OSAKA – Rattled by an earthquake, devastated by a
tsunami, for Japan things went from bad to worse over the past few days when three nuclear reactors north of Tokyo emitted serious amounts of radiation and continue to do so with no end in sight.
Still, the flight to Osaka, part of Japan’s second-largest metropolis, located in the south of the country, was 80-percent full on Wednesday, according to the Cathay Pacific stewardess.
RELATED:IAEA chief heading to Japan to face nuclear crisisNetanyahu to Japanese PM: Israel stands behind youKoki Homma, an academic from the University of Kyoto specializing in agriculture, was returning home to Nara from a business trip to Thailand.
“I’m not worried about radiation, which is in the north,” he said. “Osaka is safe. There are no power outages. In Tokyo, however, the situation is different.”
It may sound funny coming from a person living in the volatile Middle East, but I asked Homma how he dealt with living in a disaster-prone country.
“When we buy a house, we take into consideration the earthquake preparedness,” he said. “Some people I know won’t live near the sea because of a tsunami, others won’t live near a mountain because of mud slides. But we are very well prepared.”
Japan is a nation roughly the size of California, consisting of several mountainous islands. The leaky Fukushima nuclear reactors, located on the northeastern shores of the main island, are roughly 200 kilometers north of Tokyo and 700 kilometers northeast of Osaka.
While radiation levels detected in Tokyo on Tuesday suggested some
radioactivity had spread to the sprawling megalopolis of 30 million
people, these were still far below the level that might pose a health
hazard.
On Wednesday, that significant, albeit low level of radiation – about
the same dosage passengers are exposed to on flights – was dropping,
media reported.
At the same time, the situation at the Fukushima reactors remained
precarious, prompting most Israeli media outlets on Monday to pull their
correspondents from the country in case the situation deteriorates.
Channel 10 and Channel 2, which both sent their anchors to Japan to
cover the catastrophe, put their staff back on flights to Israel.
Follow Gil Shefler on Twitter @GilShefler