Tsunami walls block the view

September 21, 2015

Tohoku residents see red over unsightly tsunami barriers

http://ajw.asahi.com/article/0311disaster/recovery/AJ201509210033

By YOSUKE FUKUDOME/ Staff Writer

As massive tsunami sea walls go up along the shores of the Tohoku region, many residents are complaining that these concrete slabs are an eyesore and block their ocean view.

In the fishing port of Yamada, Iwate Prefecture, the barriers measure 7.5 meters high and stretch 1.61 kilometers along the coastline, obstructing the view of the ocean.

"The scenery I used to know was taken away completely when the barriers were installed," said a man who runs a store in a seaside shopping arcade.

The concrete sea walls are gradually being constructed along the 400 km of coastline in Iwate, Miyagi and Fukushima prefectures in Japan's northeastern region, where many communities were devastated by the tsunami generated by the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake. The massive project has a budget of about 1 trillion yen ($8.35 billion).

A sea wall measuring 10 meters high and 660 meters wide is also going up in Iwate’s Rikuzentakata.

The area where the sea wall is being built is a restricted zone where residential construction is not allowed. The concrete barrier will protect several marine products facilities operating in the area.

"There's no need for such a thing when nobody is going to live in the area,” a 75-year-old resident said. “The budget could be used for something else if they just repaired the old sea wall instead that was damaged in the disaster."

In Kesennuma, Miyagi Prefecture, the design of its new 6.4-meter high sea wall was revised after residents complained that they could no longer see the ocean. Small rectangular acrylic glass windows measuring 60 centimeters by 1.5 meters will be installed in the sea wall.

"These windows are to see the ocean?” a 59-year-old factory worker said. “I thought they were there to let some of the water out when a tsunami comes to relieve the pressure."