Nearly ten days after the typhoon, there are still large areas of power outages.
On September 9, Japan's Chiba Prefecture near Tokyo was hit by Typhoon "Faxai", causing widespread power outages. It has been nearly 10 days since the typhoon passed, but more than 60,000 households are still without power, and it may take another two weeks to restore power supply.
In Minamifang City, Chiba Prefecture, as far as the eye can see, blue plastic sheets cover the roofs of houses that have not been repaired since the typhoon hit, and will leak water during a heavy rain. The Nishisakaki family here has spent nearly 10 nights in the dark.
Japan's Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) and the Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO), which supplies electricity to Chiba Prefecture, said the damage to power facilities was beyond imagination and that it would take until September 27 for power to be fully restored.
Questions have been raised about the government's slow initial response to the disaster. After the typhoon, nearly one million households in Chiba Prefecture lost power, and it took three days for the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry to set up a "power outage disaster Response office." The Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) had a poor judgment of the power damage from the beginning, and repairs lagged behind.
Some critics believe that this large-scale and prolonged power outage has exposed Japan's shortcomings in crisis response as a disaster-prone country. It is very difficult for local governments to obtain comprehensive information at the beginning of a disaster, and it is very important to make reasonable decisions and responses when there is insufficient information.