How Japan Rode a Tsunami to Equality
Minamisanriku, Japan
Special to Foreign Policy
The 3/11 disaster has had a catalyzing effect for women in Tohoku, one of the more conservative regions of Japan, who are no longer satisfied with status quo gender dynamics.
When Tamiko Abe arrived in this fishing port on Japan’s northeast coastline, 35 years ago, the first thing that struck her was the beauty of the Pacific Ocean. Her hometown of Yonezawa, about a three-hour drive inland, is famous for its cherry tree orchards, but is landlocked; Abe, newly married to a fisherman whose family ran a seafood cultivation business, had never seen anything quite like the sparkling expanse of water, which quickly became a constant in her life.
Abe spent the next few decades taking care of household duties, as is customary for women in Minamisanriku, and raising her three children. In her spare time, though, she would often help her husband farm fresh oysters, scallops and wakame—edible seaweed—occasionally packaging the products and selling them to friends and relatives.
On the afternoon of March 11, 2011, Abe was working by the shoreline when a magnitude 9.0 earthquake struck 80 kilometers off the coast of the region of Tohoku, where Minamisanriku is located. It was the most powerful quake ever recorded in Japan, one that would tilt the earth off its axis. Abe hurried home, but soon heard a neighbor shouting, ‘Run!’ She turned, and in the distance saw her beloved ocean swelling with dark, menacing waves. As she struggled towards higher ground, an elderly lady was overtaken by the tsunami as she watched, helpless to do anything.
Minamisanriku suffered some of the worst destruction of any place along Japan’s eastern coast. More than 600 people were killed as freezing harbor water bulldozed concrete seawalls and flattened residential areas. The town center, which sat in a valley surrounded by mountains on three sides, was almost completely washed away.
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