Long-Term Recovery from the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami Disaster - Post-Tsunami Hazard: Reconstruction and Restoration - page 13

One interesting example of a resettlement project is the resettlement site of the
Meiji Tsunami Disaster. Due to the construction of a national highway, the com-
munity center moved to higher ground and people did not move back to lower
ground. The national highway developed new business opportunities, demonstrat-
ing the importance of creating new business opportunities in resettlement sites as a
thriving local economy may keep people in the resettlement site.
Tsunami impacted area of the EJED is tsunami prone area. Soon after disaster,
people moved to higher ground but come back to lower land. It is clear that daily life
is more important than safety at the time of tsunami with several decade interval. It
means that the 100-year and the 1,000-year design standards do not work sense.
Resettled communities in 1933 have moved back to lower area and hit by 2011 tsu-
nami. However, lessons in several communities that have stayed in higher ground are
interesting. Combination with daily life convenience and disaster safety is important.
A new issue is about the EJED is the aging population. Many of those who have
moved to resettlement sites and constructed new houses or moved into public hous-
ing are elderly people. Depopulation means that the probability of expanding these
communities to lower land is low. On the other hand, sustainability of these
communities is a serious issue because if no one migrates into these communities,
they may be vacant in the near future. For the recovery from the 2011 tsunami,
many communities decided to create new residential resettlement sites on higher
ground. Although the probability of expanding these communities to lower land is
low, a serious issue is the sustainability of these communities. Because it is critical
to solicit new community members to create a sustainable community, new business
opportunities are important for communities within these recovery projects.
The issues will be discussed in another article.
References
Bank of Japan (2014) Learning about Bank of Japan, http://www.boj.or.jp/announcements/
education/oshiete/history/j12.htm/ . Accessed Feb 2014
City of Oofunato (2014) Land use plan of Kobosoura community, http://www.city.ofunato.iwate.
jp/www/contents/1343284558166/html/common/other/53190a10101.pdf . Accessed Feb 2014
Department of Urban Planning, Ministry of Interior (1934) Report on recovery plan for Sanriku
tsunami impacted communities (in Japanese) Iwate Prefecture, Sankou Shiryo 3, http://www2.
pref.iwate.jp/~hp0212/fukkou_net/pdf_doc/tsunamibousai_07_01_sankou_3.pdf (in Japanese).
Accessed Feb 2014
Level 1 Disaster Response Headquarter (2012) Report on the East Japan Earthquake Disaster
(17 Apr 2012) http://www.kantei.go.jp/saigai/pdf/201204171700jisin.pdf (in Japanese).
Accessed Feb 2012
Maki N (2012) Long term recovery from the 3.11 East Japan Earthquake Disaster -moving to
higher ground?-: disaster: earthquake disaster: evaluating resettlement projects after tsunami
disasters. In: Proceedings of 15th world conference on earthquake engineering, CD-ROM, 2012
Yamaguchi Y (1943) Tsunami and village. Kosyunkaku Syoten, Tokyo (in Japanese)