My Essay Draft updated at 23:46 10/17

Japanese Government’s Information Disclosure

Research Question
Why should the Japanese government improve their policy about information disclosure in times of disaster?
Thesis Statement:
In times of disaster, the Japanese government should disclose the whole information they have because it offers three positive points for Japanese citizens.

Ⅰ. Introduction

1. Hook
2. Background Information
3. Thesis Statement

Ⅱ. Present Problems of Policy of Information Disclosure in Urgent Situation

1. Limitations of Information

1. Press Restraints
2. Delay of Disclosure

2. The Theory of “Avoiding Panic”

Ⅲ. Positive Features of Information Disclosure

1. Citizens’ Taking Actions

1. Source (an Example)
2. Effect

2. Specialists’ Analyzing

1. Source (Interview)
2. Effect

3. Inheritance to Next Generations

1. Source (Nio-cho Solar System Experiment)
2. Effect

Ⅳ. Ways of Making the Government Disclose Information

1. The U.S.’s Policies
2. Another Sector

Ⅴ. Conclusion

1. Repeat the Thesis and Main Points
2. Prospect to the Future

Japanese Information Disclosure in Times of Disaster

“It has no immediate impact on health”().  You must have heard this phrase many times in these six months. Since the miserable catastrophe ih Tohoku district coming, Japanese citizens have been trying to revive their nation as much as they can. In addition to people going disaster-stricken area to work as volunteers, scholars are also trying to make plans for revival of Japan.

However, there is one impediment that makes it difficult for tireless people to advance the actions for revival. The impediment is lack of information. That makes Japanese general citizens get antsy about the future and makes the scholars’ plans difficult to be enough ones. Recently, the Japanese government has been sending information about the earthquake and the accident of Fukushima daiichi nuclear power plant as required through their website or press conferences. However, the quantity of the information that they have been sending is not enough for a lot of scholars to keep advanced researching. Moreover, the Japanese government is said to be concealing some information related to the accident, and because of it, they have become the focus of strong criticism from other countries’ media (New York Times, Japanese Officials Ignored or Concealed Dangers, 16 May 2011). In such an unprecedented circumstance of Japan, the present Japanese government’s attitude toward the policy of information disclosure in times of disaster must be changed.

Therefore, in times of disaster, the Japanese government should disclose the whole information they have because it offers three positive points for Japanese citizens.

1) The Japanese citizens come to be able to take action actively and save their own safety by themselves.

2) Specialists come to be able to analyze accidents earlier than now and contribute to recovery of the situations.

3) The Japanese Citizens and specialists come to be able to inherit the information to the next generations to convey how miserable the disasters were.

Problems of the present Japanese government’s attitude toward information disclosure in times of disaster are so serious, and they can be distinguished to two types by means of their features. First, the Japanese government sometimes pressures Japanese media that they should not publish or broadcast about certain incidents or accidents.  In this case, media cannot inform the news to the Japanese citizens correctly. For example, on March 18, ANI reported that 5 workers who worked for Fukushima daiichi nuclear plant have been died because of the accident. However, the Japanese media never reported such news. This reporting bias crucially shows the Japanese media surely had difficulties of reporting such news. According to. Thus, such immoral pressure of the Japanese government makes it difficult for Japanese citizens to acquire correct information. Second, Japanese government sometimes delays the disclosure of information. Due to such delay, the beginning of researching about accidents is also delayed. Moreover, it causes the delays of revival from the miserable situations. For instance, though the Japanese government makes the children living in Fukushima get checkup of thyroiditis in March, the result was disclosed on August 17th, and it showed that 45% of the children’s thyroiditis were exposed to radiation (http://www.asahi.com/special/10005/TKY201108170394.html). It is clear that the result of the checkup had already been gotten before August. In spite of that, the Japanese government had not disclosed that result until August. The period from March to August is too long for the children to wait for the result of the checkup. Moreover, this delay endangered the health of the children having checkup.  Indeed this result was not to be expected, but the Japanese government should have disclosed it earlier to ensure the safety of the children. Thus, such delay of information disclosure is a crucial problem that the present Japanese government has.

As to these limitations of information, some scholars agree with them. They insist that such limitations of information disclosure in times of disaster are useful at the point of avoiding social panic. They seem to like to say that if general citizens get too much information in such situation, they will get into the panic. However, this theory is not true. According to Rebecca Solnit who is the author of “A PARADISE BUILT IN HELL,” the theory that people get into panic because of flood of information is just a theory that is convenient for government officials. She believes that in times of disaster the government officials get into panic because they have to consider a lot of different policy from present ones and they tend to regard general citizens in the same light as themselves. Then, they misunderstand that general citizens also get into panic. She also points out that when Three Mile Island Accident occurred, more than one hundred and fifteen citizens took refuge independently and calmly. Therefore, the theory that general citizens get into panic in times of disaster if they are given too much information is untruth.

As shown above, concealing of information in times of disaster makes no senses. Then, the way that the Japanese government should take is to disclose whole information they have in times of disaster because it has three positive points for the Japanese citizens. First, if the Japanese citizens have whole information in such situation, they are able to consider the best way to avoid danger. For instance, . Second, using whole information, specialists are able to carry out advanced researches. Nowadays many specialists are trying to make close investigation related to the accident in Fukushima on their fields of study. According to Iida who is the manager of ISEP, a lot of specialists are being confused because of lack of information about the accident in Fukushima, and if they can get much information, their analyses will proceed more and more. His statement certainly shows that if the Japanese government disclose whole information, their researches will be improved and contribute to the society. Third, abundant quantity of information in times of disaster enables general citizens and specialists to inherit the present circumstance to the next generations. Such inheritance is important because the societies of the next generations are able to avoid the same problems the past generations have faced by using the information that are inherited to them. Even the present Japanese people have succeeded to prevent accidents thanks to the lessens from past generations. For example, investigating committees about inheritances of past disasters are held by the Japanese government every year(http://www.bousai.go.jp/jishin/chubou/kyoukun/index.html). Of course, such efforts of the Japanese government should be applauded because these efforts enable the present Japanese citizens to understand how miserable the disasters were and the way to prevent such miserable results. However, if only a few part of the information is inherited, the societies of the next generations cannot have enough benefit from them. In order to inherit whole information to the societies of the next generations, it is necessary for the present Japanese government to disclose whole information in times of disaster. When such disclosure is accomplished, the effects of inheritance become maximum. Thus, there are three positive reasons suggesting that the Japanese government should disclose whole information they have in times of disaster.

So far, importance of whole information disclosure has been discussed. From here, the ways to improve present policy of the Japanese information disclosure in times of disaster are need to be discussed . In other word, it is necessary to find the ways to make the Japanese government disclose whole information they have in times of disaster. First, learning other countries’ policy is one of the useful way to improve present situation. In the U.S., (Source&Effects). Another way to improve this situation is to establish another sector related to information disclosure in times of disaster except for present institution of the Japanese government.(Source&Effects).

The present Japanese policy of information disclosure has a lot of problems, but now some solutions of these problems have been suggested. The purpose of this solutions is to fulfill whole information disclosure in times of disaster. Employing this plan will enable the Japanese citizens to  produce more secure society by themselves.

I know that my way of citation of this blog is wrong way, but please forgive me because it is still draft