DISASTER MANAGEMENT OF JAPAN

KAZUSA, Shuhei
Director for Disaster Management, Cabinet office, Government of Japan

ABSTRACT :Disaster management in this country is carried out at every stage of disaster prevention,
emergency response to disaster, and recovery and reconstruction following disaster. A special board of
inquiry of the Central Disaster Management Council has studied large-scale earthquakes such as the Tokai
Earthquake, Tonankai and Nankai Earthquakes, major earthquakes centered in Tokyo, and ocean trench
earthquakes occurring in the vicinity of the Japan Trench and Chishima Trench. It is to be hoped that the
entire nation will join in the work of disaster preparation.

KEYWORDS : Disaster management, Sharing disaster management information, Evacuation area

1. THE DISASTER MANAGEMENT SYSTEM

OF JAPAN

The great Ise Bay typhoon of 1959, which caused

5,000 or more casualties, occasioned efforts to
systematize Japan's disaster countermeasures in
general and to facilitate disaster management
administration that would be both comprehensive
and systematic. The Disaster Countermeasures Basic
Act was enacted in 1962 for this purpose. This law
provides the basic foundation for the formulation of
disaster management measures in Japan. By means
of this and related laws, disaster management in this
country is carried out at every stage of disaster
prevention, emergency response to disaster, and
recovery and reconstruction following disaster
(Figure 1).
The Basic Plan for Disaster Prevention is the
master plan in the area of disaster management, and
it is created by the Central Disaster Management
Council in accordance with the Disaster
Countermeasures Basic Act. This master plan
presents the basic guidelines for establishment of the
disaster management system, promotion of disaster
management projects, development of faster and
more appropriate disaster recovery, assignment of
priorities in disaster management operation plans
and regional disaster management plans, and so on.
The master plan provides a basis whereby every
ministry and agency as well as disaster
management-related organizations such as the Bank
of Japan and Japan Broadcasting Corporation (NHK)
create their disaster management operation plans,
whereby local governments create regional disaster
management plans, and whereby all these bodies
implement their disaster management
countermeasures (Figure 2)
 make the towns and cities safer in
earthquakes. Among other things,
the law provides for improvement
of disaster management facilities to
provide against the possibility of
earthquake, which could strike
anywhere in the country.
·An initial response system to
operate when a large-scale disaster
occurs was set p in February 1995.
This provides for the chiefs of
bureau and other officials from the
ministries and agencies concerned
to gather for emergency meetings
in the official residence of the Prime Minister and
2. DISASTER MANAGEMENT
integrate information. A 24-hour system for the
COUNTERMEASURES SINCE THE GREAT
collection of information was improved in 1996
HANSHIN-AWAJI EARTHQUAKE
when the Cabinet Information Collection Center was
The Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake of January
established (Figure 3).
1995 struck a great modern metropolis directly. Not
only did it cause enormous damage, but it also
highlighted a variety of issues such as the
government's delay in its initial response, problems
with coordination, and so on. Japan's disaster
management system has undergone significant
improvement, due in part to the review and
self-reflection occasioned by that great earthquake.
The main improvements are as follows.
· The part of the Basic Plan for Disaster
Prevention that deals with natural disasters was
· Measures were taken for the prompt collection
organized in July 1995 into sections according to the
and integration of information on damage by
type of disaster. These parts include the Earthquake
reinforcing the Central Disaster Management Radio
Disaster Countermeasures Volume, the Storm and
Communications System, which links together the
Flood Countermeasures Volume, the Volcano
ministries, agencies, and disaster
Disaster Countermeasures Volume, and so on. These
management-related organizations. This system was
changes, which simplify the process of looking up
improved to enable better monitoring of damage
countermeasures, were part of the general revision of
information by means of helicopter imagery that is
the plan.
transmitted from the National Police Agency, the
· The Special Measures Act for Earthquake
Defense Agency, the Fire Defense Agency, the
Disaster Management, which was enacted in 1995,
Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, and
seeks to implement systematic urban planning to
the Japan Coast Guard, which have field operational
units.
· The Earthquake Damage Early Evaluation
System (EES) was improved to ascertain the general
scope of damage immediately after an earthquake
occurs. Damage estimates made by the EES are
among the sources for the capability to monitor and
analyze damage information (Figure 4).
3. DIRECTIONS FOR DISASTER
MANAGEMENT
Disaster management countermeasures have
undergone gradual improvement in these various
ways, but, though they are being put into good form,
their effectiveness still remains an issue. There has
been hardly any progress, for example, in the
earthquake proofing of residences, schools, and other
such buildings, and in the elimination of the
concentrations of dilapidated wooden buildings
found in urban areas in order to assure open spaces
in the cities.
There are certain directions that should be
followed in the future conduct of disaster
management countermeasures, therefore, so as to
assure the true security and safety of the people. A
number of these directions are described below.
3.1 Create a disaster management system that is
effective
Tokai Earthquake, Tonankai and Nankai
Earthquakes, major earthquakes centered in Tokyo,
and other large-scale earthquakes are to be addressed
by the formulation of a master plan for disaster
management countermeasures, on which basis a
national strategy is to be implemented.
Improvements to be made in accordance with this
master plan include the creation of a practical
emergency activity manual and development of a
system for collecting and distributing information.
These elements are to be subjected to continuous
review in light of the conditions for implementation
of each measure, and by means of training and
exercises.
3.2 Clarify the objectives for improvement of
disaster management facilities
The improvement of hard facilities for disaster
management countermeasures, such as earthquake
proofing of disaster management bases and sea and
river embankments to protect against tsunami, is still
not sufficient. This improvement must be carried out
efficiently and with selection of priorities. Adequate
accountability to the public must be maintained, and
the yardstick that indicates the necessity for a facility
(for example, the rate of earthquake proofing) as
well as the level of improvement that is set as an
objective (such as a rate of 90% in 10 years) are to
be shown.
3.3 Establish disaster management systems (self
help, mutual help, and public help)
Disaster management systems should have
well-balanced participation by every actor, including
government administration (public help), companies,
volunteer disaster management organizations, NPOs,
and similar organizations (mutual help), and
individuals (self-help). Systems can only be well
established when all these actors fulfill their roles.
When government administration institutes its
various kinds of measures, therefore, the regions
should also act to enhance their disaster management
capabilities in various ways. They should stockpile
at least three days' worth of food and daily essentials,
for example, and community organizations and A special board of inquiry of the Central Disaster
volunteer activities for disaster management should Management Council has studied large-scale
be encouraged. Companies should formulate earthquakes such as the Tokai Earthquake, Tonankai
business continuity plans (BCP) and improve and Nankai Earthquakes, major earthquakes centered
disaster management education for their employees. in Tokyo, and ocean trench earthquakes occurring in
These and other such civil and popular disaster the vicinity of the Japan Trench and Chishima
management activities should be instituted. Trench. The panel identified the kinds of earthquakes
3.4 Share disaster management information that should be prepared for next (scale, source region,
All disaster management programs require etc.), estimated the magnitudes and tsunami heights
information as a basis for making decisions. that could be expected, and projected a damage
Information sharing should not be held within scenario (human and property damage, economic
government administration. Instead, information damage, etc.). The panel then deliberated on the
sharing platforms are to be built that utilize corresponding countermeasures, and, working from
geographic information systems (GIS) that make it fiscal 2003 to 2005, they formulated guidelines on
possible for the private sector and the government to countermeasures for the various earthquakes in the
share information with each other. form of an overall master plan that covered
3.5 Introduce market mechanisms to the disaster everything from preventive measures to response
management field after an earthquake occurs. (See, for example,
Products and services that can enhance disaster Figures 5 and 6.)
management exist, such as highly
earthquake-resistant residences, household goods
with disaster management functionality, and so on. If
these came to be valued by market mechanisms, that
would naturally cause disaster management to
establish itself as a deeply rooted presence in society.
It is necessary, therefore, to improve the
environment to facilitate the introduction of market
mechanisms to the disaster management field, for
example by instituting special tax measures that will
encourage companies to invest in the area of disaster
management.
Some specific measures that take into account the
directions for disaster management discussed above
will be introduced in the following sections. The
results from these measures are incorporated into the
Basic Plan for Disaster Prevention, which is revised
accordingly at every occasion.

4. LARGE-SCALE EARTHQUAKE
COUNTERMEASURES
 earthquake. An
earthquake disaster
management strategy
was then formulated
that presents in
ordered form those
items that should be
addressed selectively
and strategically in
order to meet the
mitigation
objectives.
The earthquake
disaster management
strategies formulated
on that occasion

The anticipated Tokai Earthquake is the only have to do with the Tokai Earthquake and the

earthquake for which prediction might be possible Tonankai and Nankai Earthquakes. In every case,

immediately before an earthquake occurs. In 2003, they set disaster mitigation objectives that call for

emergency activity guidelines were formulated to reducing fatalities and economic damage by one half

prescribe the actions that should be taken by disaster in the coming decade. They also set specific

management-related organizations in connection objectives by which to achieve that goal, such as

with such an earthquake. The purpose was to provide aiming for a rate of earthquake proofing of 90% for

for proper implementation of emergency measures residences, and drawing up tsunami hazard maps for

and activities over a wide area and extending from all coastal municipalities (Figure 8).

before any warning is issued to after an earthquake

has occurred. These would include rescue and
firefighting activities, medical activities,
procurement of supplies, transportation activities,
and so on (Figure 7). Similar guidelines for Tonankai
and Nankai Earthquakes and for major earthquakes
centered in Tokyo are slated to be completed shortly.

5. EARTHQUAKE DISASTER MANAGEMENT

STRATEGY Disaster mitigation objectives of this kind are not

In March 2005, disaster mitigation objectives were only for the national government, but are meant to be

determined. These set forth specific objectives, shared by society at large, including local

including timeframe, regarding the mitigation of governments, related organizations, and local

human and economic damage from a large-scale residents. The local governments concerned have
therefore been requested to formulate their own
regional objectives in light of the earthquake disaster
management strategy. Follow-up surveys will be
conducted at three-year intervals to check on the
status of progress. There are plans to formulate
earthquake disaster management strategies in stages
for other large-scale earthquakes, as well, including
major earthquakes centered in Tokyo.
Like the Niigata Chuetsu Earthquake, earthquakes
could occur anywhere in Japan. Consequently, local
governments should make provisions for
earthquakes other than the large-scale kind addressed
by the earthquake disaster management strategy.
They are being required to come up with damage
scenarios in light of their regional characteristics,
formulate disaster mitigation objectives accordingly,
and promote effective and efficient earthquake
countermeasures.
6. EARTHQUAKE-PROOFING BUILDINGS
Approximately 80% of the people who died in the
Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake were suffocated or
crushed when they were trapped in collapsing homes
and other buildings. The standards for earthquake
proofing of buildings today were revised in 1981 in
light of experience from the Miyagi-Ken Oki
Earthquake of 1978, and the majority of buildings
that collapsed during the Great Hanshin-Awaji
Earthquake predated the 1981 standards. In 1995,
therefore, the Act for Promotion of the Earthquake
Proof Retrofit of Buildings was enacted to promote
earthquake proof reinforcement of existing buildings.
(Subsequent progress in earthquake proof retrofitting
was inadequate, and this law was amended to better
promote such retrofitting in a special Diet session in
2005.)
The current state of earthquake proofing of
buildings in Japan is estimated as follows:
Approximately 25% of residences (approximately
11.5 million out of some 47 million houses) are
thought to have inadequate earthquake proofing,
while the corresponding figure for buildings other
than residences is approximately 35%
(approximately 1.2 million out of 3.4 million
buildings) (Figure 9).
To raise the rate of earthquake proofing of
residences, individual homeowners must be made
more aware of preparation for earthquakes, and their
houses must be evaluated for earthquake resistance.
Efforts must also be made at the regional level to
promote earthquake proofing of residences as part of
urban planning efforts to make towns and cities safer
in disasters.
Meanwhile, procedures such as evaluation for
earthquake resistance, earthquake proof retrofitting,
and rebuilding impose a commensurate financial
burden. The national government has therefore
sought to promote those activities by making active
use of subsidy systems, financing systems, and so on.
A tax plan to encourage earthquake proof retrofitting
is slated to be created in fiscal 2006.
It will be necessary to undertake these various
approaches in combination. They include, for
instance, the widespread awareness and use of
hazard maps, the development of techniques that
allow people to do earthquake proof retrofitting of
their residences while living in them, the
development of low-cost earthquake proof
retrofitting methods, and the creation of
arrangements to heighten the asset value of safe
buildings by explaining their earthquake proof
quality at the time of sale.
Damage to buildings is the principal cause of
fatalities. It is also a causal factor in the outbreak of
fires, the spread of fires, the creation of evacuees, the
obstruction of rescue activities, the creation of rubble,
and other forms of extended damage. The national
and local governments should work together and
with local residents on earthquake-proofing
buildings in a selective and focused manner. This
would be the most valuable earthquake
countermeasure we could take at this time.
7. UTILIZE HAZARD MAPS TO PROMOTE
THE EARTHQUAKE-PROOFING OF
BUILDINGS
One means of informing local residents about the
risks of earthquakes that could occur is to use maps
that project damage scenarios by locality. It is
important for people to know what areas face greater
risks of casualties due to building collapse, or what
areas are expected to be more liable to damage from
spreading fires. These maps are an effective means
for making people aware of such factors.
Examples of the creation of earthquake hazard
maps at the local government level include the cities
of Tokyo and Yokohama. The creation of hazard
maps has occasioned progress in earthquake
proofing in Yokohama, which has a good record of
performance in this regard.
National and local governments can create and
publicize earthquake disaster prevention maps that
are detailed enough to allow people to identify
individual neighborhoods. This is one means of
raising awareness of disaster management among
residential and other property owners, and it is an
effective method for making the public better
understand the necessity of earthquake-proofing. The
Cabinet Office is therefore creating a manual
instructing people how to make earthquake disaster
prevention maps that show the risk of building
collapse in familiar locations close to home (Figure
10).
8. EARTHQUAKE-PROOFING OF DISASTER
MANAGEMENT BASES (SCHOOLS AND
OTHER INSTITUTIONS) AND KEY
INFRASTRUCTURE
A survey by the Ministry of Education, Culture,
Sports, Science and Technology showed that
approximately 68,000 of the some 130,000
non-wooden buildings at public elementary and
lower secondary schools throughout Japan had been
confirmed earthquake resistant. That amounts to no
more than approximately 52% (as of April 2005).
School facilities are expected not only to assure the
safety of children and other people when disaster
strikes, but also to serve as emergency evacuation
sites for local residents. As a matter of earthquake
disaster management and countermeasures, therefore,
it is particularly important that these buildings be
earthquake resistant.
Also an urgent issue is the earthquake proofing of
certain key buildings and infrastructure. Hospital
facilities, for example, must hold inpatients and
other people with special needs, and also provide
treatment for people who are injured in a disaster.
Government offices, local government facilities, and
other public facilities must serve as centers for
emergency activity (Figure 11). The earthquake
proofing of roads, airports, harbors, and other such
critical infrastructure must also be facilitated.
9. BUSINESS CONTINUITY PLANS FOR
COMPANIES
Measures for disaster management by companies
are also essential in order to mitigate damage. If
companies are able to carry on their own business
when disaster strikes, so that they keep up
employment in the affected area and maintain the
supply chain from procurement of raw materials
through to marketing, then their activities will tend
to mitigate the damage to the regional economy and
society. For this reason, guidelines to support
companies in formulating business continuity plans
(BCP) were compiled in August 2005 (Figure 12).
Business continuity measures for a company
should be seen essentially as a management strategy
for protection of that company. It provides for the
continuation of important operations to the
maximum extent possible during a disaster, and for
prompt recovery of the company's level of operation.
It also protects against the loss of clients and
business to competing companies while operation is
suspended, the decrease of market share, and the
decline in the company's reputation. Specific
measures include preparing backup computer
systems, securing reserve office space, assuring the
ready availability of key personnel, and so on. These
are all typical approaches. In Europe and America,
companies that prepare for possible disaster in a
systematic, organized manner have gradually come
to be highly appreciated by their business
connections and by the market.
Certain business continuity measures require
particularly urgent facilitation. These are measures to
address a major earthquake centered in Tokyo, which
is envisioned to cause economic damage amounting
to approximately 112 trillion yen. That would be 1.4
times the national budget. Japan's core economic
functions are to a very high degree centered in
metropolitan Tokyo, and if such a disaster were to
occur there, the impact would not be limited just to
those areas directly affected by the earthquake. The
wider effects are likely to extend throughout the
country, and even overseas. In the context of
advancing economic globalization, and in the
interest of increasing confidence in Japan's security,
among other reasons, the public and private sectors
must act together on measures that would hold such
effects to the minimum.
10. IMPROVEMENT OF EVACUATION
AREAS
Recent disasters in general, not limited to
earthquakes or storms and floods alone, have found
the majority of victims among elderly people, the
disabled, foreigners, and other such people with
special needs. Indeed, consideration for these people
with special needs has become an important issue in
disaster management. Plans have therefore been
made to improve support systems in a variety of
ways, including efforts to ascertain where people
with special needs can be found under normal
conditions and to formulate individual Evacuation
Support Plans for people with special needs.
It would be desirable to improve systems intended
to prevent and ameliorate problems for people living
as evacuees. This would include, for example, the
early detection of any deterioration of vital functions
among evacuees, and particularly of inactive life
diseases (disuse syndrome). It would also be
desirable to study schools and other evacuation
facilities under normal conditions in light of actions
that will enable their smooth operation as evacuation
sites when disasters do occur. Measures should be
taken, for instance, to promote the stockpiling not
only of food, heating equipment, fuel, and so on, but
also of partitions to allow privacy among evacuees,
portable toilets, eating utensils, and other such goods
that will effectively help evacuees to maintain
healthy lives.
Settlements in hilly and mountainous areas and at
coastal locations that are likely to become isolated
are required to build up stockpiles on an appropriate
scale. These should include water, food, and other
everyday goods, medical supplies, portable toilets,
fuel for emergency generators, and so on. Power
sources that can supply electricity within each
settlement will be studied for feasibility, to include
solar power generation and wind power generation.
It will be necessary to study how essential services
may be provided, according to the circumstances,
not on a network model but rather by the use of
propane gas, joint septic tanks, and so on, and even
by the improvement of independent facilities for
each household.
11. EFFECTS OF LONG-PERIOD SEISMIC
WAVES ON STRUCTURES
Ocean trench earthquakes and other such
enormous earthquakes have very large source
regions. For this and other reasons, the movement of
such an earthquake tends to include many seismic
wave components with a rather long period of 2–20
seconds that cause buildings to sway slowly.
In a basin like the Kanto Plain that is covered by a
thick layer of sedimentary deposits, these
long-period seismic waves form as surface waves.
Depending on the soil structure, the amplitude of the
waves may grow even larger and their duration may
also become longer.
Studies and research must therefore be conducted
regarding the effects on structures, and especially on
high-rise buildings and other large structures, of
these long-period seismic waves, which are still not
adequately understood. The necessity for new
countermeasures also requires study. Concrete
studies of these matters are presently being carried
on in coordination with the Japan Society of Civil
Engineers and the Architectural Institute of Japan.
12. CONCLUSION
The geographical features and meteorological
conditions found in Japan make this country
susceptible to earthquakes, typhoons, torrential rains,
volcanic eruptions, and other such disasters.
Consider, for example, that 20% of the world's
earthquakes of magnitude 6 or higher are
concentrated in this country, which has less than 1%
of the world's area. Japan is, indeed, a land of
earthquakes on a scale that is impressive even in
global terms.
It is to be hoped that the entire nation will join in
this work of preparation, so that Japan in the reality
of its form and figure can move closer to becoming a
society that has mitigated the risks of disaster.