Japan’s Earthquake and

Tsunami in 2011

Sang Eun Choi

English 403_02

Spring 2013

The Earthquake and Tsunami

The Earthquake and Tsunami

(continued)

The Earthquake and Tsunami

(continued)

Researching

• Used the ProQuest Newspapers as a database

• Keywords used: Tohoku earthquake, tsunami, Tohoku

Japan, Tohoku nuclear power station

• Times range: 2011-03-11 ~ 2012-12-31

• New York Times and South China Morning Post

Comparison

• New York Times

– In scope of global

– Global economy

– Numbers and Statistics

• South China Morning Post

– In scope of Japan and Asia

– Japan’s economy

– Opinions and feelings

Examples – New York Times

• “Like everyone else, corporate executives, economists

and financial analysts in Tokyo, New York, London and

beyond struggled last week to wrap their heads around

the scale of this disaster” – Sommer, J. New York Times,

(2011, March 20, p. BU 1).

• “Exports jumped 6.2 percent as manufacturers got

production back on track. Private consumption, which

accounts for almost two-thirds of Japan's economy, grew

1 percent, helped by a rebound in consumer sentiment

and replacement demand in the tsunami zone” – Tabuchi,

H. New York Times, (2011, November 14, p. B3).

Examples – South China Morning

Post

• “It is also likely that the economic impact on the wider

region will prove less severe than investors first feared.

Japanese factories are vital links in many of East

Asia's supply chains” - "Economic and market fallout”

South China Morning Post, (2011, March 21, p. 12).

• “Our goal is not simply to reconstruct the Japan that

existed before March 11, 2011, but to build a new Japan”

- “Japan has made” South China Morning Post, (2012,

March 11, p. 14).

Conclusion

• Reason of differences in writing

– Geographic locations each newspaper is

published from

Thank you