Japan's earthquake on 11 March 2011—and the tsunami that followed it—is the strongest on record in the country and has been dubbed as Japan's worst crisis since the Second World War. The increasing ferocity and unpredictability of these natural disasters seriously challenged Japan's record of effective disaster management capabilities and high safety standards. As the country grappled with the ensuing threat of multiple nuclear meltdowns after explosions at three nuclear power plant (NPP) reactors in Fukushima and a leak at a NPP reactor in Onagawa, questions were being raised as to the overall impact of these developments.

This disaster is a critical reality check for Southeast Asia as the region continues to consider nuclear energy as a means for sustaining energy needs and economic development. The Japanese experience has shown that dealing with the latent threats of nuclear safety issues would require more than reliance on advancements in nuclear science and technology.

Managing Japan's Triple Disasters

As Japan counted the human and property cost of its triple disasters, it was engulfed in an uphill task in managing disaster relief operations as well as mitigating further damage to the NPPs. The death toll surpassed 18,000 within weeks of the tragedy while almost two million households were without power supply and 1.4 million without running water in the colder northern regions of Japan. Moreover, Japan's ageing population also faced higher vulnerabilities in terms of health and safety.

This situation got worse when the government started rolling blackouts in a bid to conserve energy—energy that would be needed to maintain the cooling systems in Japan's NPPs to avoid nuclear meltdowns.