Tsunami-hit towns still barren

meanwhile, Abe and his attention seeking acolytes pander to the Olympic committee blowing money left right and centre on an Olympic bid that Japan apparantly "deserves".....

One should hardly be surprised about the lack of progress, seeing that vast sums set aside for the reconstruction were instead blatantly misused for roads down in Okinawa, for promoting Tokyo Skytree etc. And now Abe and his cabinet are pushing to get the Olympics, stressing how much Japan deserves them after the devastation of 3/11. Any chance some people may have their priorities all wrong??? Getting the Olympics yes, but not at the expense of all the displaced folks up in the northeast!

Cold. Heartless perhaps. But I don't support attempts to reconstruct or relocate these towns. The simple fact is that Tohoku is littered with underpopulated towns and villages with empty houses up for grabs. These communities should be encouraged to move on.

Wait... you're saying Okinawa's had money spent on its roads? Apart from the 58? Got to try and find them somewhere.

They should have taken the IOC members to these places to see how Japan has recovered and deserves the Olympics.

You know, I want to become angry about this, but im tired. And after 6 years, they will still have no new houses for these evacuees. It is absolutely dreadful

B-b-b-b-but Tokyo 'deserves' the 2020 Olympics because Japan has recovered, no? This can't be right!

This Sato dude must be out of the loop. Doesn't he know this:

Tokyo deserves to host the 2020 Summer Olympics so that it can show the world how Japan has recovered since 2011’s earthquake, tsunami and nuclear disasters, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said Wednesday.

MiuraAnjinMar. 08, 2013 - 08:24AM JST

Cold. Heartless perhaps. But I don't support attempts to reconstruct or relocate these towns. The simple fact is that Tohoku is littered with underpopulated towns and villages with empty houses up for grabs. These communities should be encouraged to move on.

This is the unspoken thinking in Kasumigaseki. North eastern Japan developed from the 1886s, with the development of trans Pacific trade.

The future trade hotspot will be Asiatic trade, with China and Russia, and the truth is that Japanese government officials would really like these people and japan's resources to be directed towards the west coast of Japan. However nobody has the cajones to come out and say it in public.

This is the unspoken thinking in Kasumigaseki. North eastern Japan developed from the 1886s, with the development of trans Pacific trade.

It developed from fishery, which has been in decline.

Gov't plans to spend Y10 tril on public works in 15 months

By Tomasz Janowski and Kaori Kaneko

Politics Feb. 24, 2013 - 03:00PM JST ( 53 )

TOKYO

What do you buy the nation that already seems to have everything?

Please read the JT topic listed above and then compare the photos here. It is overwhelmingly sad and my heart aches for these victims. Yet, Abe thinks Japan deserves the Tokyo Olympic Games. I believe that Japan is a broken tapestry.

Does anyone want to live in tsunami-prone area? Earthquake and tsunami come periodically to Tohoku. If you build a town in that wiped out area, it will be wiped out again in a hundred years or two. What we learned in March 2011 was seawalls are no defense against tsunami. I think it a good idea not to re-build a town there. We should build a town in a place which is safe from tsunami, and there are a lot of such places in Tohoku.

The dozens of temporary housing camps built for tsunami survivors were meant to be used for just two years. Now, officials are saying it could be six to 10 years before all are resettled.

6-10 years? WTF!!! Just in time for the Olympics that Japan 'deserves'.

CH3CHO - The article is an example of shallow gaijin reporting.

And, your comment is an example of ambiguous racism and ignorance!

CH3CHO. You have a point. There are stone markers on some of the mountain sides facing the sea. They are from years past and they warn of building below that point. There will be more tsunamis in the same place in the future just as there were in the past. Does not seem very prudent to build in the tsunami prone areas, does it?

This is the unspoken thinking in Kasumigaseki.

If it is unspoken where and how did you hear it? Speculations do not help anyone here. What is clear is that laws and regulations have to be changed, adapted to resolve the problems and meet the new needs of the region. The sectionism in the ministries, the understaffed local government offices and their unwillingness to take risks (making them wait for the decisions to be made by the central government in Tokyo), etc. etc. will unfortunately keep the process slow.

But I like the words of the 81-year old Ms. Sato “This is our town and so we need to rebuild it using our own efforts. I feel we shouldn’t be relying on the government to do it.” In some countries there is a saying " Help yourself so that God can help you too." I believe it is applicable in the case of Tohoku. If people just sit around and wait for the government to do something for them, they are set for a long, long wait. If those same people get more vocal, organize groups to seek action and urge both the local and central governments to work, they can expect sooner and better results.

When the tsunami came, the ordinary people showed amazing solidarity and immediately began organising themselves for survival and rescue. It is so sad that such positive action cannot be matched by the nation's government. It's like these folk don't really matter because Japan has other things to do like win an Olympic bid that it does not deserve.

The Olympics are a waste of money anyway. How much money was spent on that opening ceremony in London that could have been spent on better things?

Meanwhile, New Orleans made a rapid and steady recovery from Katrina, and it's basically back to normal (well, as "normal" as New Orleans can be).

Maybe Japan can learn from America in terms of motivation, efficiency and pulling together.

JeffLee, are you saying that we should re-build a town in tsunami prone area? What are you going to do when the next tsunami hit the re-build town? Major tsunami hit Tohoku in 2011, 1933, 1896, 1861, 1835, 1793, and so on.

Looks like they are the forgotten ones! Sad indeed!

The worst part about all this is that if Tokyo gets the Olympics they'll broadcast on TV or message boards a thanks to those who suffered from 2011 without acknowledging those people still won't have the tools to see the message. Come on... really.... it's for them?