When managers from Tokyo arrived at the Nippon Paper factory in Ishinomaki, north-eastern Japan, after the March 11 tsunami, they had to clear a narrow path through debris to reach a door. Overturned cars were piled in the parking lot, and giant rolls of uncut paper littered the grounds.
Happily for the company and the factory’s 600 full-time workers, much of the Ishinomaki plant turned out to be salvageable, and some production is expected to resume in September. But there will be big changes. Capacity will be lower, so exports, which accounted for about a quarter of output, will be scrapped.
And – in a shift that reflects broader developments across Japan – the plant will change the way it gets its power. Oil furnaces that provided much of its electricity before the tsunami will be mothballed in favour of cleaner-burning biomass generators, which can turn things such as waste pulp and paper – as well as wood from tsunami-wrecked buildings – into fuel.