February 13, 2012
The NYT had an article reporting on the rebuilding following last year’s earthquake and tsunami in Japan. The article is devoted to what it describes as a generational conflict where older residents wanted even the smallest villages rebuilt whereas many younger residents preferred to save money by consolidating some of the smaller villages into large ones.
At one point the piece describes the rebuilding as a boon to “politically connected” construction companies. It would have been helpful to include more discussion of the impact of these construction companies on the rebuilding process. The more money is spent, the more they would stand to profit. For this reason, it seems likely that they would be opposed to plans to save money by consolidating villages. It would be interesting to know the extent to which they played a role — as oppose to older citizens — in pushing the decision to rebuild all the villages.
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