Japan: earthquake and tsunami: an aerial view of tsunami damage in Tōhoku, photo Wikipedia

Japan: earthquake and tsunami: an aerial view of tsunami damage in Tōhoku, photo Wikipedia   (Click to enlarge: opens in new window)

As we go to press the horrendous tsunami and earthquakes have claimed an estimated 3,000 lives in Japan. The final toll could be tens of thousands.

Millions of people in the affected areas of the north-east are without water, food, electricity or gas. More than 500,000 people have been left homeless.

Across the country many more face blackouts and, far worse, the threat of a nuclear disaster.

Ordinary people around the world will feel tremendous sympathy for those who have suffered such loss.

It is not only the loss of loved ones but of property and possessions too, even any reminder of those who have died.

Now in the aftermath there is a struggle to obtain the basic human requirements, including food and shelter.

Japan is the third largest economy on the planet. But international experiences of natural disasters show that we can have no confidence in the profit-driven capitalist system to efficiently and quickly allocate resources to those in need.

Almost a third of Japan’s energy comes from nuclear power. In fact Japan is seen as the cutting edge of technology.

But, as this crisis has exposed, there can be no trust in the safety of nuclear energy production.

The Socialist Party supports the growing demands for an end to the use of nuclear power.