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Fukushima and the Coming Tokyo Earthquake: and what it will mean for a fragile world economy by [tony smyth]

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Fukushima and the Coming Tokyo Earthquake: and what it will mean for a fragile world economy Kindle Edition

by tony smyth (Author) Format: Kindle Edition

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This book tells the tale of two large earthquakes, one that took place in 2011, another imminent, both located in Japan. They will have a major impact on future use of nuclear energy, and also on over-indebted and increasingly fragile world economies.
Using Japanese sources, the book depicts the cultural patterns and assumptions, as well as absence of accountability, in the period before and after the earthquake of March 11th, 2011.
The following chapters ‘chunk up’, examining the economic and political consequences of using nuclear power. Further chapters detail the benefits and disadvantages of both nuclear and renewable energy in a world where greenhouse gases accumulating in the atmosphere are increasingly harmful to the earth’s climate and ecosystems.
Japanese economic, bureaucratic and political power is concentrated at the head of Tōkyō Bay. Over one third of Japanese imports and exports are routed through that bay. Official complacency and a failure to adequately prepare for an earthquake there mean that such an event will have significant consequences.
A catastrophic earthquake near Tokyo will likely precipitate repatriation of overseas assets and loss of access to Japan’s hi-tech products, products vital to an interconnected world economy.
Fukushima and the coming Tokyo Earthquake looks back on recent events that have deeply affected one of world’s most advanced countries, but it also looks forward to future possibilities, where the interaction of nature’s power, changing energy sources, and human action will determine our joint futures.
Tony Smyth has lived in Tokyo for 37 years.

Print length

187 pages
Language

English
Publication date

November 17, 2017
File size

905 KB
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Product details

ASIN : B077KS8WNG
Publisher : Giants raised by Pygmies Publications (November 17, 2017)
Publication date : November 17, 2017
Language : English
File size : 905 KB
Text-to-Speech : Enabled
Screen Reader : Supported
Enhanced typesetting : Enabled
X-Ray : Not Enabled
Word Wise : Enabled
Print length : 187 pages
Lending : Enabled

Best Sellers Rank: #2,808,532 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- #615 in Seismology
- #917 in Earthquakes & Volcanoes (Books)
- #1,213 in International Economics (Kindle Store)

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11 ratings

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Good source of information

Reviewed in the United States on November 25, 2017

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I saw Tony Smyth's answers on Quora where he was talking about Fukushima and related issues, and got very curious about his book. I am an expat in Tokyo like him, and he seemed like a guy who knew how to evaluate information and convey it clearly. I am pleased with the book and will be keeping my copy. I especially enjoyed the many well-made graphs which show up well on Kindle.

The majority of the book is about how Japan's culture created the Fukushima accident and the energy situation they have now. My only criticism would be that I think Tony is a little too cynical about Japanese culture and not everything he says on that subject is entirely accurate. But he does present a lot of valuable scientific and social information about how to understand the Fukushima accident and the impact on health, and how to put it into a larger context. Some of the facts he offers were surprising to me, and he did a good job showing how everything ties together into a bigger picture of Japan today. The section on what might happen in a possible future Tokyo earthquake is relatively small but also packed with reliably sourced information.

I recommend this book for anyone who is curious or concerned about the Fukushima reactors and wants a big summary of well-organized, reliable information to evaluate risks for themselves.

One person found this helpful

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Robert Campbell

A much needed wake up call

Reviewed in the United States on January 15, 2020

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Tony Smyth’s new book “Fukushima and the Coming Tokyo Earthquake: and what it will mean for a Fragile World Economy” is a fascinating and haunting guided tour through the cultural and historical context of what could be a disastrous future for Japan and therefore the world. Smyth expertly depicts the tension of our world economy wherein every country is interconnected with every other country, but the cultural differences are still so vast that chaos and confusion proliferate throughout international relations. Smyth does an outstanding job of untangling the knots of Western and Japanese culture, as he gives the benefit of his experience as an outsider making his home in Japan, and provides a clear perspective on the 2011 earthquake, tsunami, and Fukushima meltdown. Smyth’s research and insight is alarming wake up call, and I very much hope that this early warning signal is heard far, wide, and in time.

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Michael Nail for gimmethatbook

Well researched, an easy read

Reviewed in the United States on July 14, 2019

Tony Smyth has done his research. This book is full of facts and figures, with a good deal of opinion thrown in as well. His writing style is not too fussy, so I got into the cadence of words quickly while remaining interested throughout the litany of numbers. First off, I learned a good deal about seismic activity and how the buildings in Japan are created to withstand earthquakes. Some structures have fluid filled “shock absorbers” or sliding walls while others have complex structural cross-bracing which is designed to buckle while absorbing seismic energy.

Despite these measures, nothing could prevent the nuclear meltdown that occurred at the Fukushima power plant because there was no way to protect against the tsunami that devastated the area post-quake. Thousands of lives were lost, towns were washed away, and the land was (and still is) overrun with radioactive isotopes.

The author notes that the total costs of the earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear meltdowns of 2011 make those events the world’s most expensive natural disaster. There are a lot of absolutes in this book, yet the author remains fairly neutral about nuclear power. There are plenty of reasons (global warming, cost of disposal, impact on the planet) to seek out alternatives, yet Smyth balances his words well and merely uses them as a warning, not a condemnation. More concerning are the politics of how the reactors came to be, regardless of the fact that many of them are superfluous.

The author speaks from experience; he lives in Japan and is familiar with the socio-economic climate and Japanese culture. Despite the business-heavy title, each facet of the country and the disaster is discussed in plain language that cannot help but affect the reader. Smyth heavily includes the human element, with heart-wrenching stories of parents waiting in vain for their children to get home or children worried about their elderly parents in the flood zone.

My main takeaway from this book was not fear for the future of Japanese business; instead it was fear for the future of mankind and our planet. The section of the book concerning global warming was extremely edifying, and as a result I will personally make an effort to reduce my global footprint.

I feel this is an important book to read on so many levels. Please pick up your copy here.

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Peter R. Whitis, MD

We are all living on the tectonic plates that caused the Fukushima disaster

Reviewed in the United States on July 8, 2019

The editorial review of this book is an excellent summary of the book. The U.S. experience of 9/11/2001 of the bombing of the World Trade Center barely compares with Japan's March, 2011 earthquake. The epicenter occurred some 200 miles from Tokyo. We are at risk because world industry relies on Japanese high-tech components, everything from TV screens to iPhones and automobile components.
Lately, the world has become aware that the carbon economy has been subtly undermining our environment to the point that civilization is endangered. The world, according to the author's information is also poised on the brink of another disaster, grinding tectonic plates that produce earthquakes in Japan and are "overdue" for another. The last one hitting Tokyo was in 1923--and they usually occur every 60-70 years. You do the calculation!
The author unflinchingly presents the problems and benefits of nuclear energy, discusses the global climate crisis, alternative energies and the fragile world-wide economies which with huge debts will have even more difficulty with recovery following a major earthquake.
There is so much detail and it is so well-written, this review cannot do justice to it. The reader of this book will at least have the information of what to expect if those tectonic plates cause another earthquake.

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E.L.

Good summary of events

Reviewed in Japan on October 2, 2020

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I read this book after a discussion with a friend made me curious to know more about the Fukushima disaster, and was interested in understanding the politics of the time as well. This book covers both of those aspects well, and I was glad to find out that it also covers the economic aspect as well. It talks about the bubble era, the price of land, and how the construction of nuclear power plants was promoted, as well as other topics. This was all new information to me that I was happy to learn about.

On a negative note, the author sometimes chose to express his opinions on individuals and society alongside other information. These moments get in the way of the pacing, and I would have preferred if it stuck more to the immediate story at hand.

Overall, I would happily recommend this book. The book is very well researched, and has all of its sources clearly laid out, it can easily serve as a primary source, or a reference to other sources for an academic paper. It also has a good summary of the events that happened, and talks about what is expected to happen in a future disaster based on the responses we saw to the Fukushima nuclear disaster.

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