Photo/Illutration The No. 3 reactor at Ikata nuclear plant stands to the left, with the No. 2 reactor in the middle and the No. 1 reactor at right. (Asahi Shimbun file photo)

After the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami that ravaged wide areas in the nation’s northeastern Tohoku region, a new word was coined that came to be widely used.

The word, “saigo” or “after the disaster,” reflected the enormity of the challenge of rebuilding devastated communities, which was compared to Japan’s reconstruction in the era of “sengo,” or “after World War II.”

Another newly minted, but less known word is “saikan,” or “between disasters.” Japanese folklorist Norio Akasaka wrote about this word in an article in the January issue of “Tosho,” a monthly magazine about books, published by Iwanami Shoten Publishers.

The word reflects the notion that we are living not in an era after a huge disaster but in an era between two disasters. We are living in “a brief grace period until the next large disaster that is certain to take place in the near future, although we don’t know when,” Akasaka argues.

This is a view that demands us to be well prepared for the next disaster and warns us not to relax our efforts to do so.

The Hiroshima High Court’s recent decision to order a halt to operations of a reactor seems to be one good example of this mindset. The court on Jan. 17 issued an injunction to stop the operations of the No. 3 reactor at the Ikata nuclear power plant in Ehime Prefecture.

One of the key issues during the trial was whether there is an active fault that could trigger a major earthquake running near the plant.

While Shikoku Electric Power Co., which operates the plant, argued there is no active fault in the vicinity of the facility, Presiding Judge Kazutake Mori ruled that the existence of such a fracture in the Earth's crust that is likely to cause another quake in the future could not be ruled out.

Mori judged that the seismic survey the utility conducted to detect faults was “insufficient.”

For the electric utility, which wants to restart the reactor, and the Nuclear Regulation Authority, which has issued its approval for the company to do so, the ruling over reactor's safety may appear to be  “excessively cautious.” 

One vital lesson we must learn from the Fukushima nuclear disaster,  triggered by the 2011 quake and tsunami, however, is that there were people warning about a huge tsunami before the quake hit. Because we failed to pay serious attention to these warnings, we allowed the triple meltdowns to occur.

Shikoku Electric has decided to appeal the ruling, which it calls “unacceptable,” and the government shows no signs of changing its policy of ensuring the restarts of as many reactors as possible.

I wonder whether leaders in the company and the government ever think about the possibility that we may be in a “saizen” (pre-disaster) era, with another big one just about to hit.

--The Asahi Shimbun, Jan. 19

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Vox Populi, Vox Dei is a popular daily column that takes up a wide range of topics, including culture, arts and social trends and developments. Written by veteran Asahi Shimbun writers, the column provides useful perspectives on and insights into contemporary Japan and its culture.