KAZE, February 2021
Let’s apply lessons we learned
Konoe FUJIMURA
It is ten years since the Eastern Japan Great Earthquake and the following
Fukushima nuclear accident took place on March 11, 2011. I do not have firsthandexperience of the disaster, but still, I cannot forget the fear and the feel of crisis.
At that time, the word “beyond expectation” was frequently used.
However, big earthquakes took place repeatedly in this country since old times.
Specifically for Fukushima, scientific data expected a huge tsunami. The TEPCO
experts and related people, if they were sensible enough, could have foreseen theaccident. But the members of the closed group called “the nuclear community”
were overconfident of the strength of the nuclear generation plant, neglectedscientific data, and did not take necessary measures. The economy-first attitude
promoted their negligence. The Japanese government has been overseen such
attitude of TEPCO and did not provide information appropriately to the public,
partly because nuclear power generation is a national project. This criticalnegligence brought about that catastrophic accident, suffering not only the peopleof Fukushima but all succeeding generations. This is a man-made disaster, butstill, political responsibilities are blurred. The responsibility of TEPCO is not clear
even today. Some people are still having difficulties in their daily life but noreasonable solution has been provided as of today.
Nowadays, the government started to shift toward a decarbonizedsociety, but even such a seemingly positive trend conceals a potential danger.
Nuclear power generation remains on the policy agenda and the current
government is secretly moving forward to continue the plant. Uncontrollable
nuclear technology and irresponsible/unethical inward-looking nuclear policy......
How can we trust such a government?
We all must have learned from Fukushima how dangerous nuclear power
generation is and how precious it is to be able to lead a normal daily life. Now,

after ten years from the terrible accident, how many of us still remember what wefelt at that time and apply a lesson learned from that experience?
We are now suffering from the COVID-19 pandemic all over the world.
Again, this is what we could have expected from what we learned in the past.
According to Prof. Taro Yamamoto of the Institute of Tropical Medicine, Nagasaki
University, various viruses have been existing on this planet well before theappearance of human beings and pandemics will take place when we fail to dowell with the virus. However, economic globalization has been impelling landdevelopment and we might have stepped into the area where we should notinvade.
Again, the economy-first policy of our government (previous and current
governments reduced the number of local public healthcare centers) broughtabout healthcare collapse and many overwhelmed hospitals. It seems that thegovernment is trying to balance the economy and our lives! Unfortunately, someof us citizens are taking unethical attitudes, too. They seem to forget that ouractions form our own society, and are taking egoistic or discriminatory attitudes
toward those infected by the COVID-19. (Things are the same for the victims ofFukushima.)
In the meantime, climate disasters took place in various parts of theworld. Again, this is a man-made disaster which is the natural consequence of thescience-belittling economy-first attitude and of the insatiable human desire forwealth deeply ingrained in current political, social, and economic spheres.
However, the climate disasters are slightly different from the Fukushima
and the COVID-19. While the latter two occurred suddenly, in a sense, andtherefore the government could only take ex-post measures, the climate risk isforeseeable and there is room to take co-beneficial measures. For example, anorderly increase in renewable energy generation will help reduce nuclear energy
generation. Freezing excessive land development or efforts to prevent permafrost
in the polar region from melting will reduce the possible appearance of new
infectious diseases. We don't have much time left, but at least we have somemore time to discuss and take action. It is time that we apply what we learned
from the Fukushima disaster and the COVID-19 pandemic.

The government of Japan should develop clear-sighted policies based on
IPCC’s accumulated scientific knowledge. They need to recognize the closedness
and the limitation of the industry-academia-government commissions and seek
collaboration with NPOs/NGOs. Citizen participation would be a key to democratic
policymaking, and NGOs/NGOs could provide the government with a profoundknowledge base on their abundant on-site experiences and above-interest
attitudes.
The corona pandemic and recent big natural disasters highlighted theimportant role of local governments. For climate risk management, too, local
government and community people should work together to come up with thebest available policies for their own community life.
When developing implementation plans, the current system of theeconomy should be reconsidered because it is not sustainable. As we observed in
the past months, the COVID-19 curfew brought about bankruptcy or businesscutback, forcing many people to lose jobs. The measures taken will eventually
expand gaps and inequality among us. It is almost impossible to start up a
decarbonized society based on a growth-oriented existing economy.
The government of Japan, as stated in its long-term strategy, heavily
relies on technological development to achieve the goal of realizing a decarbonizedsociety. However, technologies will not solve all problems. Mega technologiesbacked by politics and capitals, or such unproven new technologies as Climate
Engineering should not be employed without enough deliberations. Rather,
existing solid technologies should be selected through close examinations to makesure if it is controllable and if it really makes people happy.
More importantly, we should look into our own lives and choose what isreally important and what brings us real happiness. Helping each other andsharing altruistic values are something that we definitely need. We must recognizethat the economy-first attitude and our endless material desire will generate social
disparities and confusion, and end up afflicting people all over the world. We haveto change our lives now and we have to do our best to make a change. Of cause,
education should be the basis of all these attempts to change our society.

Since Prime Minister Suga's pledge last October to eliminate net CO2
emissions by 2050, both national and local government officials are busy
formulating new business plans to comply with the pledge. At this critical
moment, I would like to say out loud that we should not leave everything togovernment officials and experts, but learn and think altogether, and participate indiscussions to realize the society that we want. It is the very nature of democracy.
Let's join local discussions for a sustainable future.