How The 9.0 Tsunami Affecting Japan's Economy

Infrastructure needed for transport was severely damaged. Over 2000 miles of roads were swept away. This made it more difficult to access and support communities affected by the tsunami.

On March 11, 2011 an earthquake that measured 9.3 Richter scale occurred 43 miles of the coast of Northern Japan. This caused tremendous amounts of damage to the island of Tohouku. What happened is the quake initially destroyed buildings and property. However, a tsunami occurred, which devastated the region and the Fukushima nuclear power plant. ("Fukushima Accident")

Natural disasters are a huge challenge for the planet because of the adverse effects that are associated with them. One of the major earthquakes to have shaken the earth is the Great Sendai Earthquake or Great Tōhoku Earthquake that occurred in 2011. The event started when a powerful earthquake hit the northeastern Japan on March 11, 2011, and resulted in a widespread damage on land. A series of massive tsunamis later devastated many parts of the coastal regions of the country with the worst affected being the Tohoku region. The tsunami further resulted in a major nuclear accident that damaged distant regions on a power station located along the coast. The economic effects of the tsunami qualify it as one of the major natural disasters because it affected Japan’s economic stability as the country ended up resorting to importing as an alternative to cover the loss.

Luckily, there was no tsunami, but California and Oregon had waves up to 2.4 m high and obtained at least $10 million in damage (Mueller, 2014,1). The waves from the tsunami in Japan swept cars, planes, houses, and over 1.5 million tons of Japanese debris into the ocean, which have slowly floated towards the Unite State’s coast. Light objects like bins, balls, and buoys were the first to reach the United States, while large objects like docks took longer to wash ashore (Mueller, 2014,1). Along with the debris hundreds of organisms have made the long journey across the ocean. Some of theses organisms are extremely unpredictable and may be invasive (Earth Island Journal). As a result of the destruction of the Fukishima Nuclear Plant, large amounts of radiation could also stat to head towards the United States (Oregon Live). Already there have been traces of airborne radiation detected in milk in the United States (Oregon Live).

According to the records of earthquake intensity, this is the strongest earthquake occurred in Japan and one of the most powerful earthquakes in the world ( ). When the Pacific land crashed down and the North American land slide up, the resulting of landslide and outburst of the bottom turn to create earthquake in the Pacific Ocean, and it was the biggest impact in 1200 years. Furthermore, the earthquake occurred from 130 kilometer east of the city of Honshu, Japan on March 11, 2011, and the main shock lasted for 40 minutes. The earthquake created magnitude scale to 9.0 Mw, and 165-foot movement occurred to the seafloor during the earthquake ( ). Moreover, at that time, most city of Japanese affected by that earthquake, and a nuclear power industry is one of the victims which was crashed by the earthquake. Because of that, it release of radiation to large area not only in Japan but also get oversea to another country such as China, Viet

The morning of December 26, the peaceful morning was cut short of by a massive earthquake that struck off Indonesia causing a deadly tsunami The earthquake was described as having the power of 23,000 Hiroshima bombs, reaching a magnitude of 9.0. After the tsunami started it travels 13 countries and left beaches filled

On March 11, 2011, a 9.0-magnitude earthquake occurred off the east coast of Japan, generating massive tsunamis, which severely damaged coastal areas. The earthquake and tsunami also hit the nuclear power plants (NPP) located in the coastal area in Tohoku and led to the loss of the entire core cooling capacity of three reactors of Fukushima Daiichi NPP and severe damage to the nuclear cores.1 Although deaths related to the release of radiation have not been reported six years after the disaster, the Japanese government and medical professionals have noticed an increase in mental health problems in emergency workers and evacuees. Numerous evacuations, physical detachment from homes and personal belongings, and stigmas between evacuees have been

The word tsunami comes from a Japanese word meaning “Long harbor waives”. Tsunami is much known and very common in Japan because thousands of Japanese have been killed and some suffered in recent centuries. Tsunami waves generally speaking cause a lot of damages such as, killing people, destroying building, and costing million of dollars. Moreover, a tsunami is a series of great sea waves caused by an underwater earthquake, landslide, or volcanic eruption. The 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake that is located on epicenter off the west coast of Sumatra, Indonesia, is actually one of the worst disasters in the history of Indian Ocean that generated by the most powerful 9.0 magnitude earthquake. An aggressive

The U.S. west coast is very vulnerable to tsunamis. If a big quake hits Oregon’s fault, then it can generate tsunami waves up to 98 ft high. A tsunami in this region can threaten lives and damage the area from California to Alaska. Future tsunamis in the Cascadian Subduction Zone off the Pacific Northwest are possible.

Japan is located in an area where several tectonic plates meet. Earthquakes frequently strike the Japanese archipelago - minor tremors occur almost on a daily basis, while severe disasters - infrequently, yet they have had harsh consequences in terms of both direct and indirect impact on the economy, thus, on the financial system. Earthquakes are usually associated with devastation and losses, and Japan is no exception. However, Japan is still the third largest economy in the world measured by Gross Domestic Product (Ro, 2013).

The Japanese Tōhoku 2011 earthquake and tsunami was an extremely serious natural disaster that had many impacts to both land and people. This natural disaster is still recovering from the disaster till this day. The earthquake and tsunami caused flooding, landslides, fires, building damages and nuclear and radiation problems. Soon after the earthquake and tsunami a nuclear meltdown occurred. The total cost this natural disaster was about $300 million dollars. The 20th of March 2015 the National Japanese Police confirmed that 15,891 people died, 6,152 were injured and 2,584 were reported missing.

On March 11th, 2011, the northern section of Japan was hit by a 9.0 magnitude earthquake, followed by a 15 meter tsunami, causing the death of over 15000 people. (Spacey) Even though the earthquake and the tsunami caused a tremendous amount of deaths in the northern region of Japan, the meltdown of the Fukushima nuclear power plant caused a severe damage to northern Japan’s ecosystem that people still cannot go back to their homes; despite it is 4 years after the disaster. After the earthquake, the tsunami destroyed the power supply used by Fukushima’s three nuclear power stations, causing severe levels of meltdown to be occurred inside the reactors in the timespan of 3 days. It was not until 2 weeks after the tragedy, when the reactors were finally stabilized, and took several months to approach what is called a “cold shutdown condition”, in which the fission in the reactors are completely stopped.(Fukushima A)

On March 11, 2011 natural destruction raged the small island nation of Japan. With a massive earthquake and tsunami caused equipment damage that eventually lead to destruction of Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. During the earthquake and tsunami three nuclear reactors were destroyed. The 9.0 magnitude earthquake caused damage all over the island and still 2 years later Japan is struggling to get back on its feet. People were forced to leave their homes and possessions behind as the Japanese government tried to correct the damage done by the tsunami and earthquake. With not only the country hurting, its natives hurt for normalcy. The road to recovery is a long one but one must look at the steps taken so far to return Japan back to

Eastern Japan sits right off a major earthquake fault line. Therefore, it was a matter of time before a sizeable earthquake occurred that would severely damage Japan. On Friday, March 11, 2011, a catastrophic nine magnitude earthquake hit eastern Japan, the most devastating the country had ever encountered. Equally devastating was the catastrophic tsunami that followed. This tsunami, being one of the worlds all time worst, was able to generate waves of water reaching as much as eighty feet which engulfed many of the hardest hit areas during this disaster. This catastrophe resulted in severe, yet preventable damages to the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. To begin with, the electricity being provided to reactors one, two, and three

The Indian Ocean tsunami caused the most deaths, while the Japan tsunami was the costliest in terms of damage. That tsunami was also caused by an earthquake that caused tsunamis as high as 40.5 meters, only 5 meters short of the height of the Statue of Liberty. Which slammed into the Japanese east coast that came 10 kilometers inland in some places. An estimated 300 billion dollars in damage was done, which is higher than all of South Africa's GDP.