has
brought about a various impacts on Japanese agricultural industry which can be
described under four divisions. A short-term impacts are soil degradation in
farmlands directly caused by the earthquake and groundless rumors about
contamination of farm products caused by the following nuclear accident. As for
the long-term impact, it needs to be considered that empirical skills in the
primary industry are going to be loosed, and that soil contamination with
radioactive materials does exist even though most of farmlands do not exceed
permissible amount. Within next few years, Japan has to make a comprehensive
plan to treat these long-term effects which are expected to remain over
generations.
References
About the Tohoku earthquake. Ministry of Agriculture,
Forestry, and Fisheries, Japan.
Retrieved
May 25, 2012.
Japanese government’s report for the cabinet
conference of the IAEA. Prime Minister of
Japan and His Cabinet. Retrieved May 25, 2012.
Article on August 25, 2011. Tokyo Web. Retrieved May 25, 2012.
Estimation of damaged farmland area by Tsunami.
Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, and
Fisheries, Japan. Retrieved May 25, 2012.
Radioactive examination of farm products. Ministry of
Agriculture, Forestry, and Fisheries,
Japan. Retrieved
May 25, 2012.
Information of the Tohoku earthquake. Ministry of
Agriculture, Forestry, and Fisheries,
Japan. Retrieved
May 25, 2012.
Monitoring information of environmental radioactivity
level. Ministry of Education, Culture,
Sports, Science and Technology, Japan. Retrieved May 25, 2012.
http://radioactivity.mext.go.jp/ja/
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