On March 11, 2011 the strongest earthquake recorded in Japan off the Pacific coast to
northeast of the country occurred (also known as Great East Japan Earthquake, 2011
Tohoku Earthquake, and the 3.11 Earthquake) which triggered a powerful tsunami and
caused a nuclear accident in one of the world’s largest nuclear plants—Fukushima Daichi
Nuclear Plant Station. It was the first disaster that included an earthquake, a tsunami and
a nuclear power plant accident.
The 2011 disasters have had immense impacts on people’s life, health and property,
social infrastructure and economy, natural and institutional environment, etc., in
northeastern Japan and beyond. There were numerous publications on the diverse impacts
of the 2011 disasters including on the Japanese agriculture and food sector (Ja-zenchu,
2011; Watanabe, 2011 and 2013; MAFF, 2012; Ujiie, 2012; Koyama, 2013; MHLW, 2013;
Nakanishi and Tanoi, 2013; Pushpalal et al., 2013; and Bachev and Ito, 2013a and 2013b).
Nevertheless, due to the scale of the disasters and affected agents, effects’ multiplicities,
spillovers, long-time horizon, lack of ‘full’ information and models of analysis, on-going
crisis at the nuclear plant, etc., the overall impact of 2011 disasters on Japanese agri-food
chains is far from being completely evaluated.
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