Monsicha Hoonsuwan

Senior Capstone

Professor DeLaet

Liberalism Op-Ed

April 19, 2011

Radiation Scare Threatens Japanese Livelihood

“It’s all over for Fukushima produce,” mumbled a 64-year-old farmer from

Fukushima after hearing the Japanese government’s ban on all produce from the

prefecture due to radiation concern. The farmer lost all hope—the hope he had gathered

after seeing his 7,500 heads of organic cabbages survive the deadly quake. His cabbages

had gained a reputation of being safe and having high quality, thanks to 10 years spent

perfecting seeding, mulch and soil. Now, it meant nothing. And the farmer hung himself.

The fear of contamination caused by the radiation leak at Fukushima Daiichi

nuclear power plant—the consequence of the 9.0-magnitude earthquake that rocked Japan

earlier this year—has caused a food crisis in the country with a 40 percent food security

ratio. Stores are running out of meal staples like natto, Japanese fermented soybeans, and

instant noodles. Such scarcity is partly a result of the Japanese heartland being struck by

the earthquake and the 10-metre tsunami. But—perhaps a more important reason—Japan

has always struggled to feed its 127-million population and has been reliant on food

imports; food security issue is nothing new for the only developed Asian country. In fact,

in 2009, Japan imported over $40 billion worth of agricultural products, making it the

third-largest agricultural importer in the world. What’s new is the radiation scare. Food

safety, the radiation contaminated produce in this case, has made Japan’s continuing food

insufficiency worse.

The story of a 63-year-old farmer is a good and tragic example of how food safety

concerns can severely jeopardize food security in the globalized economy. His case is

only the beginning. While the earthquake and the tsunami have directly affected many

farmers and fishermen, more worrisome consequences are yet to come. Japanese

agricultural sector, though does not produce food mainly for exports, will find it

increasingly more difficult to feed the country. Sure, the gap between demand and supply

of food will be met by imports from the U.S., Thailand and China. But can Japanese

citizens afford skyrocketing food prices as a result of scarce supply and higher

transportation costs? Moreover, is Japan economy strong enough to substitute local

produces with foreign imports? Poorer people in Japan will be heavily affected by rising

food costs, worsening food security condition for a large part of the country’s population.

The radiation scare is causing Japanese people to move away from local produce,

especially spinach, since the government has announced the ban. Ironically, the

government’s attempt to alleviate the fears by conducting tests and informing the citizens

which products are free of contamination have resulted in adverse effects. Ian Buruma,

the author of A Japanese Mirror, Inventing Japan, and The Wages of Guilt: Memories of

War in Germany and Japan, says the bureaucratic system in Japan, where tight-knitted

bureaucrats holding the policy-making power, has been accused of hiding information

from the public. This isn’t unwarranted. Under the Liberal Democratic Party’s (LDP)

government, Japanese bureaucrats were exercising power to make sure the growth of

Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO)—the owner of Fukushima Daiichi—was

unconstrained by other government policies. However, TEPCO has had a history of being

dishonest; it was reported that TEPCO submitted false report to the government about the

dangerous flaws at its nuclear facilities before. The strong link between TEPCO and

Japanese bureaucrats fuels skepticism. Japanese people doubt the government’s report on

food safety, thinking it might downplay the actual risks of contamination. Japanese

consumers then make a blanket decision to not purchase any products from the entire

affected prefectures. “When the Japanese government prohibited the sale of spinach from

Ibaraki prefecture, south of Fukushima, this created the overall perception that produce

from Ibaraki could be a health risk,” wrote Mark Notaras for United Nations University’s

Our World 2.0. The ban not only stops Japanese people from purchasing food that are

safe, but also worsening food shortages, escalating the country’s reliance on imports.

News travel fast in this connected, globalized world, but not all of the information

pertaining to the nuclear crisis at Fukushima is being conveyed to the global public. Bans

on Japanese fresh produces spring up in several countries. In the U.S., for example,

Whole Foods, a giant health food market, is taking precautions by urging their sushi

suppliers to stop sourcing ingredients from Japan altogether. Such a decision ignores the

fact that Japanese cabbage farmers 300 miles away from Fukushima are producing the

exact same high-quality vegetables. It also ignores the fact that on April 4, Taiwan’s

Atomic Energy Council tested 721 Japanese food samples for radiation and found no

dangers. Decreasing international and domestic demand means Japanese farmers are

under threat of going bankrupt. At the same time, Japanese people are facing self-

inflicted food shortages and rising food costs that will leave underprivileged citizens with

a level of hunger not seen since World War II. All due to an unwarranted fear.