You would expect a nation famed for its efficiency and infrastructure to set the world standard for rebuilding. Yet one year after an earthquake and tsunami, Japan's revival has barely begun. "They have done a great job of neatly piling the debris and tucking it under tarps, but otherwise I see little progress," says Jeff Kingston of Temple University, Japan Campus. "Partly it's political paralysis and partly bureaucratic indecision about what to rebuild, how to consolidate and the problem of disposing of that rubbish."