An essay revisiting the 2011 Fukushima accident to analyze China’s radiation panic, highlighting decades of nuclear testing in Xinjiang and the consequences of information control in authoritarian systems.

2016-03-10

The following is an article originally published on April 2, 2011.

Mineral water was bought up by foreigners rushing to leave Japan. While the nuclear accident caused panic in many places, it was China—Japan’s neighbor—that reacted even more hysterically than the Japanese themselves. The scene of Narita Airport crowded with foreigners fleeing Japan is still fresh in memory.

“It is believed that around 7,000 French nationals have left the country since the nuclear accident became clear. The Chinese response was also remarkable. At one point, several thousand people crowded the airport,” said a reporter from the social affairs desk. Although airfare to China normally costs around 20,000 to 30,000 yen, some were willing to pay as much as approximately 130,000 yen one way just to return home. “In China’s case, embassies actually call students. It’s not compulsory, but they advise them that it would be better to leave Japan. About one-tenth of the Chinese students in Japan have already returned. Overall, the number must reach into the tens of thousands,” the same source explained.

Believing that staying in Japan was dangerous, on March 26 an illegal Chinese resident (48) who had fled from Chiba Prefecture to Nagasaki even turned himself in to the police, asking to be forcibly deported. However, according to experts, returning to China would not reduce the radiation exposure they would receive.

Soy sauce disappeared as well.

“Originally, natural background radiation levels in China are higher than in Japan, and in a place called Yangjiang near Hong Kong, people are exposed to eight times the radiation found in Japan. Moreover, China conducted 45 nuclear tests in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region up until 1996, and even now, radioactive substances such as cesium are carried by seasonal winds to coastal areas every spring,” said a radiation researcher.

Once panic ignites in that country, it cannot be stopped. In fact, the situation there became even more hysterical than in Japan.

Columnist Nitta Tamaki, an expert on China, explained:
“Rumors spread that radioactive substances might come from Japan, and around March 16 panic buying of salt broke out in Wenzhou City, Zhejiang Province. A false rumor circulated that iodine in salt was effective against radiation, and in Zhejiang Province alone, as much as 4,000 tons of salt were sold in a single day.”

Customers flooded supermarkets in search of salt, and some individuals reportedly bought as much as 6.5 tons. When salt ran out, soy sauce disappeared from shelves as well, simply because it contained salt.

Commentator Miyazaki Masahiro also noted:
“This happens because the Chinese government controls information and does not disclose accurate data. As a result, people have no choice but to believe whatever information is passed from person to person—even if it is false.”

Although the panic eventually subsided, people then began demanding refunds for the salt they had bought. Japan’s nuclear accident had already become a secondary concern.

All bold emphasis other than the headline was added by Akutagawa.

What Japanese television has continued to do for more than twenty years—broadcasting indecency that Asia should never imitate—is exactly what I have long criticized. This incident makes that fact unmistakably clear.