Fukushima and the Coming Tokyo Earthquake

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.

Avery: 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.

N N Light: This is an extraordinarily well written fact filled book.

The author provides excellent intense detail surrounding the Fukushima earthquake and the nuclear disaster aftermath. I was always left wondering how homeless and down on their luck men were thrust into radioactive zones right after to do ‘clean up’.

This book details the quiet factor that lays under nearly every layer of Japanese Society. Organized Crime. For any who think the ‘Mob’ is being defeated – read this book – it is alive and thriving in Japan. The scandalous reaction of the Japanese rulers and Nuclear Energy Group to the meltdown is tied intricately to Japanese custom.

I found this book thought provoking, jarring and yet still an easy read. The book details what happened in 2011 and what will yet happen when a big earthquake hits Tokyo (it’s about 25 years overdo). The discussion as to what alternatives for energy the world has goes back over well trodden ground: fossil fuel/nuclear/renewable alternatives. Not unlike the book I read on solar power a few years back, the issues with this discussion often are heavily weighed down with politics, money and big business.

Surfs Up Writers Bookshelves:This is a well-researched and documented book about how nuclear plants came to be built along catastrophic fault lines in Japan. It describes what already happened when a tidal wave hit the Fukushima nuclear plant area in 2011. The author, Tony Smyth, goes into many facets of the subject: the political and socio/economic climate that let to massive nuclear plant infrastructure in Japan.

The beauty of the book is that it is not anti-nuclear plants per se. Instead, it is a thorough look into the pro's and con's of nuclear plants, their designs, nuclear storage capacities and the ways they melt down during a natural disaster. The author also delves into designs of safer earthquake-resistant buildings, how to prepare for the coming earthquake and the economic impact of the economy if the global city of Tokyo is knocked out for any length of time.

The author peppers his scientific writing with personal stories: the seasick man swaying in the skyscraper when the earthquake hit and the young girl who helped others to escape the tsunami, only to lose her life when the overpowering wave sucked her out to sea. Yet, in this brilliant book, the theme of climate change is central to the reading experience. The author objectively lists the scientific effects of temperatures rising: he shows what happens when the earth becomes two degrees warmer, and what happens when it gets three degrees warmer. The last list of effects is one no person would ever want to live through.