Mega-Disaster Prevention and Recovery Strategy after the Great East Japan Earthquake

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Mega-Disaster Prevention and Recovery Strategy after the Great East Japan Earthquake

Keiji Habara

■Abstract :

This paper aims to elucidate the real aspect of the Great East Japan Earthquake occurred on M arch 11in 2011which is the most destructive natural disaster in Japanʼ s history by once in a thousand years tsunami. Through the analysis of damage by this earthquake and tsunami, how to enhance the global resiliency and international cooperation for the future effective disaster prevention systems can be clarified, recognizing Japanese past development of disaster coun-

termeasures.

■Key words:

Great East Japan Earthquake, disaster recovery, international cooperation

１．The Scale and Impact of the Great East Japan Earthquake

The Great East Japan Earthquake occurred around2:46p.m. on Friday on March11in2011, measured magnitude 9.0on the Richter

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scale. It struck 130km east-southeast of Oshika Peninsula, M iyagi Prefecture and the focal point was 24km below the surface of water as the most destructive natural disaster in Japanʼ s history, once in a thousand years tsunami. The Tohoku region felt the strongest tremors, registering 7on the Japanese scale of 7in northern M iyagi Prefecture. M assive quake caused a tsunami surpassing 20meters high and hit several kilometers of the Tohoku coastline on the east-

ern side of Japan. This disaster was followed by a nuclear crisis categorized as level7on the International Nuclear Event Scale.

Subsequently, a nationwide electricity shortage ensued and finally the collapse of the industrial supply chain nationally and globally expanded.

This tsunami directly claimed the lives of approximately18,000peo- ple. The economic and infrastructure damage was about $200billion.

The direct damage induced indirect damage due to the collapse of the industrial supply chain. Japanʼ s mining and manufacturing pro-

duction in M arch was ‑15.5%, the biggest monthly drop in the history. Exports in April were‑12% as well. The major disaster area in Tohoku was Iwate, M iyagi, and Fukushima prefectures, in which

4.5% of the nationʼs population are located, accounting for4% of the national GDP. Although the national exports share by three prefec-

tures is just 1%, the initial damage in the disaster area largely im- pacted the supply chain across Japan, parts of East Asia, and the rest of the world. For example, the automobile industry, which pro-

duces the products by assembling 20,000‑30,000parts including materials, electronics, and machinery, was the most affected sector.

Therefore, it is important and essential to cope with supply chain disruptions by BCP(Business Continuity Plan ).

Mega-Disaster Prevention and Recovery Strategy after the Great East Japan Earthquake

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２．The Enhancement of Global Resilience against Disaster

Due to rapid progress in IT (Information Technology)and trans- port technology together with the promotion of free trade by the World Trade Organization (WTO ), free trade agreements (FTA),

and economic partnerships (EPA), the globalization of production, trade, and investment as well as the local agglomeration of production and consumption has been growing in major cities throughout Asia and the world based on the flow of global production in a very complex network. In addition, manufacturers adopt a just-in-time procurement policy to minimize inventory stock. This worldwide sys-

tematic production structure is very efficient under normal conditions but vulnerable to serious disasters.

Now, it is indispensable to promote international cooperation for the purpose of enhancing the resiliency of the global supply chains,

recognizing that no place in the world is risk free. M ain risk management techniques to deal with potential risks of supply chain disruptions are the virtual and actual dispersion of key plants, stan- dardization of parts and materials, diversification of supplies, and utilization of disaster insurance, aiming at the enhancement of resiliency based on international cooperation among countries involved. Effective implementation of risk financing needs a more comprehensive global insurance system. In the aspect of risk control,

supply chain risk reduction is to develop sister industrial clusters in order to disperse risks. During normal situation, each production cluster focuses on its special products, while in the case of disaster,

sister cluster in the region will provide backup production of com- mon parts. This country to country cooperation should be established

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in case of emergency to improve supply chain by higher quality production and advanced safety system, irrespective of competition with each other during normal conditions.

As a good example of international cooperation with developing countries during the1950ʼs and1960 ʼs, destructive typhoons caused catastrophic damage in production systems of Japan. Japan subse-

quently developed infrastructure in water supply systems and electri- fication systems with the great assistance received especially from the World Bank and the IMF(International Monetary Fund ).

３．The History of the Development of Disaster Prevention System in Japan

3‑1．The Ise Bay Typhoon and the Disaster Countermeasures Basic Law

In September 1959, the Ise Bay Typhoon struck directly the City of Nagoya and the surrounding area, leaving 5,098people dead and missing and seriously damaging the Chukyou Industrial Zone, which was on the way to post-war recovery. Even until then, the annual number of victims of natural disasters after 1945had been in the scale of1,000people. Since the number of victims in the Ise Bay Typhoon was strikingly high and this typhoon devastated a large area around Nagoya with high tide and storm, it shocked the whole nation.

On the occasion of this disaster recovery as a turnabout, the con- ventional disaster prevention system was criticized as being deficient, and in1961, the Disaster Countermeasures Basic Law was enacted to develop a comprehensive and systematic disaster prevention system.

The law contained three innovative features in disaster prevention 202

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countermeasures as follows:

⑴ The Central Disaster Prevention Council, highest coordination organization engaged in disaster prevention on the national level headed by the prime minister and consisting of all of the cabinet members as well as semi-public institutions deeply connected to disaster prevention, was established. Furthermore, corporations engaged in the projects of public works including electricity, gas,

transportation, and telecommunication were designated by the prime minister as the designated public institution with their obligation on the disaster prevention clarified. By this procedure,

the importance of disaster prevention become recognized widely among those concerned while clarifying the obligations enabled disaster countermeasures to be taken based on close cooperation between the public and private organizations.

⑵ It became mandatory for the government to report to the Diet (Parliament of Japan)the annual disaster prevention plan as well as measures taken with regard to disaster prevention. By this action, the system was established to discuss disaster pre-

vention every year as an important national issue at the Diet even at a time of small number of disasters. This led to the budget for disaster prevention to be secured steadily.

⑶ The obligation of the state, prefectures, cities, towns, villages, designated public institutions, and local residents was specified with regard to disaster prevention. In order to guarantee such obligation, each party became responsible to design a disaster prevention plan. Together with the establishment of The Disas-

ter Prevention Day(September 1)in 1960, which is the time when an integrated disaster prevention drill is conducted every 203

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year under the direction of the Prime M inister, named after the day of the Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923with the victims of

142,800people dead or missing, awareness of the importance of disaster prevention among each organization and individual grew dramatically.

3‑2．The Great Hanshin and Awaji Earthquake and lessons learnt In January1995, the Hanshin and Awaji districts were struck by an earthquake, measuring 7.3on the Richter scale of which the epi-

center was directly below. This unprecedented disaster at that time was a massive one which left6,437 people dead. As the earthquake disabled the personnel and facilities in charge of leading disaster countermeasures, crushing the6 floor of the Kobe M unicipal Office for an instance, the initial action by police and fire fighters who were supposed to take action was seriously delayed. The Disaster Countermeasures Basic Law which was enacted in 1961is founded on the bottom-up approach in coping with disasters.

Disaster countermeasures are handled first by the city, town, or village and when the disaster is big enough to exceed the ability of the city to handle, the prefecture will be in charge. In case of an enormous disaster, the state takes action based on the request of the prefecture. Because of this system, the law could not deal with a disaster that caused a devastating damage to urban areas where the functions of disaster prevention countermeasures were concentrated.

Reflecting on these circumstances, the Disaster Countermeasures Basic Law was revised in December 1995as follows:

・In the case of a considerably extraordinary and severe disaster,

the headquarters of the emergency disaster countermeasures head- 204

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ed by Prime Minister can be set up without a state of emergency declaration.

・The head of the headquarters of the emergency disaster countermeasures can direct the heads of designated administrative organizations.

・The items in the conclusion of agreement on the reciprocal support between local public entities must be enforced.

In the Great Hanshin and Awaji Earthquake about80% of the victims died of crush under the fallen buildings and most of them died within15minutes after the earthquake. From these facts, people recognized anew the importance of the idea of disaster prevention and reduction by making buildings earthquake-proof to decrease the number of victims by an earthquake. Even today, countermeasures including seismic retrofitting of houses and public facilities are un-

derway as an urgent matter.

Moreover, in2001on the occasion of the reorganization of central government ministries and agencies, Disaster Prevention Bureau of National Land Agency which was in charge of the secretariat of the Central Disaster Prevention Council was moved to the Cabinet Office with the ministry in charge of disaster prevention posted permanent-

ly at the office. This approach helped in developing a system that made it possible to cope with a disaster at any time while enabling the effort of tackling disaster to be executed constantly even during the period of no disaster.

４．Closing Remarks

The triple disaster, earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear accident which shook Japan on March11in 2011caused a collective crisis of 205

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the scale that no other nation has experienced in the modern era except for wartime. The most powerful earthquake hit Japan and led to tsunami reaching 40meters in height that devastated a wide area and caused more than18,000 deaths. The ensuing accident at the Fukushima-Daiichi nuclear power plant was Japanʼ s worst dam-

age in severity.

It is important to resolve the issues mentioned below to take the effective actions on the preparedness for the future disasters, but it is not clear now.

・To what extent did the tremors from the M arch 11earthquake damage critical reactor pipe?

・The timing of the steam venting and sea water injection into the reactors is correct or not ?

・Why did Tokyo Electric Power Company and the government accept foreign assistance to contain the accidents in a slow and random manner?

The statistics of the United Nations show that the number of serious weather-related natural disasters has doubled in the last10years to around400annually. Therefore, various natural disasters will strike with alarming frequency all over the world from now on.

In the Great East Japan Earthquake, two main characteristics can be found totally different from the disasters so far. Firstly, since the damaged areas were spread so widely that the network system of transportation, communication, supply chain, and lifelines were disrupted, delay and disturbance occurred in the process of rescue and recovery operations. Secondly, local municipal buildings which should play the role of key headquarters of disaster reduction activ-

ities collapsed and the function of administrative work was lost or 206

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remarkably decreased.

Japan is hit by many typhoons as well as earthquakes every year.

It is said that an earthquake of which the center is directly below the Tokyo metropolitan area, the Tokai earthquake, the East-Nankai and Nankai earthquakes, or earthquakes around the Japan Trench and Chishima Trench can occur anytime. In the future, natural disasters can be even more severe due to the effects of the global warming. The Japanese Government will perceive the budget for the prevention of disasters and the reduction of damage not as expendi-

ture but as investment and continue to strive to protect people from natural disasters. The bitter experience and tough lessons encounter-

ed in the mega‑disaster must be permanently passed on as heritage linking the past, the present, and the future and as wisdom for establishing a disaster resilient nation and communities. Natural disaster cannot be avoided but damage can be contained by human power. It is necessary to make good use of social capital invested in disaster prevention based on risk management systems through wise decision‑making.

(The author is Professor,Faculty of Policy Studies of Kansai University)

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