Looting Rears Its Head in Tsunami-hit Japan

(Wall Street Journal) - SENDAI, Japan -- When a tsunami blasted through Kirin Brewery's seaside facilities in Sendai, Japan, it tipped over giant beer storage tanks and spread a blanket of beer bottles, barrels and other goods across the port, and the beverages that spilled out were then hit a second time -- by a surge of thirsty residents, The Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday.

Witnesses said hundreds of people carted off beer, coffee, juice and other goods that had escaped Kirin's massive warehouse when the tsunami waters receded.

"All kinds of people came and were taking things away, they kept coming until everything was gone," on Saturday, said Makoto Igarashi, who manages a gas station across the street from the Kirin brewery. "Some even tried to enter the Kirin grounds, but the guards stopped them."

More than 10 days after the earthquake and waves hit Sendai, on Japan's northeastern coast, most victims of the twin disasters have handled the crisis with extraordinary restraint. Despite the lack of food, water, medicine and gasoline, few Japanese in the hardest-hit areas have complained, and there has been little sign of looting.

However, as more stories of struggle and survival trickle out of smashed seaside communities, there has been some evidence that the chaotic circumstances may have proved too much of a temptation for a small minority. Most of the looting incidents appear to target necessities in tight supply after the disaster, such as food and gasoline, rather than durable goods.

In at least two convenience stores of Ishinomaki up the coast from Sendai where waves pushed cars into the front windows and cleared products from the shelves, ATMs were pried open by someone with tools to remove the cash within. Other convenience stores that survived the waves also had their front doors broken by people desperate for food and water.

In one deserted self-service noodle shop in Sendai, a food ticket vending machine had also been forced open to get at the cash inside. Nearby, holes had been punched into the gas tanks of cars that had been flipped upside down, apparently by people unable to wait for gas stations to reopen.

Japan's National Police Agency acknowledged there has been some looting, but said it does not yet have data on how widespread the phenomenon is.

"There hasn't been many reports, I would guess only in the dozens," Nobuhiro Kato, a chief of the National Police Agency, said. But "there must be more lootings that are not reported up to police," he said.

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