13 years since the Great East Japan Earthquake: examining how to deal with local population decline / Tohoku experience in Noto should be leveraged

Editorial

16:18 Japan time, 11 March 2024

The Great East Japan Earthquake has highlighted the reality of how difficult it is to rebuild cities and industries when a major disaster strikes in areas where populations are declining. The experience gained in the Tohoku region should be applied to the reconstruction following the Noto Peninsula earthquake.

It has been 13 years since the 2011 disaster that left more than 22,000 people dead or missing. In coastal areas of Iwate and Miyagi Prefectures, which were severely affected by the tsunami, the reconstruction of homes and the improvement of road and railway networks have almost been completed.

In Fukushima Prefecture, where a number of residents and others were forced to evacuate due to the accident at Tokyo Electric Power Holdings' Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant, decontamination work has made progress in areas such as city centers. Evacuation orders are gradually being lifted, and the areas where people can live are expanding.

Creating new industries is key

The infrastructure necessary for people's lives has been created. However, as many people did not return to the affected areas as expected. According to the latest national census, the population of the three affected provinces is declining faster than the national level.

In addition to the coastal areas of Fukushima Prefecture, where the population declined due to the nuclear accident, there are also municipalities in Miyagi and Iwate Prefectures where the population decreased by 30% to 40%. This shows how people streamed in during the protracted reconstruction work after the earthquake disaster struck a depopulated and gray area. This situation should not be overlooked.

It is important to develop industries in the affected areas and ensure that residents have places to work. The ability to attract immigrants and tourists will also be an issue.

The fishing industry, the primary industry for coastal areas in the Tohoku region, has suffered a severe decline in catches of saury and fall salmon, its main quarry, in recent years due to rising sea temperatures.

In an attempt to overcome this situation, fishing cooperatives and fishery companies in Otsuchi City, Iwate Prefecture and other areas are cooperating to grow silver salmon and rainbow trout. Communities have put their heads together in an attempt to create new local specialty products. We hope that such efforts will succeed.

In terms of job creation, it is essential that we steadily strengthen the Fukushima Innovation Coast Framework, a national project to bring together cutting-edge industries such as robotics and aerospace in areas near the nuclear power plant, among other projects.

The Noto earthquake that occurred on New Year's Day this year is similar in many ways to the Great East Japan Earthquake because abandoned and aging areas were hit by tsunamis in both disasters. It is important to continue providing support in the long term, emulating the steps taken by the affected areas in Tohoku.

Lessons learned from Tohoku are also important in the urban reconstruction planning process.

A concrete vision for the future

The city of Minami-Sanriku, Miyagi Prefecture, which was devastated by the tsunami 13 years ago, had planned to consolidate 19 fishing ports in the reconstruction process, but was unable to do so due to local opposition.

With generous support from the central government, Minami-Sanriku has been able to rebuild individual fishing ports, but the cost of maintaining and managing them is now weighing heavily on the city.

“We should have made the city more compact in anticipation of the population decline,” Minami-Sanriku Mayor Jin Sato said regretfully, looking at the situation. “There is Wajima lacquer, tourism and traditional culture in Noto. If they can revive those industries, people will definitely come back.”

Ishikawa's governor, Hiroshi Hase, set his sights on “creative reconstruction” to revitalize Noto. The idea is not simply to return Noto to its pre-earthquake state, but to develop local communities to meet the needs of a declining population. This perspective is certainly important.

The governor said that the governorate will formulate a reconstruction plan in May or June. For residents to look forward, a concrete vision for the future must be presented. The prefectural government and local municipalities must work together to promote community development while listening to the voices of residents.

In the wake of the Great East Japan Earthquake, there was a further expansion of volunteer activities that emerged after the Great Hanshin Earthquake in 1995, as not only individuals but also a variety of organizations, including non-profit organizations, rushed to The scene of the accident. A new method was created in which groups share roles with each other and devise ways to coordinate their activities according to the needs of disaster victims.

Many Noto residents are still living in their damaged homes. There is a high demand for volunteers to distribute supplies and clean up damaged homes. Volunteers from disaster-affected areas in the Tohoku region are also participating in the activities, drawing on previous knowledge.

The city of Higashi-Matsushima in Miyagi Prefecture, an area hit by the 2011 disaster, has improved waste disposal efficiency through the so-called Higashi-Matsushima method, in which waste generated by the disaster is sorted before being transported to temporary storage sites.

The city also hired affected people as workers, and this is said to have become a source of income for those who lost their jobs due to the tsunami. It may be worth considering applying such an approach to efforts at Noto.

Issues common throughout Japan

The issues facing the disaster areas in Tohoku apply not only to the Noto region, but are also problems that all regions in Japan must confront.

In an era of declining birth rates and aging populations, how should local industries and culture be strengthened, and how should the child-rearing environment and medical system be improved? How will people rebuild their communities in the event of a major earthquake?

Central and local governments should leverage the problem-solving knowledge gained through supporting disaster-stricken areas in the Tohoku and Noto regions for disaster preparedness and community revitalization in other local areas across the country.

(From the Yomiuri Shimbun, March 11, 2024)

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