After Fukushima: the outlook for Japan

On 11 March 2011 a magnitude 9 earthquake in the northern Pacific triggered a 40 metre-high tsunami that struck Japan’s Pacific coast, causing 16,000 deaths, the destruction of 125,000 buildings, and meltdowns in three reactors in the Fukushima Nuclear Power complex. The scale of this tragedy was described by the country’s Prime Minister as the greatest crisis faced by his nation since the end of the Pacific War. On the anniversary of the Fukushima disaster, the Lowy Institute will convene a panel to discuss how Japan’s government, society and economy have responded to the tragedy, and whether its effects will continue to shape Japan’s internal and external policies into the future.

The panellists include:

Manuel Panagiotopoulos is a specialist consultant and advisor on Australia-Japan economic relations. He has been engaged in this activity for 20 years and has an extensive network amongst the Australian and Japanese business, government and academic sectors.

Professor Jenny Corbett specialises in contemporary Japanese economics. She is a Research Fellow at the Centre for Economic Policy Research (London), Research Associate with the Center on Japanese Economy and Business (Columbia University, New York), and a member of the Editorial Board, Japanese Business and Economics Series.

Greg Earl is Asia Pacific and National Affairs editor of The Australian Financial Review. He has been a foreign correspondent based in Jakarta, Tokyo and New York, and now monitors Australia's relations with Asia.  

Dr Michael Fullilove (moderator) is the Director of the Global Issues Program at the Lowy Institute for International Policy and a Nonresident Senior Fellow in Foreign Policy at the Brookings Institution in Washington, DC.