Dams, Damn Dams and Statistics

It seems that whenever there’s a dust-up about pork-barrel construction projects in Japan, my home prefecture of Gunma is at the center of the controversy. It happened a couple years ago when the then-mayor of our city (who happened to live next door to us) decided that what we needed was a shiny new Ferris Wheel — despite the fact that we already have a perfectly good one — and naturally he and his friends who also happened to own construction companies would profit from this new building project. This example of wasteful public works projects became national news, and we had camera crews at our house trying to ambush the mayor and interview him about the project, which was eventually cancelled. One of the issues in the recent election in which the former opposition Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) ousted the long-ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) was unnecessary public spending, and the fight centered around the Yamba Dam Project. For the past 57 years the dam has been planned, and an entire generation of Japanese living in the villages that were to be submerged had been making preparations to relocate…although the new government has declared that the project would be ended, which is causing confusion and anger in the affected areas. Although the DPJ is acting like the decision to cancel the $9.9 billion project was made purely for fiscal reasons, there’s little doubt politics are playing a role as well, since the dam just happens to be located in the district overseen by former Prime Ministers Obuchi and Yasuda, politicians who were arch rivals of the new administration.

Tthe Yamba Dam is a big point of debate in Japan today. This village is one of the proposed relocation sites.