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The Relationship Between Community Support and Resident Behavior after the Tohoku Pacific Earthquake: The Case of Hitachi City in Ibaraki Prefecture

Risks and Conflicts: Local Responses to Natural Disasters

ISBN: 978-1-78190-820-4, eISBN: 978-1-78190-821-1

Publication date: 13 August 2014

Abstract

Drawing on a case study in Hitachi City, Ibaraki prefecture, this chapter aims to analyze the relationship between community support and the behavior of residents after the Tohoku Pacific Earthquake in the regions affected by the disaster. The chapter will examine residents’ behavior and the community’s roles by way of the following process: (1) We will review Japan’s natural disaster prevention regimes; (2) we will examine the result of a field survey conducted in Hitachi City detailing the city’s natural disaster prevention procedures and the operation of some neighborhood evacuation sites; (3) the behavior of residents following the earthquake is analyzed. In this part, questionnaires were sent to 2000 households, of which 492 (24.6%) were collected and used for this analysis. The earthquake and tsunami destroyed lifelines such as water supply for several days in the city. According to the city, a total of 65 buildings were judged to be in dangerous condition, 251 as requiring care, and 478 were only partially damaged. The most serious damage was found mainly in the city’s coastal areas, where a total of 85 houses were entirely or partly damaged, and 483 houses were flooded above the floorboards by the tsunami. On March 11, a total of 69 evacuation sites opened, and 13,607 residents rushed into them. After the disaster, residents initially tried to go back to their homes. Depending on the damage done, they either stayed there or moved to a relative’s or friend’s house, or to a neighborhood evacuation site. Due to the failure of the lifelines, transportation systems, and the damage caused by the disaster, most residents had to stay within an area more limited than usual, around which they could walk or ride by bicycle. Residents had only the human and physical resources of their neighborhoods. Therefore, the characteristics of their local communities affected how residents behaved during and after the earthquake.

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Acknowledgements

Acknowledgments

A part of this study is a revised and modified version of Hashimoto, Greger, Mashita, Yamamoto, and Kubo (2012). This study was financially supported by a JSPS Grant-in Aid for JSPS Research Fellow (Dr Tomoko Kubo, 23/7412) and a Grant-in Aid for Science Research by Tokyo Geographical Society (the representative of this project, Dr Keisuke Matsui).

Citation

Kubo, T., Yamamoto, T., Mashita, M., Hashimoto, M., Greger, K., Waldichuk, T. and Matsui, K. (2014), "The Relationship Between Community Support and Resident Behavior after the Tohoku Pacific Earthquake: The Case of Hitachi City in Ibaraki Prefecture", Risks and Conflicts: Local Responses to Natural Disasters (Community, Environment and Disaster Risk Management, Vol. 14), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 11-42. https://doi.org/10.1108/S2040-7262(2013)0000014008

Publisher

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Emerald Group Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2013 Emerald Group Publishing Limited