Tsunami: Japan’s Post-Fukushima Future

A special FP ebook for charity. Buy it now for PDF or Kindle, give to the Japan Society.

Featuring the world’s leading Japan watchers. From haunting scenes in the hot zone to the nuclear, political, and economic future of a battered land.

“For the 20 years before this great earthquake disaster, our nation has seemed, in many ways, to be at an impasse. As we overcome the crisis created by this disaster, we must also overcome the preceding crisis, what could be called Japan’s structural crisis.” — Naoto Kan

On March 11, 2011, Japan’s northern coast was shaken by the biggest earthquake ever to strike the island in recorded history. With a gigantic tsunami and the nuclear meltdown that followed, 3/11 was the worst disaster to hit the developed world for a hundred years. Confronted with tough questions about its dependence on nuclear power, about the competence of its leaders both in the private and public sectors, about the economy’s ability to rebound from a shock, the country has been plunged into crisis. After centuries of earthquakes, tsunamis, war, and a long list of other disasters, natural and unnatural, the Japanese people are accustomed to building back stronger — but how do they recover from such a devastating blow, and what will that new future look like?

This unique Foreign Policy ebook, the first to respond to the quake in such depth, assembles an exclusive collection of top writers and scholars working in Japan today to answer these questions. Edited by Temple University’s Jeff Kingston, it showcases some of Japan’s leading writers and thinkers, from prominent journalists like Financial Times Asia-Pacific editor David Pilling to former Economist editor Bill Emmott to best-selling author Robert Whiting.

Buy it now for just $4.99 — and support the Japan Society, which will send proceeds directly to tsunami relief efforts on Japan’s northern coast.

• 1. Follow the link below and purchase the ebook as a PDF through PayPal for only $4.99. 

• 2. After payment, you’ll be sent to a download page on ForeignPolicy.com. Follow the instructions on the download page to complete your ebook purchase and download the PDF. Or buy for Kindle on Amazon.com.

“No matter how many years may pass, do not forget this warning.” —Stone tablet from 1933 marking tsunami’s reach

“We forget that the sea is close because we build next to it. Then the tsunami comes and washes away the houses and you can see the sea again. And we’re reminded.” —Ofunato resident

TSUNAMI:

Chapter 1: Tales from the Hot Zone

By Mariko Nagai, Kaori Shoji, Steve Corbett, Robert Whiting, Shijuro Ogata, and Kumiko Makihara

Chapter 2: Japan’s Quakes, Past and Future

By David McNeill and Gregory Smits

Chapter 3: Looking Out on the World

By Christian Caryl, Devin Stewart, Jeff Kingston, and Noriko Murai

Chapter 4: The Economic Future

By David Pilling, Bill Emmott, and Brad Glosserman

Chapter 5: The Political Future

By Rod Armstrong and Jun Honna

Chapter 6: The Nuclear Future

By Lawrence Repeta, Andrew Horvat, Paul J. Scalise, Andrew DeWit and Masaru Kaneko, Robert Dujarric, and Gavan McCormack