It could be...and they're not even trying to hide it...

You could also say they may also be totally overwhelmed. Japan has a Debt to GDP level of 200%, and the Tsunami/earthquake is already the most expensive disaster in history, over $300BN and rising. If they have to evacuate that many people - possibly permanently - that would add another level of strain to an already overspent government. Japan doesn't have much unused land...maybe it really is time to ask China to move into those 64MM empty apartments, as someone on GLP suggested.

Japan government 'overwhelmed'

[link to www.news24.com]

Yamagata - A top Japanese official acknowledged on Friday that the government was overwhelmed by the scale of last week's twin natural disasters, slowing its response to the nuclear crisis that was triggered by the earthquake and tsunami that left at least 10 000 people dead.

The admission by Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano came as Japan reached out on Friday to the US for help in stabilising its overheated, radiation-leaking nuclear complex, and as the country reclassified the rating of the nuclear accident from Level 4 to Level 5 on a seven-level international scale. Nuclear experts have been saying for days that Japan was underplaying the crisis' severity.