Japan is planning to spend $6.8bn to build a 400km chain of concrete seawalls to combat tsunamis. The walls will be built along the coast of the prefectures of Fukushima, Miyagi and Iwate, which make up the north-east of Honshu, Japan’s largest island. These were the areas worst hit in the Great East Japan earthquake and tsunami of March 2011.
The plan to build the walls is dividing Japanese opinion. Critics have said they will do little to protect against tsunamis, and that they will hurt marine ecology and the fishing industry, as well as blocking views of the ocean.
One argument is that the city of Kamaishi in Iwate prefecture had the largest seawall in the world, costing $1.6bn, before the 2011 disaster. However, this collapsed when the tsunami struck and an estimated 1,000 people died in the city. The wall may even had caused deaths as country dwellers fled to the city believing it to be a refuge.
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