Japanese Prime Minister Speaks About Progress One Year After Earthquake
STOUT: Japan is preparing to mark the first anniversary of its worst crisis since World War II. Last March, a magnitude 9 earthquake triggered a huge tsunami that swept across the northeast of the country. It brought on a nuclear meltdown at the Fukushima plant that's ranked on par with Chernobyl and could take 40 years to be brought under control. At least 20,000 people were killed or listed as missing, and hundreds of thousands of others were displaced from their homes after entire towns were destroyed. Now Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda says lessons have been learned from the disaster, and he says those lessons are being shared with the international community to improve nuclear safety. He spoke to Kyung Lah about the progress Japan has made over the past year.</s>KYUNG LAH, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: We are meeting on the even of the one-year anniversary of Japan's disaster. Are you satisfied with the status of the country? And where do you see this country going?</s>YOSHIHIKO NODA, JAPANESE PRIME MINISTER (through translator): The Japanese people are united in working with the government to put all our might towards working on the reconstruction. As a result, the broken supply chain that was of concern has completely recovered. The debris cleanup, the building of temporary houses, and daily support for the disaster victims, we have been making steady progress on all those issues. I would like to accelerate the reconstruction and, by doing so, energize Japan as well.</s>LAH: There was a scathing report very recently from the Rebuild Japan Initiative Foundation that Japan hid its most alarming assessments not just from its citizens, but from its allies like the United States. Your government is now in charge. What assurance do you have -- or do you have any -- that Japan has fundamentally changed so if another disaster strikes this country, that your allies around the world should have faith in this leadership?</s>NODA (through translator): There will be many lessons learned, as well as remorse, from the nuclear power plant accident. In order to never repeat the same accident again, we would like to listen to any kind of advice and suggestions, and would like to improve based on those suggestions. Specifically, what I can say now is that it is very important to share the information we have with the people outside and inside Japan in an appropriate manner and timing. Sharing the lessons and remorse of this nuclear accident with the international community will contribute to the overall safety in nuclear energy, as well as international cooperation.</s>STOUT: The Japanese prime minister there. Now, many areas of northeastern Japan remain deserted after they were destroyed by the earthquake and tsunami, but rising numbers of young people are now volunteering to help rebuild communities, as Kyung Lah now reports.</s>LAH (voice-over): Daybreak at the dock: culturing oysters and nurturing scallops, as families have done for generations in Ogatsu, Japan. But the student learning here today is not this fisherman's son or schooled in the trade. (on camera): Nothing related to fishing. (voice-over): "Nothing at all," says Takashi Tachibana (ph). Tachibana (ph) studied political science and ran his own small business in Tokyo, a cushy full-time job and a life in the city he gave up to move to the tsunami-devastated town of Ogatsu. (on camera): Did you fundamentally change after the disaster? (voice-over): "I think so," he says. "I now act not just with my head, but with my heart." His heart was moved, he explains, by last year's destructive tsunami and the suffering of a ravaged region. And it's not just him. These people in their 20s and 30s are part of a reverse migration and renewed volunteerism among the young who are returning to the rural communities. "I'm Japanese, too," says 27-year-old Ayumi Tashima (ph). She's in Ogatsu, volunteering on the weekend. She doesn't know anyone here, but just wants to help. (on camera): A year after the disaster, the town of Ogatsu looks like the tsunami and the earthquake struck just yesterday. Seventy-five percent of the population left here, seeing no reason to rebuild, no economic future for this place. The people left behind say without young people coming in, this town will die. (voice-over): Hiromitsu Ito (ph) is a third-generation Ogatsu fisherman. (on camera): What happens to Ogatsu if you don't have this interface with these young people coming in? (voice-over): "Even before the quake, our town was losing people and disappearing," he says. "Our fishing industry would die out if they didn't come here." But a few volunteers fishing on the weekends won't save a town, says Tachibana (ph), who admits rebuilding a depleted town is an uphill climb. What's different about this reverse migration, he believes, is that they're taking city smarts and reforming rural ways. Tachibana (ph) connects Ogatsu's fishermen to Tokyo's buyers, cutting out the expensive middleman distributor. Bigger profits return to the fishermen and to Ogatsu. The young here say they're not saving a town, the town is also saving them. "I think 2012 will be a turning point in history for young people," says Tachibana (ph). We were raised to believe in mass consumption and improving the economy. Maybe there's more to life than that. Kyung Lah, CNN, Ogatsu, Japan.</s>STOUT: Now, the earthquake and tsunami last March hit household names like Sony, Sharp and Panasonic hard, but it's not all doom and gloom for Japan's electronics industry.</s>ANDREW STEVENS, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Meet 35- year-old Yoshikazu Tanaka, Japan's youngest-ever self-made billionaire, the second youngest in the world, in fact, behind Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg.</s>STOUT: Tomorrow, here on NEWS STREAM, our focus on "Rebuilding Japan" continues as we look at the new wave of Japanese social media and gaming companies. Now, still to come here on NEWS STREAM, Rory McIlroy rises to the top of the world's golf rankings, and he had to hold off the hungry Tiger Woods to do it. Stay with us.