TECHNOLOGY-JAPAN: The Best Not Always the Safest

By Suvendrini Kakuchi Reprint | | Print |

Suvendrini Kakuchi

TOKYO, Mar 30 2000 (IPS) - Japanese technology is known to be among the best in the world, but even that has not been enough to ensure that it is without cracks.

The devastation wrought by the Kobe earthquake five years ago remains the starkest evidence of the shortcomings of Japanese engineering. But more recent mishaps — including the country’s first train accident to claim lives in 60 years — have only led more and more Japanese to conclude that their famed technology is not as superior as they had thought.

Many engineers, academics and government officials are also saying that an important dimension had been left out in Japan’s technological development: the need to develop better safety measures.

“Technologists have dreams,” says Tohoku University professor Yasuali Kohama. “We keep making new things to make life more convenient and people (richer). But now we are at a turning point.”

Adds Professor Katsuki Takiguchi of the prestigious Tokyo Technology Institute: “The subway accident (on Mar 8) and the Kobe earthquake have taught us an important lesson. It’s not that our technology is warped. The hard lesson we have begun to swallow is that by relying too much on technology we have ignored the need to build other measures in case of technology failure.”

Indeed, prior to the Kobe quake of 1995 that resulted in 6,000 deaths, Japanese engineers had thought they had put in place infrastructures that were earthquake-proof. But collapsed flyovers and buildings, as well as twisted thoroughfares, showed how wrong they were.

The sobering experience has led to a ‘Phoenix Plan’ for Kobe in which the development of the devastated communities now emphasises “both the safety and welfare of the local population”.

Last month, a report issued by the Ministry of Education’s Science Council also pointed out that while development in the 20th century was based on the principle that resource-poor Japan must develop science and technology to ensure prosperity, there is now the need for nurturing an “intellectual presence”.

In addition, the report noted that technology development in the 20th century may have made the Japanese rich, but it also had “undesirable” results such as mass production, mass consumption and waste.

Commented Nobel laureate and Tsukuba University head Leo Esaki: “Scientists in the forthcoming century ought to develop a total approach….”

Scientist Keiji Kobayashi, a professor at Kyoto University, argues, though, “The new thinking is not that different in that technology is still considered the best solution to a problem. It is important to also discuss more the fact that focusing on safety measures still cannot stop accidents from happening.”

The commuter train that got derailed on Mar 8 and which claimed the lives of five people, for instance, had been checked just three days before the accident, and had been declared safe.

Used by millions of passengers each day and well-known for their precision and efficiency, Japan’s trains have had an almost spotless safety record for the last 30 years.

But many Japanese may have a hard time forgetting the gruesome accident that only deepened their wariness toward their country’s technological prowess.

“I am still stricken with fear when I ride the subway to work,” says 28-year-old freelance interpreter Mayumi Sato, recalling that she started shaking uncontrollably while she watched the dead and wounded being taken out of the wrecked passenger car. “I no longer believe it is safe to ride the subways.”

Some academics, meanwhile, say that the problem is that there are still people who cling to the belief that being among the best also means being the safest.

This seems to be the prevailing attitude among those in the field of nuclear power, even after an accident in a nuclear plant last September exposed not only plant workers to radiation, but also the people in nearby residential communities.

“Proponents of nuclear power work on the basis that there could be no Chernobyl in Japan because of Japan’s superior nuclear power technology,” says Takiguchi. “But the accident is a landmark in the reassessment of technology reliability.”

The Japanese Diet, however, has since passed a law that takes into consideration the need for better preventive measures and requiring nuclear power companies to pay more attention to safety measures.

That appears to be good enough steps for the Fukui district court that last week rejected a suit filed by residents demanding the permanent closure of Japan’s only fast-breeder nuclear reactor.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Mikio Aoki has expressed satisfaction with the decision, saying that the government will do its best to ensure the safety of nuclear-related facilities.