在日本太平洋岸发生强烈地震和海啸的两年后，许多人至今仍努力重建家园。
2011年3月11日，这场具毁灭性的海啸和地震造成近19,000人死亡，横扫许多沿海村庄。两年过去了，有太多的人仍然住在临时安置所，靠近福岛的村庄因接近核灾导致辐射的威胁，目前还在努力重建中，而在许多偏远小渔村的居民在海啸发生前原本就已经济困难，而今面对未来的不确定性更不知何去何从。
从最近在Atlantic网站发布的2011年4月与2013年3月两年前后的照片，可看到几乎所有的废墟已被移除或整理过。你可以说这是典型日本人的效率，或者说是善于表面的伪装。
同时，日本的重建工作可说是原地踏步，饱受一些有能力改变现有规则与条例却未善加运用的政府、机构等单位欠缺弹性与施政魄力的困扰。
当然，打破常规，从来就不是日本的专长。
今年稍早在日本外国记者协会举行的新闻发布会上，岩手县陆前高田市市长户羽太强调，“坦白说，两年了，这个城市的重建工作还是没什么进展。”陆前高田市受海啸重创后，有1,556人死亡，其中包括市长自己的妻子，此外，还有218人一直没找到。总之，该市7%的人就此消失了。
然而，户羽太指出，政府的繁文缛节、行政机构的官僚体系以及欠缺领导魄力，无法跳脱现有法令规定来思考与因应这场千年风暴，使得陆前高田市的重建工作进度缓慢。
两年了，户羽太说，“一堆堆的瓦砾随处可见，而受创的一些公共设施也还没法使用。”陆前高田市的情况特别严重，因为这个城镇就位于地远偏僻之处，经济与财政基础薄弱，而一小部份的人口都是老人。
虽然种种原因延缓了陆前高田市的重建进度，但户羽太强调，“政府官僚的思考与执行方式更是难辞其咎”。
户羽太回忆在强震与海啸袭击这个城市的几个月后。 “当时整座城市没有一家超市幸存，连让居民买瓶水的零售店都没有，更别说是食品了，”但这项急需超市的重建计划却被主管单位驳回了，户羽太说，理由是该地区在灾前已被划为农业用途。
本文授权编译自EE Times，版权所有，谢绝转载
第2页：愚昧的重建机构
第3页：土地是谁的？
相关阅读：
• 完善供应链让MEMS产业重振雄风
• 日本震后一年：LCD面板产业显露韧性
• 你的供应链准备好接受挑战了吗？Q00esmc
{pagination}
愚昧的重建机构
为了监督在大规模地震、海啸与核灾遭受重创地区的重建工作，日本在一年前成立了一个新的机构──复兴厅。该机构负责指导并协调相关政府机构的长期复苏工作计划。
一开始大家对于这个新机构的预期颇高。户羽太说，在新机构成立前，如果为这个城市的未来作好了计划，就得面对一大堆的官僚机构。“如果我有一个与学校重建相 关的问题，我必须去找文部科学省；如果我的问题跟处理瓦砾有关，就必须去找环境省。这太麻烦了。因此，他们对告诉我们可以去找重建机构全权负责，它能提供一站式服务，协助像我们这样的地区政府快速找到解决方案。”
然而，在现实中，“复兴厅所做的没有一件事能让我们的生活更轻松，”市长直言不讳地说，“现在只能说是多了一个必须跑公文的政府机构。”
而且更糟的是，复兴厅中似乎没有人愿意勇敢地抵抗其它政府机关，更别说是为陆前高田市争取权益了。“复兴厅常派人到陆前高田市来进行视察，但居然还告诉我们说我们的要求不合理，”他解释，“复兴厅的任务似乎变成了说服我们打消念头，而不是说服其它政府机构做好他们的工作。”
Q00esmc
本文授权编译自EE Times，版权所有，谢绝转载
第3页：土地是谁的？
相关阅读：
• 完善供应链让MEMS产业重振雄风
• 日本震后一年：LCD面板产业显露韧性
• 你的供应链准备好接受挑战了吗？Q00esmc
{pagination}
土地是谁的？
东北许多受创城镇面临的另一个大问题就是缺少土地的所有权。由于太多人在灾难中丧生，许多土地所有权的归属仍无法确定。这让任何企业与个人几乎无法取得能够继续前进以及打造建筑物所需的空间。
“现在该是为所有权是未知的土地使用建立新的法规豁免的时候了，”这是制作一个新的土地使用法律的某些的，他补充说。
虽然某些沿海地区较危险，不适于建造房屋，但在较高处的重建进度也落后──部份原因在于山区夷平的成本，以及幽灵地主的问题。
户羽太还提到另一件伤害陆前高田市许多城镇的事情：对于每个当地政府的重建基金使用受限。重建基金的用途由联邦政府建立，让我们只能针对选项中的特定项目才能用这笔钱，市长解释说。
“我们的城市几乎被完全摧毁了，我们有没有图书馆、没有体育馆、没有博物馆，也没有游泳池。在重建基金项目中，也没有任何有关教育与社交聚会的设施。它让我们完全没法把这笔钱利用在我们认为经济复苏所需要的目上。”
当日本遭受地震冲击后，日本人迅速再站起来的坚毅精神与意志力，以及用最有秩序的方式向前迈进的态度，曾经获得了世界各地的掌声赞扬。然而，两年来，种种的 迹象让我怀疑这个国家能否很快的完全恢复。虽然我明白，这场重大灾难的严重性需要多一点的耐心，但我也明白自己并不是唯一对日本行政魄力、政府的繁文缛节以及积习已久的日本官僚主义感到失望的日本人。
本文授权编译自EE Times，版权所有，谢绝转载
参考英文原文：Yoshida in Japan: Two years later, few signs of recovery，by Junko Yoshida
相关阅读：
• 完善供应链让MEMS产业重振雄风
• 日本震后一年：LCD面板产业显露韧性
• 你的供应链准备好接受挑战了吗？Q00esmc
{pagination}
Yoshida in Japan: Two years later, few signs of recovery
Junko Yoshida
Two years after the pacific coast of Japan was rocked by a massive earthquake and tsunami, many people are still struggling to recov
Two years after the devastating tsunami and earthquake that killed close to 19,000 people and wiped out many coastal villages on March 11, 2011, too many people are still living in temporary housing, villages closer to Fukushima are still struggling to recover from the radioactive fallout caused by the nuclear crisis, and people in many remote fishing villages who were economically strapped before the tsunami face a future that’s uncertain at best and bleak at worst.
Recent photos of before (2011) and after (2013) posted in the Atlantic's website illustrate how almost all of the rubble has been removed, or stacked neatly away.
You may call that quintessential Japanese efficiency–or a Pecksniffian obsession with appearances.
Meanwhile, Japan’s recovery is stuck in neutral, afflicted by a failure of flexibility and imagination on the part of government, bureaucracies and the people who have the power to change existing rules and regulations but don’t use it.
Rule-bending, of course, has never been Japan’s forte.
In a press briefing held at the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Japan earlier this year, Futoshi Toba, mayor of Rikuzentakata, Iwate Prefecture, noted, “Honestly speaking, the state of our city is nowhere close to recovery.” Rikuzentakata, hard hit by the tsunami, saw 1,556 people killed, including the mayor’s own wife, with 218 people never found. In summary, 7 percent of its total population disappeared.
Asked about the root cause of the delayed recovery, the mayor cited government red tape, vertically organized government agencies (each working in a silo) and leadership’s inability to act and think outside regulations never formulated to cope with a thousand-year storm.
Futoshi Toba, mayor of Rikuzentakata
·
After two long years, Mayor Toba said, “We see piles of rubble everywhere, while damaged public facilities remain inactive.” The situation for Rikuzentakata is particularly devastating, because the town itself, located in the middle of nowhere, is built on weak economic and financial foundations, while its small population has many senior citizens.
While there are several reasons for our slow recovery, Toba pinned the main blame on “the way our bureaucracy thinks and acts.”
Toba recalled what happened several months after the earthquake and tsunami hit the town. “We were left with not a single supermarket in town. There were no retail outlets standing where our residents could even buy bottled water, let alone food.” The plan for a much needed supermarket was turned down by regulators, said Toba, on the grounds that the area is zoned for agricultural use. Every day, the town smacks head-first into a Japan too rigid to adapt compassionately to crisis.
Folly of Reconstruction Agency
Designed to oversee the rebuilding of areas devastated by the massive earthquake, tsunami and nuclear accident, Japan created a year ago a new agency called the Reconstruction Agency. The agency was expected to guide related government agencies (whose administration is often vertically divided) and coordinate long-term recovery efforts.
Toba explained that initial expectations for the new agency were high. Before the formation of the new agency, Toba said, if he had plans for the city’s future, he faced an alphabet soup of bureaucracies. “If I have an issue with schools, I’d have to talk to the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology; if my problems are related to handling of rubble, I’d have to go to the Ministry of the Environment. It was getting too much. So they told us the Reconstruction Agency, with authority to guide other agencies, could be a one-stop shop for local governments like ours that could help us find resolution quickly.”
In reality, though, “there isn’t a single thing the Reconstruction Agency has done to make our life easier,” said the outspoken mayor. “Now I just have extra government agency--the Reconstruction Agency--that I need to talk to.”
Of course, administrative disorganization should surprise no one who has ever worked with government agencies in Japan or in the United States.
But what made things worse was that nobody from the Reconstruction Agency appeared willing to stand up to other government agencies, let alone to fight for constituents like Mayor Toba. “People from the Reconstruction Agency came to visit us in Rikuzentakata often. But they had the gall to tell us not to be so unreasonable with our demands,” he explained. “So, the mission of the Reconstruction Agency turns out to be persuading us to back down, not persuading the other government agencies to do their job.”
Who owns the land?
Another big issue facing many damaged towns and villages in Tohoku is the missing owners of land. Because so many people died in the disaster, there are fragments of property whose ownership remains unclear. “That makes it almost impossible for any businesses and private citizens to acquire the necessary space to go ahead and construct new buildings,” said Toba.
“It’s time to create a new law–making certain exemptions for land usage where ownership is unknown,” he added.
While certain coastal areas in the town are now registered as too dangerous for people to build homes, reconstruction on higher ground is also lagging--partly due to the cost of leveling mountains, partly because of phantom landowners.
Toba mentioned during the press briefing one more thing that’s hurting many towns like Rikuzentakata: Restricted usage of the recovery funds given to each local government. “The recovery fund comes with a ‘menu’ created by the federal government, thus permitting us to use the money only for specific items on the menu,” the mayor explained.
“Take our town… please. It was totally destroyed,” he said. “We have no libraries, no gyms, no museums, and no swimming pools. None of those things–facilities related to education and social gatherings–are in the recovery fund menu. It gives us no leeway to use the money for what we think is necessary for our recovery.”
When Japan was devastated by the quake, people around the world applauded the Japanese for their stoicism and commitment to quietly pick themselves up and forge ahead in such an orderly manner. And yet, two years on, I see a plenty of signs that make me skeptical that the nation will fully recover any time soon. While I understand that a disaster of this magnitude requires a measure of patience, I know I’m not the only Japanese girl frustrated with Japan’s administrative disorder, its government red tape and the cluelessness of Japan’s fat, complacent, mostly male bureaucracy.
责编：Quentin
扫码分享到好友
