ABSTRACT
Twenty years have passed since the Shōwa era ended and the Heisei era commenced in 1989. That change coincided with the end of the Cold War. After World War II, Japan shifted its course from “rich country and strong military” to “rich and peaceful country.” Japan achieved remarkable success by the end of the Cold War to become the second largest economy in the world, a remarkable story of rising
from the ashes of defeat in 1945. But after achieving the post-World War II goal of “rich and peaceful country,” Japan lost its national objective and began to drift in the subsequent twenty years. In the wake of the earthquake/tsunami on March 11, I immediately thought that precisely because of the enormous scale of this calamity and the absolute need to concentrate people’s energy to overcome it, Japan might be able to turn this tragedy into a “mandate from heaven” for reconstruction. If the Japanese people could mobilize their inherent energy and discipline to tackle reconstruction of Tōhoku (northeast) region, I thought it possible to end two decades of drift and turn this region into a dreamland of twenty-fi rst century civilization. While the Fukushima nuclear meltdown resulted in a calamity of an entirely di erent nature from the tsunami/earthquake, I also consider this as another trial from heaven. If Japan is able to become the leading country for renewable energy, then it ultimately could realize the opportunities created by disaster.
