Thirteenth Anniversary of East Japan Great Earthquake

The people in Tohoku must have realized that East Japan Great Earthquake has changed the region forever in the thirteenth anniversary. The earthquake with magnitude 9.0 forced hundreds of thousands of people leave their home town. Even after the reconstruction measures have been made, the people cannot get back to their hometown with various reasons. Resilience of this disaster-frequent country is still tested.

According to the statistics of National Police Agency as of the end of February, the earthquake brought 15,900 of deaths and 2,520 are still missing. The “related deaths,” who survived the quake and tsunami but died during their evacuation, amounted to 3,802 at the end of last year. Total evacuees in all over Japan amount to 29,328 at the beginning of February, even though it was reduced from 470 thousand just after the disaster.

 

Most of the people who left their hometown were evacuated from Fukushima, where Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant owned by Tokyo Electric Power Company had a severe accident with meltdown of nuclear fuels, caused by blackout after tsunami hit the site. Fukushima prefectural government indicates that 26,277 people, occupying 89% of all evacuees, cannot return to their home in Fukushima.

 

Reconstruction of infrastructure was mostly finished in the area without severe damages from Fukushima accident. However, the evacuees are slow to return to their home towns. Rikuzentakada city in Iwate raised its downtown by ten meters or more from the sea level to prevent another damage by tsunami. But its population is 17,500, still 30% less than that before the earthquake. There are empty pieces of land in downtown without house or shop.

 

There are two types of reconstruction of downtown: relocation to highland and rebuilding city at where it was. According to a report of Asahi Shimbun, the relocation was finished earlier and has higher ratio of land occupation than rebuilding in the same place. The more reconstruction is delayed, the less people return from the evacuation where their life are rooted.

 

The latest town that started retuning residents is Futaba town in Fukushima, where Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant is located. Mainichi Shimbun reported that only 103 people (1.9% of the population before the accident) has returned to the town, since the government lifted evacuation order there. They are mainly single males. Families with child are reluctant to return, because the town with crippled nuclear power plant does not fit for raising kids.

 

Nikkei Shimbun reported that working age population, between 15 and 64 years old, reduced by 1.42 million (-12.9%) in the cities and towns in the coastal area of Iwate, Miyagi and Fukushima and evacuation area in Fukushima. Reconstruction will not be accelerated without human resource of the communities.

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