From the HSNW: Deadly Lessons from Fukushima Changed Japan and the World
“The strongest earthquake in Japan’s recorded history triggered a massive tsunami in 2011. Together, the two natural disasters claimed close to 20,000 lives, making the event one of the deadliest in Japan’s history. But the crisis didn’t end there.
The strongest earthquake in Japan’s recorded history triggered a massive tsunami in 2011. Waves taller than houses slammed against hundreds of miles of the country’s northern coastline; one wave measured 33 feet high. Together, the two natural disasters claimed close to 20,000 lives, making the event one of the deadliest in Japan’s history.
But the crisis didn’t end there. The tsunami knocked out power to the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, launching a nuclear meltdown whose fallout still affects Japan’s citizens, international relations…”
Recovery Diva 
Well as they say, there’s lessons learned and there’s lessons observed. Following the 1995 Hanshin Earthquake that devastated Kobe and displayed a weak disaster response system in Japan, the Japan Government sent delegation after delegation to FEMA (where I was then working) to learn about the US framework for disaster response. The key things we had that Japan didn’t were all-hazards planning, a permanent emergency management staff, and a system for cross-agency coordination that existed by way of FEMA. The Japan Government folks spent the next few years mulling this over and asking us the same questions over and over until finally…Hurricane Katrina, where the US system was seen to have failed, and thus the Japanese could breathe a sigh of relief and say, see, the US system doesn’t work after all, so no need to change ours here in Japan. So no permanent EM staff in Japan, no all-hazards planning, and extremely weak cross-agency coordination, leading to a confused and uncoordinated response to the 2011 Eastern Japan disaster. O well.
Sad to hear. Usually people leave from experience.