Category Archives: Commentary

A JET’s Experience in Fukushima

Posted on

I’m a first year JET in Inawashiro-machi, Fukushima-ken. I’m about 100km inland from the nuclear reactor.

When the earthquake hit I had just finished graduation at one of my junior high schools. I got an early warning message on my keitai, which didn’t happen for the fore-shock two days previously, so I knew this one was going to be big. The whole school shook and pictures fell off the wall. All the students had gone home after graduation (we thought) so it was just the teachers left. Most remained calm but some were visibly frightened. After a minute or so the vibrations started to get more violent and we decided to get outside. Some teachers tried to stay in the staffroom to stop large bookcases toppling over which amazed me. The earthquake must have lasted around 2 or 3 minutes. Just before it finished a student came running out of the school. She had been in one of the classrooms by herself and was crying. Everyone was shocked as nobody knew she was still there.
Read More

Japan’s Aging Population: What’s the Solution?

Posted on

A stooped over elderly woman working her family’s rice paddy, and the dreaded K-Truck with it’s orange and yellow sticker. Two images most of us see on a daily basis here in Fukui, indeed, seen throughout Japan now. But few of us pay note to how often it is a sight repeated. Stop, and take a good look at the people around you (preferably not in school as that defeats the purpose of this exercise) and chances are you’ll see how old the community you live in actually is.

Japan is an ageing nation and it’s not being balanced out by an equal birthrate. Add restrictive immigration policies and what you have before you is a nation whose population is predicted to decrease by two-thirds from 127 Million to 40 Million within the next 100 years. This will cause both economic and social problems for the country and its people. But what is the solution?
Read More