Issues surrounding the seawall construction plans proposed by the Japanese government
In the coastal areas ravaged by the 2011 Tohoku earthquake and tsunami, current consensus-building between the government-driven construction of giant seawalls and local residents calling for a review of these plans has become bogged down. This seawall issue is concerning massive public works projects into which about one trillion yen of taxes will be pumped, but it is also about the future shape of the coastline of a large portion of Japan, since the improvement policy will become the model of a countermeasure to a Nankai Trough earthquake. Viewed from these aspects, the problem goes beyond the disaster-stricken areas. Furthermore, considering this seawall issue also provides another major issue that needs to be addressed by post-disaster Japanese society.