Eight years after it was hit by a massive earthquake and tsunami, Japan has been aggressively campaigning for disaster preparedness and mitigation. The Jakarta Post’s Riza Roidila Mufti was among a number of Indonesian journalists invited by Japan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs in an eight-day program that covered post-disaster reconstruction, among other disaster-related issues, organized by the Japan-East Asia Network of Exchange for Students and Youths (JENESYS).  

Empty grassy fields stretch along the coastline of Arahama district, Sendai city, Miyagi Prefecture, Japan. Only one large building stood within 700 meters from the shore: former Arahama Elementary School, which now serves as a memorial for the Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami in 2011 that left Arahama in ruins.  

Almost eight years have passed since the deadly disaster hit the eastern coast of Japan on March 11, 2011, which killed 15,897 people and destroyed both countless structures and the lives of residents in East Japan.

In Sendai alone, 8,110 households were flooded and 30,034 buildings completely collapsed. Arahama, which was once the home of 800 families settled along the coastline, was also left in ruins, covered in mud and debris.

Years after the disaster, the district has finally recovered. Even though reconstruction continues until today, Arahama has started to spring back to life. The lessons learned from Arahama’s recovery is that Japan’s reconstruction efforts are not only about building back what had been damaged but also ensuring that the new infrastructure and the community themselves are more resilient against potential disasters in the future.  

Kei Yamashita, an associate professor at Tohoku University’s International Research Institute of Disaster Science (IRIDeS), said that soon after the disaster, Japan introduced the Build Back Better concept for post-disaster reconstruction and recovery. The concept emphasizes building a safer infrastructure, a stronger tsunami defense and a more disaster-resilient community than ever before.

Building multiple tsunami defenses

After the disaster, the country pursued the development of multiple lines of protection against tsunamis to face potential future disaster. In Arahama, for example, multiple tsunami countermeasures, from higher coastal levees, evacuation hills and disaster prevention forests to an elevated road that also functions as seawall, have been built. One tsunami defense measure is not enough, Japan believes.

Takayama Tomoyuki, an advisory officer at Sendai’s disaster mitigation bureau who is also an Arahama resident, said that before the disaster, a 5.6-m seawall stood near the shoreline, aimed at protecting residential areas settled along the coastlines. However, the seawall was destroyed in the 2011 tsunami.

“Thus, after the tsunami, Sendai built a higher seawall. Now, the seawall is 1.6 m higher than the previous one. It is also longer,” he said.

The new seawall is 7.2 m high and stretches 9 kilometers along the coastline of Arahama. Around 3 km away from the first seawall, a newly 6-m-high elevated road that acts as a second seawall was also built.

Tomoyuki said that in between the first seawall and the elevated road, the Sendai administration also built other tsunami defenses, such as disaster-prevention forest, an evacuation hill and evacuation roads to guide motorists inland to safety when disaster strikes.

“They took at least five years to build in total,” Tomoyuki said. 

The relocation of residents to safer place was another measure taken for tsunami defense.  After the disaster, areas that were still not guaranteed to be safe were designated as hazardous and former residents had to move to safer areas inland.

In Sendai, 1,540 households had to be relocated, including residents who used to live along the Arahama coastline. In Arahama alone, areas more or less 3 km from the shoreline were considered high-risk, including where Arahama Elementary School is located.

“Around this school building, almost all residential houses collapsed and are not [safe] anymore. Even though some residents wanted to live here, they could do nothing as this area has been proclaimed a hazardous zone,” Tomoyuki explained.

The residents were relocated further inland, beyond the elevated road, through the Disaster Prevention Collective Relocation Promotion Project. Under the project, Sendai’s local government acquired land and developed apartments at relocation sites.

Besides tsunami defense and relocation efforts, the area also built more disaster-resilient facilities. According to 2017 data from the Post-Disaster Reconstruction Department City Planning Policy Bureau of Sendai, 85.5 percent of gas pipes in the city are earthquake resilient, up from 80.9 percent in 2011.

Meanwhile, every single school facility in Sendai is now earthquake resilient, from 99 percent in 2011.

Tsunami response guide: An illustrated guide for locals in the event of a tsunami. The Japanese government has established a system of multiple tsunami defenses comprising coastal levees, disaster prevention forests, evacuation hills, elevated roads and evacuation facilities in anticipation of a tsunami that could occur once every few decades or centuries.(JP/Riza Roidila Mufti)

Disaster risk reduction

When the Great East Japan Earthquake hit, Japan realized it was crucial to prepare its people and communities for natural disasters and teach them how to deal with every kind of emergency situation.

Yamashita of IRIDeS said that aside from infrastructure reconstruction, Japan also pursued disaster risk reduction in communities. Thus, many affected areas also focused on community building and raising awareness on local disaster preparedness.

“Rebuilding active local communities and providing education on disaster risk reduction are very important,” Yamashita said.

With knowledge about disaster preparedness and disaster risk reduction skills, communities are expected to carry out independent measures in an emergency situation.

During the 2011 disaster, there were already independent evacuation activities coordinated by local communities in Japan, such as the evacuation that took place in Arahama Elementary School.

On the day of the disaster, teachers and school staff members were able to evacuate all the students from their classrooms ushered them to school’s rooftop. A number of surrounding residents also fled to the school’s rooftop, led by a local community leader. While waiting for proper rescue measures, students, staff and residents survived on food rations set aside by the school.

Despite these stories, Japan realized that the community’s capability and capacity in disaster preparedness must be improved to further reduce casualties, as the number of fatalities destroyed in the disaster remained high. Japan believes more people can be saved in the case of a disaster with better prepared communities.

Thus, after the 2011 earthquake and tsunami, training and workshops for local preparedness leaders were established and intensified in Sendai. Disaster risk reduction skills were taught to neighborhood associations, who also began organizing more drills for local residents. 

“Now, local communities in the village level or neighboring community level actively participate in disaster preparedness simulations held by the Sendai administration,” said Shinsuke Okada, an assistant professor at IRIDeS.   

These efforts have also targeted schools and universities.

After the disaster, the number of community disaster preparedness leaders increased significantly from 50 people in 2012 to 638 in 2016, according to Sendai’s Post-Disaster Reconstruction Department City Planning Policy Bureau.

To support the community and disaster preparedness leaders, the city administration also established more evacuation centers that could be used by surrounding residents in case of a disaster, 73 recorded April 2014 to 191 by March 2017.

The city also set up temporary shelters for stranded residents. In the 2011 disaster, at least 11,000 people were stranded at Sendai Station, while the roads were overwhelmed with people, students, workers and tourists trying to flee the chaos. Thus, a protocol to deal with stranded commuters was put in place with temporary shelters in private sector buildings. Twelve are located around Sendai Station alone.