Photo/Illutration High-rise buildings in central Osaka are enveloped in yellow dust on March 30. (Taku Hosokawa)

A mammoth, yellow ochre snake, whirling and gyrating now and again, is poised to strike at the Japanese archipelago.

The camera footage from Japan’s Himawari weather satellite, which shows yellow dust blowing in from China and brushing the Korean Peninsula on its way to Japan, packs quite a punch.

Reports of damage from dust clouds keep coming in from all over Northeast Asia this spring.

My colleague stationed in Beijing said the phenomenon is the worst in 10 years.

High-rise buildings are shrouded in yellow haze. Poor visibility slows traffic to a crawl, causing backups. And people constantly check their smartphones for “futu” (dust) forecasts.

In South Korea, a yellow dust alert has been issued almost nationwide. Local media blame China as the source of the scourge causing serious degradation of air quality.

Beijing is not taking those reports meekly.

“China is not the source. It’s only a way station,” said a press officer.

The officer also obliquely raised a theory that the yellow dust originates in Mongolia: “Chinese public opinion does not blame Mongolia for being the station before China.”

A resident reporter for The Asahi Shimbun in Mongolia told me that this year’s sandstorm is the most ferocious in recent years.

More than 10 people have died, cattle have been blown away and power outages are occurring repeatedly.

Still, the prevalent view is that the storm is coming from central Asian nations this year.

Where yellow dust is concerned, it appears that each nation has its own victim mentality.

Tokyo on March 30 observed the first yellow dust in 10 years.

I went up Tokyo Skytree and gazed westward from a height of 450 meters. A leaden pall hung in the sky, blurring even nearby buildings.

A haiku by Takasuke Yamaguchi goes: “With yellow dust raining on it / The Earth continues to have a slight fever.”

For residents of the Northern Hemisphere being exposed to the same westerlies, the yellow dust appears to be something that everyone is fated to live with.

--The Asahi Shimbun, March 31

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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.

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