Agricultural Impacts of the Great East Japan Earthquake Six Years Later

Abstract

On March 11, 2011 the strongest ever recorded in Japan earthquake occurred, also known as the Great East Japan Earthquake, which triggered a powerful tsunami and caused a nuclear accident in one of the world biggest nuclear power stations -Fukushima Daichi. More than six years after the triple disaster the overall impacts on Japanese agri-food chains is far from being completely due to the scale of the disasters and the number of affected agents, the effects' multiplicities, spillovers, and long time horizon, the constant evolution of the nuclear crisis, the lack of "full" information and models of analysis, etc. This paper presents updates on the impacts of the March 2011 earthquake, tsunami and Fukushima nuclear accident in Japan on country's agriculture and food sector. First, disaster events and their effects is outlined. Second, impact on farms and agricultural resources is estimated. Third, impact on food industries is assessed. Next, extend of radioactive contamination of agri-food products is presented and effects on markets, consumers and international trade evaluated. Chapter summarises responses of different agents, assesses progress and challenges in post-disaster recovery and reconstruction, and withdraw lessons from the Japanese experiences.

Agri-food Impacts of Fukushima Nuclear Accident - Lessons Learned 10 Years after Disaster

“…All they created new employment and income opportunities in affected regions and Japan. Our survey has found out that major factors for long-term persistence of FNA negative impacts on agriculture are: consumers' unwillingness to buy, long-time required for deactivating radiation, insufficient support from central government, produce low prices, low confidence in official information, lack of information, bad reputation, and little preparedness of public authorities (Bachev and Ito, 2018). The most important factors for food industries are lack of information, consumers' unwillingness to buy, long-time required for deactivating radiation, little preparedness of public authorities, bad reputation, insufficient support from central government, and low confidence in official information.…”

“…The Agri-food sector of Japan was not well prepared for such a big disaster and badly affected by FNA (Bachev, 2014(Bachev, , 2019Bachev and Ito, 2018). Adverse long-term effects on agriculture, food industries, and food consumption are in the following areas: First, enormous production and income reduction due to radiation contamination, mandatory and voluntary shipment restrictions, increased inputs, production and marketing costs, costs of adaptation and implementation of new safety standards, diminished market demands and prices of agri-food products, etc.…”

“…policies, lack of detailed contamination map for all agricultural lands, improper use of extension officers (obtaining samples while suppressing consulting, introducing technology, education), etc. (Bachev and Ito, 2018).…”

“…Food safety measures let Fukushima agri-food products become "safest in the world" but enormous public and private actions to increase safety and transparency have not to recover consumer trust. Demand for agri-food products from affected regions in Japan and internationally stay low due to lack of sufficient capabilities in the inspection system, inappropriate restrictions (initially covering all shipments in prefecture rather than contaminated localities), revealed rare incidences of contamination in commonly safe origins, low confidence in official "safety" limits and inspections, lack of good communication, harmful rumours ("Fu-hyo"), or unauthentic products (Bachev and Ito, 2018;MAFF, 2021). Recent data indicate that despite enormous public support the sales in the fishery and food processing industries have only recovered to 31.2% (70,7% in the construction industry) (FPG, December 2020).…”

“…That worries are enforced by controversial opinions of experts, slow process of decontamination in some areas, the unresolved issue with safe disposal of contaminated debris, deficiency in food safety control, continuing radiation leakages in the nuclear plant, etc. Since FNA complaints and hospitalization have been increasing in Fukushima prefecture (Bachev and Ito, 2018). Nevertheless, the health effects of radiation release are "primarily psychological rather than physical" since many consumers and producers "lose peace of mind" having food with (lower than official safety limit but) radiation contamination.…”