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Two huge earthquakes struck Kumamoto, Japan, in April 2016, forcing residents to evacuate. Few studies have reported early-phase disease and injury trends among evacuees following major inland earthquakes. We evaluated the trends among evacuees who visited a medical clinic in a shelter located at the epicenter of the 2016 Kumamoto earthquakes. The clinic opened on April 15, the day after the foreshock, and closed 3 weeks later. We reviewed medical charts related to 929 outpatient visits and conducted descriptive analyses. The evacuees experienced mild injuries and common diseases. The types of diseases changed weekly. Elderly people needed medical support for longer than other age groups. Future earthquakes may be inevitable, but establishing arrangements for medical needs or making precautions for infectious diseases in shelters could reduce the effects of earthquake-related health problems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Following the 2011 Tohoku earthquake, coastal forests dissipated the energy of the tsunami and trapped flotsam. Although studies have shown how trees dissipate flow energy and are damaged in the process, the factors determining the trapping of flotsam by lines of trees or their capacity to do so have not been quantitatively examined. Quantitative evaluation of these factors may lead to tree-based strategies for suppressing the secondary damage caused by tsunami flotsam. To increase the ability of trees to mitigate damage, their physical limitations need to be identified. Field surveys revealed that integrated clusters of flotsam were caught by trees even if individual floating objects were smaller than the distance between the trees. Hydraulic experiments revealed relations between physical factors and the capture of flotsam. From these relations, we derived a simple formula for evaluating the trapping capacity of lines of trees. The estimates from our model were consistent with the actual results of the 2011 tsunami in Tagajo city, Miyagi prefecture, where trees did not topple under the forces applied by trapped flotsam. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study will take two cases from East Asia to illustrate how visual archive/archiving has become or potentially becomes new space where image, heterogeneous temporalities and ideas of the common may lead to a redefinition or at least reconsideration of the binaries between public and private, between image and visual, between past and future. In contrast to historical archives, such visual archives not only aim for documentation and conservation but also become the sites of creating agencies and provoking critical reflections on the idea of the public. The first case is “Center for Remembering 3.11”1 initiated by Sendai Mediatheque (SMT), where civic participation and the archiving of the post-311 Tohoku Earthquake images of the disaster-ridden region were solicited and made into an online archive. The second case is Multitude.asia, a digital archive initiated by Taiwanese activist and scholar Huang Sun-quan, who works in collaboration with students, artists, and researchers from Mainland China and Taiwan in sorting, interviewing, and editing videos and texts about alternative cultural activities and space in Asia. While discussions on the archive and the public discourse are predominated by theories from Europe and the US, the current study intends to contextualize the concepts of “the public” (gōng/ōyake), “the private” (sī/watakushi), and “the common” (gòng/ kyō) in Chinese and Japanese languages in the discourse of archive in cultural specificity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Computable general equilibrium (CGE) models have been widely used to assess the economic impact of natural disasters, but the models have not been fully validated by applying them to real disasters. This study focuses on validating a model for use in a short-run case in which the functional recovery of infrastructure and businesses occurred on a time scale of a few months. A special attempt is made to determine the parameter values of elasticity of substitutions, which play an important role in the effect on supply chains. In this study, a spatial CGE model, in which Japan is divided into nine regions, is constructed and applied to the case of the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami. Through this application, the best estimates of the elasticity parameters generated relatively consistent estimates of production change compared with the observed change, both in severely affected regions and in other regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the 2011 Great East Japan tsunami, many improvements have been made in both hard and soft solutions for tsunami mitigation. After the 2011 Great East Japan tsunami, a posttsunami survey was conducted along the coast in Miyagi Prefecture, which was one of the most tsunami-affected sites because rapid acceleration of the tsunami currents broke and washed away the trees, resulting in extensive damage to inland houses. In contrast, some of the houses located inland and away from vegetation with a dropping step survived. This shows a possibility that a step combined with the vegetation offers greater tsunami energy reduction by providing additional resistance. Laboratory experiments were conducted to investigate the energy reduction through a compound defense system (vegetation and a backward-facing step). Vegetation with a step (VS) showed greater energy reduction compared to that of only vegetation without a step (OV) due to additional loss by collision with the bed surface. However, the relative energy reduction in OV remained almost constant with the increase in the initial Froude number (F0, where the Froude number is obtained from a model without vegetation in a flume), whereas the relative energy reduction in VS showed a decreasing trend with increasing F0 because the energy reduction due to collision decreases with increase in water depth or F0. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tsunami fission generates short waves at the front face of tsunami and these short waves may expand the inundation area, increase the hydrodynamic forces exerted on structures, and amplify the damage to coastal communities. It is therefore important to understand to what extent the tsunami fission generates such short wave components under variable conditions for development of better tsunami disaster mitigation strategies and plannings. This study carried out numerical experiments to describe under which conditions the tsunami fission occurs in a bay. The experiments indicated that the amplification of the nearshore tsunami height induced by the narrowing bay geometry and the bay-scale resonance enhance the tsunami fission. Based on the computations, a parametric diagram for the occurrence of tsunami fission was proposed in terms of the tsunami properties, the effect of bay geometry and the bay resonance. The developed diagram was applied to Sendai, Ryori, Yoshihama, and Toni Bays, which were affected by the 2011 Tohoku Tsunami. The proposed diagram consistently explained the occurrence of tsunami fission in Sendai Bay and in Ryori Bay as observed in the video footage. The diagram also suggested that the tsunami fission would have occurred in Yoshihama Bay. A high-resolution numerical computation was performed to simulate the tsunami deformation in the Yoshihama Bay and Toni Bay based on a nonlinear dispersive wave model. The result supported the validity of the diagram in describing the generation of tsunami fission in Yoshihama Bay. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: The Great East Japan Earthquake and Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster occurred on 11 March 2011. We investigated the incidence of SGA (small for gestational age) in the Fukushima Prefecture in newborns delivered by women who were pregnant at the time of the disasters and identified any risk factors for SGA.Methods: Subjects were women who were pregnant at the time of the disasters. Questionnaires were sent to the women who lived in the Hamadori area (seaside and near to the nuclear power plant) at the time of the disasters as well as to a control group of women who lived outside the Hamadori area. The incidence of SGA was compared. Logistic regression analysis was performed to identify the risk factors for SGA.Results: In total, 325(5.6%) women had infants with SGA. Neither area nor the trimester of pregnancy at the time of the disasters influenced the incidence of SGA. Pregnancy-induced hypertension (PIH) was higher in the SGA group. PIH was found to be an independent risk factor for SGA.Conclusion: We found no evidence that the Great East Japan Earthquake and the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster increased the incidence of SGA in the Fukushima Prefecture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a numerical study on seismic collapse capacity of high-rise concrete-filled steel tubular moment resisting frames (CFT-MRFs) under extreme ground motions that are beyond the design levels. The ground motions characterised as flat velocity spectral shape were selected to neglect record-to-record uncertainty induced by the changing of the natural periods of structures. A simple numerical approach was developed using fibre element with stiffness and strength degradation accounted in stress–strain models. Then, incremental dynamic analyses with various parameters were performed to evaluate the P-Delta and degradation effects on local and global collapse mechanisms. Results have shown that a drift concentration at the lower stories triggered the side-sway collapse mode that was dominated by the post-buckling strength degradation of CFT columns. The height of drift concentration indicates the range where the collapse mechanism was formed, and a drift concentration factor was proposed to estimate the extent of drift concentration. Last, a factor indicating the safety margin under collapse was computed based on the probability of earthquake occurrence. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper analyses the emergence of post-disaster ‘voluntours’ following Japan's 2011 disasters. An overwhelming, yet haphazard volunteer response to previous disasters spurred extensive collaboration between the state, relief organizations, and would-be volunteers in the wake of 3.11. However, when mapped onto to the massive devastation of the 3.11 disasters, this collaboration almost immediately turned many post-disaster volunteers into ‘voluntourists’, a problematic category commonly associated with visitors from the Global North volunteering for social and environmental causes while on holiday in the Global South. Japan's post-disaster voluntours demonstrate how uncoordinated and potentially risky volunteers have been channelled into a carefully-controlled and long-term response that satisfies people's desire to help disaster victims, while ultimately encouraging tourism (sansvolunteering) as the most desirable form of disaster recovery assistance. This shift toward voluntourism potentially undermines post-disaster volunteering and threatens to trap parts of Tōhoku, like other disaster sites, in a position of permanently ‘post-disaster’. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Residences located within 20 km of the damaged Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant were evacuated shortly after the Great East Japan Earthquake. The levels of airborne and surface fungi were measured in six houses in the evacuation zone in August 2012 and February 2013. Airborne fungal levels in all of the houses in the summer were higher than the environmental standard levels for residential houses published in Architectural Institute of Japan (>1000 colony-forming units [CFU]/m3). In two houses whose residents rarely returned to visit, fungal levels were extremely high (>52,000 CFU/m3). Although fungal levels in the winter were much lower than those in the summer, they were still higher than environmental standard levels in several houses. Indoor fungal levels were significantly inversely related to the frequency with which residents returned, but they were not correlated with the air exchange rates, temperature, humidity, or radiation levels. Cladosporium spp. and Penicillium spp. were detected in every house. Aspergillus section Circumdati (Aspergillus ochraceus group) was also detected in several houses. These fungi produced ochratoxin A and ochratoxin B, which have nephrotoxic and carcinogenic potential. The present study suggests that further monitoring of fungal levels is necessary in houses in the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant evacuation zone, and that some houses may require fungal disinfection. Implications: The results suggest that residents' health could be at risk owing to the high levels of airborne fungi and toxic fungi Aspergillus section Circumdati. Therefore, monitoring and decontamination/disinfection of fungi are strongly recommended before residents are allowed to return permanently to their homes. In addition, returning to home with a certain frequency and adequate ventilation are necessary during similar situations, e.g., when residents cannot stay in their homes for a long period, because fungal levels in houses in the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant evacuation zone were inversely correlated with the frequency with which residents returned to visit their houses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Following the March 2011 Tōhoku earthquake, tsunami and the subsequent nuclear meltdowns in Fukushima (referred to collectively as ‘3.11’), critical discourse in Japan has become increasingly tense. Public debate about nuclear power has polarized society, and commentators, as well as ordinary citizens, are pressuring each other to choose between two ideological extremes. With this stifling atmosphere in the intellectual world, fiction has become an important creative venue outside the constraints of other written publications, such as non-fiction and journalism. The fictional aspect of what is known as ‘3.11 literature’ allows authors to express their opinions freely, portraying a side of Japanese society that does not appear in mainstream media. One such author is metafiction writer Takahashi Gen’ichirō, who spearheaded these fictional responses to 3.11 with his 2011 novel,Koisuru genpatsu(A Nuclear Reactor in Love). Through an analysis of this text, I will argue that this seemingly playful, experimental and at times even offensive work contains a serious exposé of problems confronting literary and political expression in post-3.11 Japan. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article takes the notion of the ‘disaster utopia’ as a starting point for reconsidering the impact of the Japanese triple disaster of 11 March 2011 (3/11). It has often been observed that disasters may lead to utopian longings for a better world, and that these may, in some cases, lead to long-term social and political change. Drawing particularly on the ideas of Charles Fritz and Rebecca Solnit, the article briefly surveys the history of ‘disaster utopianism’ in Japan before exploring the specific versions of the search for ‘world renewal’ that emerged from 3/11. I argue that the ideas put forward by Fritz and Solnit can help us to reassess some of the widely accepted images of the response to 3/11. The 2011 disaster generated visions of a new world which, although profoundly divergent in their social implications, shared a common vocabulary centred upon terms such assaisei(regeneration) andkizuna(bonds of community). Exploring trends in postwar Japan through the prism of the ‘disaster utopia’ can, I suggest, shed new light on the processes of political change that have affected Japan in the years since 3/11. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Complex disasters have received greater attention because of the earthquake that struck Japan on 2011. Taiwan is not only in a region in which various disasters occur frequently, but because of its complex geological and topographical conditions plus overdevelopment of sensitive areas caused by rapid expansion of the tourism industry, many tourist areas are under direct threat, increasing the risk of safety of human life and impacting the overall economic development to a greater extent. The objective of this study is to examine the impact of complex disasters on the tourism industry in Taiwan. Using slopeland disasters as an example and employing the concepts of modern risk management, the study aims to strengthen and integrate relevant research results and techniques, such as analysis of potential disasters, analysis of structural vulnerability, and analysis of aggregate loss probability. The study provides suggestions related to complex disaster assessment patterns and management strategies in the tourism industry. It is expected that relevant information and results of the risk assessment analysis presented in this work not only benefits government departments, tourist facilities’ owners, insurance companies, and financial institutions, but also assists in effective management of risk stemming from natural disasters in relation to the tourism industry. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Third United Nations World Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction was held in Sendai, Japan in March 2015, four years after the Great East Japan Earthquake struck on March 11, 2011. Attended by some 150,000 participants from around the world, the Conference adopted the Sendai Declaration and the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015–2030, the latter of which was the successor document to Hyogo Framework for Action. Besides significance in efforts to prevent and mitigate disasters, the successful formulation and adoption of the Sendai Framework served to promote collaboration on UN and other conferences held later that year. Disaster Risk Reduction principles of reducing vulnerabilities and enhancing resilience are especially necessary in the Asia-Pacific region which is over-represented in natural disasters. In December 2015, efforts by Japan and 141 other co-sponsors resulted in a UN Resolution to designate the 5th of November “World Tsunami Awareness Day.” [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The Hinode area of Itako City in Ibaraki Prefecture, Japan, suffered some of the most severe liquefaction damage of any areas in the Great Eastern Japan Earthquake in 2011. This liquefaction damage has been investigated by Itako City, as well as by universities and research institutes in Japan. The National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST) has carried out numerous investigations along the Tone River, and in particular, intensive surveys were done in the Hinode area. We have conducted a risk analysis based on the thickness and depth of the liquefaction layer measured using cone penetration testing (CPT) data and electric resistivity data obtained in the Hinode area. The distribution of the risk estimated from CPT at 143 points, and that obtained from analysis of the resistivity survey data, agreed with the distribution of actual damage. We also carried out conventional risk analyses method using the liquefaction resistance factor (FL) and liquefaction potential index (PL) methods with CPT data. The results show high PL values over the entire area, but their distribution did not agree well with actual damage in some parts of the study area. Because the analysis of the thickness and depth of the liquefaction layer, using geophysical prospecting methods, can cover a widespread area, this method will be very useful in investigating liquefaction risk, especially for gas and water pipelines. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Trust between civil society and the state is a necessary pre-condition for successful public policy in advanced industrial democracies. It is all the more important following a mass catastrophe that affects hundreds of thousands and upends the rhythms of daily life across the country. Choices made by the Japanese government and energy utilities during and after the compounded 11 March 2011 disasters damaged relationships between civil society, utility firms, and the government. This article looks at how decision makers in Japan continue to struggle with a trust deficit and how that gap has altered the behavior of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and civil society as a whole. Residents will continue to resist what they see as flawed disaster recovery and nuclear restart processes unless the political system undergoes major reform. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Damage to seagrass and seaweed beds caused by the huge tsunami of the Great East Japan Earthquake on 11 March 2011 was investigated in Matsushima Bay, Miyagi Prefecture, Japan, by comparing satellite images taken before the tsunami in November 2009 and after the tsunami in May 2011. The results showed that the tsunami destroyed 220 ha of seagrass and seaweed beds, from 320 ha in 2009 to 100 ha just after the tsunami. Zostera marina beds on the sandy and muddy bottom were rather severely damaged compared with brown seaweed beds of Sargassum horneri on the rocky substrate. Substrates of the beds and directions of the tsunami seem to be responsible for the magnitude of the damage to the beds. Maps of the spatial distributions of the beds before and after the tsunami can provide information for the restoration of seagrass and seaweed beds as natural infrastructures of coastal fisheries resources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The 2011 Tōhoku event showed the massive destruction potential of tsunamis. The Euro-Japan 'Risk assessment and design of prevention structures for enhanced tsunami disaster resilience (RAPSODI)' project aimed at using data from the event to evaluate tsunami mitigation strategies and to validate a framework for a quantitative tsunami mortality risk analysis. Coastal structures and mitigation strategies against tsunamis in Europe and Japan are compared. Failure mechanisms of coastal protection structures exposed to tsunamis are discussed based on field data. Knowledge gaps on failure modes of different structures under different tsunami loading conditions are identified. Results of the wave-flume laboratory experiments on rubble mound breakwaters are used to assess their resilience against tsunami impact. For the risk analysis, high-resolution digital elevation data are applied for the inundation modeling. The hazard is represented by the maximum flow depth, the exposure is described by the location of the population, and the mortality is a function of flow depth and building vulnerability. A thorough search for appropriate data on the 2011 Tōhoku tsunami was performed. The results of the 2011 Tōhoku tsunami mortality hindcast for the city of Ishinomaki substantiate that the tsunami mortality risk model can help to identify high-mortality risk areas and the main risk drivers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The 2011 Great East Japan Tsunami exposed many hidden weaknesses in Japan's tsunami countermeasures. Since then, many improvements have been made in both structural measures (numerical simulations, coastal defense structures, building damage assessment and control forests) and nonstructural measures (warning/observation and evacuation). This review summarizes the lessons and improvements in the five-year time period after the 2011 event. After five years, most of the lessons from the 2011 tsunami have been applied, including more realistic tsunami simulations using very fine grids, methods to strengthen coastal defense structures, building evacuations and coastal forests, improved warning content and key points to improve evacuation measures. Nevertheless, large future challenges remain, such as an advanced simulation technique and system for real-time hazard and risk prediction, implementation of coastal defense structures/multilayer countermeasures and encouraging evacuation. In addition, among papers presented at the coastal engineering conference in Japan, the proportion of tsunami-related research in Japan increased from 15% to 35% because of the 2011 tsunami, and approximately 65-70% of tsunami-related studies involve numerical simulation, coastal structures and building damage. These results show the impact of the 2011 tsunami on coastal engineering related to academic institutions and consulting industries in Japan as well as the interest in each tsunami countermeasure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The 2011 Tohoku Tsunami is considered to be one of the most tragic events in Japan's disaster history, and represents an important milestone for the research community regarding the investigation of the characteristics of tsunami inundation. A thorough analysis of tsunami inundation was conducted using numerical modeling, and measurements from a video recorded from the rooftop of a building in Onagawa in Miyagi Prefecture. In this study, we analyze the destruction of buildings using numerical simulations and tsunami fragility functions. Numerical results for the locations at which the tsunami eyewitness video was recorded are compared with measurements. In addition, we considered the effect of the breakwater in Onagawa bay to evaluate its contribution to reducing overland tsunami inundation depths. The results of our simulations show that the maximum inundation depth due to the first incoming wave was over 16 m, and over 500 buildings were washed away with this first wave. This result is consistent with the video data. Further, we found that the breakwater, which was not originally designed against tsunami waves, reduced the maximum tsunami inundation depth at least by 2.0 m in Onagawa town. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A numerical sediment transport model (STM) was used to investigate coastal geomorphic changes that resulted from the 2011 Tohoku earthquake tsunami in Rikuzentakata City and Hirota Bay on the southern Sanriku Coast of Japan. The simulation was verified using observed inundation processes and heights, measured topographic changes and sediment deposition. Aerial video footage recorded by the Iwate Prefectural Police was also used. The results show that the numerical model was able to predict the spatial distribution and volume of erosion and deposition in Hirota Bay, as well as sediment transport processes. The effects of sediment transport on tsunami inundation were also investigated. Numerical results revealed that the majority of the sand dunes were eroded by the first wave, especially during the strong return flow of the receding wave. Large flows and sand dune erosions can occur elsewhere if tsunamis inundate a plain with a limited shore-normal width. These events could cause large-scale morphological changes comparable to those that occurred in Rikuzentakata City. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the 2011 Tohoku Earthquake, many structures were destroyed by the tsunami whose magnitudes were much larger than the design level. Tsunami defense structures in coastal areas will need reinforcement in the future, and for that reason it is important to evaluate tsunami behavior and resulting tsunami force. This study analyzes tsunami transformation around a Haramachi thermal power station which suffered serious damage by the tsunami due to the 2011 Tohoku Earthquake and which has complex topography and building layout. A three-dimensional (3D) tsunami simulation is carried out for a surrounding region of the Haramachi thermal power station using boundary conditions of the water surface elevation and flow velocity obtained from a two-dimensional (2D) tsunami simulation by a nonlinear shallow water model. Using these boundary conditions, the computer fluid dynamic model FLUENT is employed to simulate the tsunami behavior around the Haramachi thermal power station. The validity of the predictions is examined by comparison with actual traces of tsunami inundation depths (I.D.). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigates the changes in coastal topography of the Rikuzen-Takata Coast in Iwate Prefecture, Japan before and after the 2011 off the Pacific coast of Tohoku Earthquake Tsunami and the effects of coastal structures on these changes. The changes in coastal topography were analyzed using bathymetry data and aerial photographs before and after the tsunami in addition to aerial video during the tsunami. The bathymetry data were obtained from 1989 to 2002 during the construction of three submerged breakwaters and from after the 2011 tsunami until 2013. The aerial photographs were acquired from 1947 to 2015, and the aerial videos were acquired during the tsunami run-up and backwash. The results demonstrated that the coast was eroded mainly due to the tsunami backwash, and the submerged breakwaters trapped the seaward transport of sediment from the coast. Erosion was partly prevented in locations where the seawall was not washed away. The coastal structures had significant effects on the behavior of the coastal tsunami and on sediment transport. We also found that the coast did not recover naturally at the desired speed after the tsunami because the coast had been stable before the tsunami. Coastal restoration five years after the 2011 tsunami are also summarized in the Appendix to illustrate the future reconstruction plan for the study coast. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The evacuation behavior observed in Kesennuma City, Tohoku, Japan during the Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami and a corresponding evacuation simulation are presented. We first organized the damage and evacuation behaviors observed in the target area using the results of previous studies and official surveys. In addition, we compiled all available multimedia sources recording evacuation behavior during the 2011 event to identify the precise temporal and spatial details of the evacuation behavior. Then, a tsunami evacuation simulation was developed based on all compiled evacuation data, considering the tendencies regarding the use of main roads for evacuation, residents' shelter preferences, and pedestrian-car interactions. The developed simulation was validated against the compiled evacuation behaviors by inputting the estimated initial conditions of the 2011 event. The traffic scenarios calculated in the simulation closely reproduced the actual traffic flow as observed from the evacuation data. The evacuee populations at several shelters in the simulation also quantitatively reproduced the trend of the real numbers of evacuees reported by Kesennuma City. The results of the simulation exhibited a better capability to estimate the actual evacuation behavior during the 2011 event than that achieved in previous studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

On 11 March 2011, an exceptionally large tsunami event was triggered by a massive earthquake offshore, the northeast coast of Japan, which affected coastal infrastructure such as seawalls, coastal dikes and breakwaters in the Tohoku region. Such infrastructure was built to protect against the Level 1 tsunamis that previously hit the region, but not for events as significant as the 2011 Tohoku tsunami, which was categorized as a Level 2 tsunami [Shibayama, T., Esteban, M., Nistor, I., Takagi, H., Thao, N. D., Matsumaru, R., Mikami, T., Aranguiz, R., Jayaratne, R. & Ohira, K. [2013] 'Classification of tsunami and evacuation areas,' Nat. Hazards 67(2), 365-386]. The failure mechanisms of concrete-armored dikes, breakwaters and seawalls due to Level 2 tsunamis are still not fully understood by researchers and engineers. This paper investigates the failure modes and mechanisms of damaged coastal structures in Miyagi and Fukushima Prefectures, following the authors' post-disaster field surveys carried out between 2011 and 2013. Six significant failure mechanisms were identified for the coastal dikes and seawalls affected by this tsunami: (1) Leeward toe scour failure, (2) Crown armor failure, (3) Leeward slope armor failure, (4) Seaward toe scour and slope armor failure, (5) Overturning failure, and (6) Parapet wall failure, in which leeward toe scour being recognized as the major failure mechanism in most surveyed locations. The authors also propose a simple practical mathematical model for predicting the scour depth at the leeward toe of the coastal dikes, by considering the effects of the tsunami hydrodynamics, the soil properties and the type of structure. The key advantage of this model is that it depends entirely on quantities that are measurable in the field. Furthermore this model was further refined by conducting a series of hydraulic model experiments aimed to understand the governing factors of the leeward toe scour failure. Finally, based on the results obtained, key recommendations are given for the design of resilient coastal defense structures that can survive a level 2 tsunami event. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Japan suffered from the Great East Japan Earthquake followed by the nuclear disaster. As a result, we experienced rolling outages for a few months in the Tokyo and Tohoku area. Japan’s power transmission system consists of 50 Hz AC and 60 Hz AC in eastern and western Japan respectively. When the nuclear disaster occurred in Fukushima, enough electricity hasn’t been supplied in eastern area. Power interchange capacity between east and west was small because of small redundant T&D system design. Based on this rolling outage and some present electricity supplying issues in Japan, METI (Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry) has set the electricity system reform committee to improve this situation and make a good T&D system for the future. This committee reported the discussed issue to the Japanese METI and METI proposed policy on Electricity System Reform to the Japanese Cabinet. As a result, the Japanese Electricity System Reform policy was adopted. This future T&D system deals with redundant T&D systems between east and west, how to handle large amounts of renewable electrical energy, and how to fully de-regulate the distribution market. HVDC (VSC system) will be introduced between Hokkaido and Honshu as a subsea cable transmission system and HVDC transmission system between eastern area and western area. This paper describes recent and future Japan’s T&D systems. This will be helpful to understand how to solve the issues of Japan’s T&D system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Currently in Japan, activities for the reduction of nuclear energy have increased in the wake of Great East Japan Earthquake. So smart-grid and micro-grid incorporating renewable energies such as photovoltaic power, small hydroelectric generation and wind power are paid attention to. In this research, the power supply system is built for an area suitable for a condition that there is the least of the energy demand and much renewable energy quantity of natural resource. This time, we assume the introduction of small hydropower generator in this energy system. So it is necessary to consider the effect of the device in the cell. We clarify the following discussion items by instantaneous analysis. First, the capacities of the inverter power supply and induction generator for synchronous generator are increased. Second, evaluation of the system reliability and stability by frequency variation and voltage fluctuations is presented. Finally, in conclusion, the optimal capacities of the induction generator and inverter power supply are determined. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines how the roles of language, culture, and translation could be modelled within a framework of the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) used in disasters. It is based on empirical data drawn from a case study of foreign nationals resident in Japan for the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake. The case study revealed that the ICT used in the 2011 disaster was diverse; that interesting relationships existed between the forms of ICT used; that the use of this ICT varied across time, space, and user; and that translation in the disaster was a highly-contextual process of written and oral interlingual and intercultural transfer carried out mostly by volunteers. These findings have been combined in the paper with concepts taken from ecosystems theory in the study of ecology to propose a model of an ICT ecosystem in a disaster setting. The model describes and explains the forces and factors that come together to create the environment in which ICT is used by human actors during a disaster; namely information circulation, power, network capacity, infrastructure, location, income, language, and culture. The model also explains how translation can be conceptualised as a subsidy to assist the central force driving the system. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Questions of continuity and transmission, as well as relationship to the community, have long occupied an important part of folk performance scholarship. These topics take on a different urgency in disaster-affected communities, where preexisting socioeconomic issues become more pressing and endanger not only the continuity of folk practices but the communities themselves. The aftermath of the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami has seen a surge of folk performance revivals in affected areas, hinting to the depth of the ties between local folk performance and community. Following an ethnographic approach, this paper explores the case of the community of Ogatsu (Ishinomaki City, Miyagi Prefecture) and its folk performance, the Ogatsu hōin kagura, as one expression of the revival process in an isolated, rural community extensively affected by the 2011 disaster. Putting in perspective the underlying dynamic of continuity and change that characterizes folk performances, the objective is to explore the nature and usage of the kagura and its relationship to the post-disaster community as it responds to changing circumstances. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Japan is periodically wracked by "Great Earthquakes" (daijishin) - seismic events so destructive that they leave massive amounts of textual and graphic evidence, much of it produced by people who did not experience the events directly. Using this cache of information, it is possible to see how the idea of the "disaster victim" has changed over time and circumstance. My paper traces this role across five Great Earthquakes that spanned roughly 150 years (1855-2011), a period convergent with modern Japan. I will argue that the sense of who and what has been victimized by the shaking of the earth - who has suffered, what weight to attach to their loss, what actions to take and emotions to feel regarding their situation - has changed regularly, and surprisingly, over this rather short period. There is, in other words, no common Japanese experience of victimhood, even in the context of one disaster type over a relatively short historical period. The article is one contribution to an as-yet unexamined history and comparative study of the modern role of disaster victim. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

According to the theory of instrumental actualization in mediated conflicts, the mass media tend to exaggerate events consistent with the editorial line. This theory was tested using press coverage in Germany, Switzerland, France, and the United Kingdom on the Japanese seaquake, the tsunami it caused, and the nuclear disaster of Fukushima. Within a period of seven weeks after the seaquake, the coverage in the four countries in 27 national newspapers and magazines on the three events was analyzed. As hypothesized from theory, German and Swiss media concentrated on Fukushima and stressed its relevance to domestic nuclear plants, whereas French and British media placed a greater emphasis on the tsunami and rarely related the nuclear catastrophe in Japan to domestic nuclear programs. In addition, there were remarkable correlations between the views of journalists and the bias of statements on nuclear energy presented in their news sections. Findings are discussed and related to the theory of public opinion and political decisions in liberal democracies. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article aims to give an outline of recent developments in Ishinomaki, one of the cities worst affected by the Great East Japan Earthquake in March 2011. Before the disaster, the harbor town faced depopulation, aging residents, and a lack of prospects for the young, like many other stagnant regional cities. Since March 2011, Ishinomaki has seen an influx of short-, mid-, and long-term volunteers and young ambitious individuals who have moved from urban areas to initiate their own revitalization or social business projects. Drawing on and showing the limitations of Richard Florida’s notion of the ‘Creative Class’, this paper approaches Ishinomaki’s recent reinvention and transition from production to postindustrial multi-functionality as a phenomenon that can be seen as both a renaissance movement as well as the result of the structural instability of the labor market caused by Japan’s transition into a mature postindustrial economy. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

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We compare the precursory behaviour of crustal movements with electromagnetic signatures for the 2011 off the Pacific Coast of Tohoku earthquake. First, we present the Global Positioning System (GPS) data on the co-seismic variations and pre-seismic precursors (medium-term, short-term and imminent precursors). Then, we will review recently published results on electromagnetic precursors, including mainly short-term subionospheric very low frequency (VLF)/LF propagation anomaly, ultralow frequency (ULF) magnetic field depression and ULF/extremely low frequency (ELF) atmospheric radiation. Finally, we examine the relationship between the crustal movements and electromagnetic phenomena. We conclude that at least short-term electromagnetic precursors are closely correlated in time with the corresponding crustal movements. This seems to provide evidence on the link between lithospheric and electromagnetic processes. Some discussions will be given on the possible mechanism of this link. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Three years have passed since the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake (GEJE) hit the northeastern part of Japan. The earthquake then triggered a devastating tsunami and a nuclear accident, which in turn created a compound disaster that claimed a large number of human casualties and devastated properties. The 2011 GEJE caused the economy growth to decline by 2.2% with the largest decrease experienced by the industrial sector (−7.1%), followed by the agricultural sector (−3.6%) and the services sector (−0.2%). The agriculture and manufacturing sectors underwent large decreases in growth since the economies of most of the affected prefectures have relied on these two sectors. Thus, by investigating the damaging impacts of the 2011 GEJE, we try to evaluate the restoration and reconstruction performance in the agriculture and manufacturing sectors. Our study finds that there has been significant progress made towards restoration and reconstruction on the areas affected by the disaster. Using prefectural data from 2000 to 2012, we apply econometric methods based upon the bias-corrected least-squares dummy variable to estimate the impact of the 2011 GEJE on the agricultural and manufacturing sectors. From this analysis, two major insights emerged. First, the 2011 GEJE had a significant negative impact on agriculture and manufacturing sectors. On average, the impact on the agriculture sector was higher than on the manufacturing sector about twice as large. Second, the most affected prefectures experienced an impact about three times greater than the less affected prefectures in both agriculture and manufacturing sectors. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Given the importance of ports to immediate disaster relief operations after a major tsunami, breakwaters are necessary to sustain a minimum level of functionality required to carry out port operations. However, most breakwaters that protect fishery or industrial ports are not designed to withstand a tsunami. For this reason, many of these breakwaters were destroyed by the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami. However, some breakwaters withstood the tsunami, which facilitated the rapid resumption of port operations. In this study, 67 ports were investigated by using satellite images to identify the percentage of breakwaters that suffered damage due to the 2011 tsunami and how the tsunami height and breakwater width influenced the degree of breakwater damage. Because tsunami heights were not measured at the breakwaters, they were estimated by interpolating the data observed at nearby locations with a Gaussian weighting function at a reasonable accuracy. Possible drawbacks of this simplified method are also discussed because a certain degree of estimation error is inevitable. Breakwaters less than 8 m wide were quantitatively demonstrated to inevitably experience extensive damage when the tsunami height exceeded 14 m. In contrast, breakwaters that were more than 14 m wide, exposed to tsunami heights of less than 6 m, or both were not greatly damaged. An examination of the effectiveness of armor blocks also revealed that their placement could substantially reduce breakwater damage due to a tsunami. The results suggest a simplified method, particularly for assisting local fishery administrators or other authorities concerned, to practically estimate the risk of a port suffering damage because of future tsunamis. The proposed method should contribute to prioritizing the protection of ports in order of their likelihood of failure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A computational framework for probabilistic tsunami risk assessment due to a mega-thrust subduction earthquake is developed and is applied to the 2011 Tohoku Tsunami from retrospective viewpoints. The uncertain tsunami source characteristics are represented by multiple source inversion models and their stochastic variations that are generated using the spectral analysis and synthesis method. By conducting Monte Carlo tsunami simulation, stochastic inundation depth maps can be developed, which are subsequently integrated with tsunami fragility curves to develop stochastic tsunami risk maps. The stochastic tsunami risk maps display spatial variability of tsunami damage probabilities for a building portfolio, reflecting not only possible tsunami scenarios but also uncertain tsunami resistance of buildings. The numerical results indicate that both stochastic tsunami risk maps and risk curves are affected by the local terrain features, proximity to major tsunami sources, and building characteristics (material type and story number). Consideration of different reference tsunami source models in probabilistic tsunami risk assessment are identified as one of the critical contributors to the overall uncertainty of the tsunami risk predictions. Therefore, in determining critical scenarios for tsunami evacuation and risk mitigation, a wide range of possible tsunami scenarios should be considered in light of the current limited seismological knowledge for the mega-thrust subduction earthquake. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Employing a social survey, this paper examines citizen attitudes towards local energy governance in the aftermath of the Great East Japan Earthquake and the subsequent nuclear power plant accident. The survey found that public comment and random sampling citizen deliberation led to a greater willingness to participate in discussions of municipal heating and power (energy) policy for a resilient community than did conventional citizen committee membership. The former mechanisms provided opportunities for individuals with considered viewpoints to participate in a public dialogue on energy and environment issues in post-disaster Japan. Respondents who did not have clear ideas about a roadmap for nuclear power generation showed a lower willingness to participate in local energy policy formulation processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper provides an input–output method to estimate worldwide economic impacts generated by supply chain disruptions. The method is used to analyse global economic effects due to the disruptions in the automotive industry that followed the Japanese earthquake and the consequent tsunami and nuclear crisis of March 2011. By combining a mixed multi-regional input–output model, the World Input–Output Database and data at the factory level, the study quantifies the economic impacts of the disruptions broken down by country and industry. The results show that the global economic effect (in terms of value added) of this disruption amounted to US$139 billion. The most affected (groups of) countries were Japan (39%), the USA (25%), China (8%) and the European Union (7%). The most strongly affected industries were transport equipment (37%), other business activities (10%), basic and fabricated metals (8%), wholesale trade (7%) and financial intermediation (4%). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The earthquake, tsunami and nuclear accident of 11 March 2011 posed massive and continuing social challenges to communities in the affected areas. People from wide areas around the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant received vastly conflicting information about the levels of radiation released and about the likely health effects. They were left facing agonising decisions whether to remain and face possible (but uncertain) long-term health risks, or whether to move away, leaving behind homes, friends, jobs, schools and communities. Focusing on the case of the small farming community of Tōwa in Nihonmatsu City, this article examines self-help activities that have emerged in the affected areas in the wake of 3/11. The activities have included community monitoring of radiation levels and collaborative research with academic scientists to explore ways to reduce radioactive contamination in forests, farm soil and crops. The self-help activities of Tōwa residents can be seen as an example of “informal life politics” – that is, of the way in which grassroots groups respond to challenges to their livelihood or way of life by organising themselves and taking actions outside the sphere of formal governmental structures. It is argued here that the residents of Tōwa were able to respond rapidly to the challenges of the Fukushima disaster because they had already developed informal life politics practices in response to earlier challenges of local economic decline and depopulation. I also suggest that, in responding to the Fukushima disaster, the relationship between the people of Tōwa and their landscape has been profoundly changed, and that this change has implications not just for the community itself but also for the wider world. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article aims to describe post-war continuity and change in disaster education in Japan. Preparedness for natural disasters has been a continuous agenda in Japan for geographical and meteorological reasons, and disaster education has been practised in both formal and informal settings. Post-war disaster management and education have taken a follow-up approach, which means that clusters of measures have been developed after critical national-scale disasters have occurred. Following this clustering, with a minor amendment, the article discusses continuity and change in disaster education, looking at the different versions of the national curriculum (the Course of Study) at the compulsory school level. It is argued that disaster education has always been delivered at school in post-war Japan – this is the continuity – however, its treatment in the curriculum has changed over the years, from the scientific knowledge model, to the civic participation model, to the multi-hazard model, to the everyday life model within broader economic, political and social contexts – this is the change. Through this historical description, the article sheds light on the complexity of the field ‘disaster education’, particularly its two-dimensional aspect, namely, ‘the science of disasters’ on the one hand, and ‘life skills for disasters’ on the other. Currently, these two dimensions are addressed within the policy framework of School Safety. It is argued, however, that this complexity has been a challenge in the positioning of disaster education in the Japanese system. The article concludes by exploring the direction that disaster education has been taking since the Tohoku earthquake and tsunami of 2011. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Squelch Drying was introduced to Japan soon after the huge tsunami disaster which struck northern Japan in 2011, and has been quite widely and successfully used on tsunami damaged archival materials. Unlike in a fresh water flood, archival material damaged by a tsunami is saturated with salt water. With both air and vacuum freeze drying, only the water evaporates from the wet book and all the salt is left behind. However, with Squelch Drying, the salt itself is absorbed by the material used during treatment. This shorter notice outlines experiments designed to discover how much salt could be removed during Squelch Drying. The results showed that up to 70% more of the salt could be removed by squelch drying rather than air drying. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Siting and designing technological facilities that need to be located in regions susceptible to major tectonic events require evaluation of the full range of knowledge and appraisal of plausible alternative models and interpretations, all within a probabilistic framework. This challenge has been clearly demonstrated by the extreme effects of the March 2011 Tohoku earthquake and is nowhere more problematic than in siting facilities with hazard potentials that last for thousands of years, such as geological repositories for radioactive waste. The use of formalised expert elicitation to help derive credible impact scenarios and their likelihoods of occurrence is being trialled for the first time in the Japanese geological disposal programme. This paper looks at the methodology for eliciting expert judgement under uncertainty, and explores the broader possibilities of this approach for tectonic hazard forecasting. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the domestic response to the Great East Japan Earthquake that occurred in March 2011. The demand to (re)build a new ‘community’ in Japan was triggered by the fatal destruction of towns by the earthquake and the tsunami, and the uncertain future of these towns – and of Japan – due to the subsequent prolonged crisis at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. Drawing on the political theory of Jean-Luc Nancy, the paper examines what kinds of communities were realised in the aftermath of the disaster. It argues that two distinctively different types of communities emerged. The first type of community was based on the inside/outside logic, whereby Japan was imagined as one unified entity surrounded by a boundary which separated the safe inside from the dangerous outside. The second type of community was based on sharing. Immigrants in Japan identified themselves with the survivors since both of them shared the experience of losing home and the same home (called Japan). In this way, the immigrants challenged the idea of community as one unified entity and realised a new form of community. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In 2011, Japan received a massive blow from the Tohoku Earthquake and the ensuing disaster at the Fukushima Dai-ichi Nuclear Power Generation Plant (hereafter, the Fukushima Nuclear Plant), with 18,000 people dead or missing, and more than 330,000 evacuated long-term. Anxiety among the people of Japan concerning earthquakes and nuclear accidents is higher than ever, but other hazards confront them as well. This research investigated whether the Japanese people’s anxiety about a variety of other hazards has increased or decreased since the Tohoku Earthquake. Based on the availability heuristic, the contrast effect, and the finite-pool-of-worry hypothesis, it was predicted that public anxiety about earthquakes and nuclear accidents would increase, but anxiety about other hazards would decrease. Data from two nationwide surveys conducted in January 2008 and January 2012 were compared to see the change in societal levels of anxiety toward 51 types of hazards. The results showed that anxiety had increased after the Tohoku Earthquake for only one hazard other than earthquakes and nuclear accidents. For 29 other hazards, the anxiety levels had significantly decreased; and for the remaining 19 hazards, there was no significant change. These results support the prediction, indicating that post-disaster, the overall anxiety levels of the Japanese people tended to decline. Practical implications were discussed with a focus on problems that might be caused by the changes in anxiety level. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The roles of leisure have been significantly underexplored in postdisaster psychological recovery contexts. In this study, we explore this topic through a case study of the Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami (GEJE). In July 2012, in-depth interviews were conducted with both survivors and disaster volunteers to examine postdisaster life. A culturally unique termtanoshimiwas used in the interviews, which means fun or hobby. The interview data suggested thattanoshimiserved as both emotion- and problem-focused coping strategies, and that it became meaningful for survivors as an opportunity to explore new purpose in life, a source of normalcy and continuity, and a context to express personal transformation. The findings are discussed in relation to leisure-based stress coping, transcendence of negative life events, and Japanese cultural influences. Potential implications of leisure research to disaster relief are suggested. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the opening panel at the recent Society for the Social Studies ofScience/Estudios Sociales de la Ciencia y la Tecnologia (4S/ESOCITE) meeting in Buenos Aires, the 4S president (and editor of this journal), Gary Downey, challenged us to move beyond the traditional linear model of knowledge creation and utilization by reflecting on how many Science and Technology Studies scholars pursue novel ways of acting upon the world through scaling up their scholarship. This critical participation piece describes our attempt to forge an international research forum in the wake of the 2011 East Japan Disaster that constitutes one such attempt to produce scalable scholarship. Inspired by the deep reflexivity of autoethnography, this account examines the tensions inherent to such an endeavor, including the tensions between scholarship and engagement; personal and professional goals; research ethics and different international standards for scholarship; and the desire to make engineering visible versus the dominant STS (science and technology studies) framing of disasters research. This account should serve as a useful guide for others seeking to build international collaborations involving engineering studies, and other similar efforts to produce scalable scholarship. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The world had a sense of deja vu when a massive earthquake and a 15 m tsunami struck the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power station on 11 March 2011. As the world followed how the Fukushima nuclear crisis unfolded, nuclear engineers in Japan were trying their best to overcome the situation. Believing that their technical knowledge was adequate to understand what went wrong and to mitigate the crisis, Japanese nuclear engineers sought to assure the public that the condition of the crippled nuclear power plants in Fukushima was not as severe as what it appeared. In reality, as discussed in this article, the subsequent problems emerging in the Fukushima nuclear crisis went beyond the expectations of the engineers. Focusing on the emergency period of the Fukushima nuclear disaster, this article critically examines epistemological bias that prompted how Japanese top-level nuclear engineers made inaccurate assessments resulting in the prolonged crisis. The article specifically probes the concept of robust engineering and the way it is used to overstate the ability of nuclear power system to withstand external shocks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A key lesson from the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster has been largely ignored. The Fukushima disaster highlighted the consequence of aggregating (accumulating) risk. With six reactors within a 3,5 km2 site, the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant (NPP) was one of the extreme examples of aggregating risk in a small area. As a result of the 2011 Tohoku earthquake and the following tsunami, core damage (nuclear meltdown) occurred at all three operating reactors at the facility. A multi-reactor facility poses more risk to human health and the environment than a single-reactor facility. Risk aggregation increases the need for mitigation and insurance. But these factors are ignored in the design of NPPs and other facilities. A larger facility places a greater burden of the risk on the government (taxpayers). Whenever possible, the risk should be distributed rather than concentrated. The risk that remains after mitigation is known as the residual risk. There is a cost associated with the residual risk. Whether this cost is borne by the owner or the taxpayers, it should be a factor in the design of a facility. Currently, there are no disincentives to the aggregation of risk in small areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We apply the particle filter for the quick and accurate estimation of a switching point in a financial market based on a recently developed theoretical model, the potentials of unbalanced complex kinetics (PUCK) model, which fulfils all empirically stylized facts such as fat-tailed distribution of price changes and the anomalous diffusion in a short-time scale. We show the efficiency of an optimized driving force in particle filtering for the estimation of the parameters of the PUCK model, using a simulation study. As an example, we apply the method to the dollar–yen exchange market before and after the biggest earthquake in Japan in March 2011. With this fast and efficient estimation method, we can clearly confirm that the statistics of the time series of exchange rate changed drastically at the time of the arrival of the quake in Tokyo area, implying that the earthquake worked as a trigger for the market's switching point. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]