What Did a 26-year-old Japanese Learn from Natural Disasters in Her Own Country?
What happened after Typhoon Faxai (台風15号) landed in Japan?
Japan is known as one of the countries which have great public transportation, but it was not like that, especially these last 2 days. The strongest typhoon in the last decade landed in Japan with winds of up to 210km/h (130mph) on September 9th, 2019. More than 16,900 people in total were isolated at Narita International Airport in Japan.
Almost all the food at convenience stores and restaurants there was mainly sold out, and the flights which people were waiting for a long time with hopes were eventually canceled. Yet, flights continued to arrive one and another, so the airport was getting packed with returning travelers. The major train lines and buses were also forced to stop providing their services due to the typhoon, and approximately 100 people were waiting for taxis mainly to go back to the metropolitan area around Tokyo which is about 75 km away from the airport in my case. The storm cuts power to 900,000 homes, and people also have been left without water during the humid and hot summer in Japan. (Currently 33℃/ 97℉ with 75% humidity daytime in Tokyo as of September 10th.)
After 8 years, how did we change?
This reminds me of the days after the great east Japan earthquake happened back in 2011. At the time, 5,000,000 people in the metropolitan area around Tokyo couldn’t go back home and got stuck in the stations. (This doesn’t include the number of people in Tohoku where the earthquake and tsunami brought the most serious damage.) It’s been 8 years since then, but we still have similar problems.
Lots of media say “If another earthquake happened to like the one that happened in 2011, especially in Tokyo, it would be like a nightmare blah blah blah…”. People see this and say “That’s scary.”, but at the same time we also act like “Oh, that’s not my business to take actions specifically”. The current situation in Japan brought by the typhoon made me realize that I also unconsciously thought “Well, someone else would work on finding solutions for us, but not me. I’m busy with my daily life.” There are not many people who can really take things seriously and take some actual actions while we are having a peaceful daily life.
Not “their” problem but “our” problem
If we continue thinking like this, I’m sure we’ll face similar situations again and again. And only when we face difficulties, we criticize the government, airport, railway, or bus companies but not individuals. Of course, it’s hard to find a completely amazing solution, but at least it’s more valuable for individuals to have their own opinions rather than just criticizing 3rd party.
In my opinion, having rideshare in Japan could be one of the potential solutions for this kind of situation brought by natural disasters. Unfortunately, rideshare taxi is not common at all in Japan at least for now. Also, if you take a look at Uber in Japan, it’s usually more expensive compared to regular taxi in Japan, and the business model of Uber in Japan is not like the one in other countries.
Why Uber is having difficulties expanding its business in Japan?
The first reason is the regulation which is especially called road transportation law. In Japan every single taxi driver needs to get approval from the government otherwise they are considered as “Shiro taku” which is directly translated as white taxis and is considered illegal in Japan. However, in this law, even though the drivers don’t have approval and provide a free ride, and passengers would like to tip their drivers or just pay the cost fee for parking or gas, it says it is not illegal. The second reason is backlash from the existing taxi industry which owns 330,000 drivers. More than 90% are male drivers whose average age is around 58 years old. Retiring age in Japan is 60 years old, so working as a taxi driver is one of the most common jobs after they retire from their original ones. Accepting Uber in Japan means they can lose their current job, and it is not hard to imagine how hard to find another job when you are around 60 years old. Definitely, we should be mindful of how they feel and how we support them to secure their life. If you already have seen what kind of strikes are happening in other countries after the rideshare business disrupted the traditional taxi industry all over the world, you’ll understand how important this is for us to design a way to accept the changes.
Changing our life better? Better for “whom”?
This just sounds amazing, but it is also very tricky. There are so many different kinds of views from different people. Even if the view from your angle looks great, it doesn’t mean it also affects everyone in a great way, so we always need to assess the pros and cons and total impact on society.
If there is something we can do individually, it is to have our own opinions. For that, first, you will need to try to understand the current problem and research potential solutions. And then try to understand what is blockers and the reasons why they are blocking. In this case, to understand what kind of problem we are having through typhoon and research for potential solutions. And to understand why Uber is having difficulties in Japan and the reasons behind it. (What kind of law is blocking, what kind of people are working as taxi drivers and how they feel about Uber etc)
Don’t let them decide it for you but decide on your own.
Even this doesn’t give you a certain solution, but still, the process of thinking individually is more valuable for us compared to just relying on 3rd party to change current social problems. Lots of people feel powerless and think individuals are just one person and cannot make big changes at the end of the day. But if we don’t make any decision, big organizations or people who have power decide everything for us instead. If we don’t have any opinions, we won’t know whether it’s a good decision or not. Your actions, just tweeting, sharing on Facebook, talking about this to your friends or family, going to meet somebody, or writing a blog like me could be individual actions as well.
Each of us is powerful opinion leaders
Japan has so many natural disasters which are not avoidable, but we can always try to think about how we handle them well. Each of you could be a big opinion leader who can give an impact on our society much more than you think. Don’t be scared to have your own opinions and share them. We should embrace the variety of different options not criticize each other. Hoping to have a society accepting differences each other and makes changes in a positive way for our future.
I do love my country Japan and believe we can thrive well even with natural disasters. We won’t forget the lives of the people we lost. We shouldn’t waste their lives and the lessons we learned from our experiences and history. Having opinions individually and sharing them with others is crucial. I really would like everyone to feel included and encourage them to feel I have the possibility to be the change for our society. It’s not that common to see the opinions of Japanese individuals in English. Our real opinions are mainly expressed only in Japanese. Media tells facts about what is happening now but usually, it cannot tell how people actually feel and think about the facts deeply in English. Therefore, I’ve decided to write this article to share my thoughts just as one of the Japanese individuals' opinions.
So, what do you think?
