A panel presentation by Japanese municipal government officials who participated in the March 2011 tsunami response and recovery efforts in Japan was held Wednesday, August 29, 2012. The event was co-hosted by Portland State University's Center for Public Service and The Tokyo Foundation. As part of the 2012 Intensive Professional Training for Japanese Municipal Government Managers Program, three program participants talked about the lessons learned from the Tohoku Earthquake/tsunami response efforts. These three speakers were from the direct area that was affected by the March 11 Tohoko Earthquake.

2. March 11, 2011. At 3:23PM 37 minutes after
the earthquake, a jet black wave rose with
a loud roaring noise and swept into the
urban areas.
2

3. ・June 6, 2005, Miyako City, Tarou-chou and Niisato-
Miyako City Location mura merged.
・ January 1, 2010, Kawai-mura was incorporated
and Overview into Miyako City.
・ Area: 1,259.89 square kilometers. (2nd largest in
Touhoku Region and 8th largest in Japan)
・ Ratio of elderly population over 65: 30.9% (2010)
・ Total fertility rate: 1.71 (2006-2010)
・ 2hrs to the nearest bullet train station (Morioka-
eki); 2hrs to IC; 2.5hrs to the airport; 2hrs to the
Prefectural Capitol, Morioka; 4.5 hrs to Tokyo; The
farthest city from Tokyo (in terms of travel time) of all
cities having a population above 50,000.
Miyako City
3

4. Easternmost city in Japan
◆ Major area for wood and wood manufacturing
・Plywood mills located here produce approx. 300,000m3 of plywood
annually, comprising 11% of the domestic market share.
・20,000T of raw materials are imported and 70% shipped to the Kanto Region
・Dedicated to employment in forestry using domestically produced materials.
・Concentration of industry related to production of particle board and wood
furniture.
◆ Tourism
・One million tourists visit Jyodogahama per year
◆ Seafood processing
Joudogahama
National Scenic ・Iwate prefecture is home to 111 fishing harbors, 4 major ports, 2 regional ports.
Site ・Catch landing in Miyako port：43,000 ton(2010)
East longitude 142 degrees, 4
minutes, 21 seconds.
Easternmost point on Japan's
main island (Honshuu) is
Todogasaki
Miyako Port
4

5. Details of Tsunami after the earthquake
• Time of occurrence: 2:46PM Friday, March 11, 2011
• Epicenter: Sanriku region at latitude 38 degrees 6.2 minutes north
and longitude 142 degrees 51.6 minutes west
• Depth: Approx. 24km 3:18 PM
• Magnitude 9.0
• Maximum seismic intensity: Upper 5
• Warnings and announcements
Fri, March 11, 2:49pm/Tsunami warning was issued in
Iwate
Sat, March 12, 8:20pm/ Downgraded from "Major" to
“Tsunami warning.”
Sun, March 13, 7:30am/ Warning downgraded to Tsunami 3:23 PM
advisory
Sun, March 13, 5:58pm/ Tsunami advisory lifted
• First wave arrival time / height 2:48pm/0.2m
• Highest wave arrival time / height 3:26pm/more than8.5m
(For reference) Maximum runup height
37.9m Tarou/Koborinai district
40.5m Omoeaneyoshi district
（ Photos take from mayor's office on 4th flr of Miyako Municipal 3:30 PM
Bldg. ） 5

6. Houses swept away Breached seawall (Kanahama district)
Disaster Record
一Mountains of debris in the Piled up cars at Fujiwara Wharf
Tarou district
6

7. Disaster results
2011/3/11 2011/6/11 2012/4/25
Dead ６２ people ４０９ people ５１５ people
Injured １１ people ３３ people ３３ people
Missing ６２８ people ２８０ people ９７ people
※Officially dead
included
Houses Destroyed ２，０６１ houses ４，６７５ houses ４，６７５ houses
※ Among the dead: 4 Fire Dept. Employees, 16 Fire Brigade Members, 2 Policeman killed on
duty.
※ Individuals in their 60s and 70s comprised 50% of fatalities. If those in their 80s and 90s are
included, that percentage rises to 70%.
※ Breakdown of housing losses
・ Total collapse- 3,669 homes ・ 50% collapse - 1,006 homes ・ Partial loss- 176 homes ・
Water damaged floors- 1760 homes ・ Water damage below floors- 323 homes.
Population before and after the Tsunami
2011/3/1 2012/6/1 Increase / Decrease
Population ６０，１２４ People ５８，３５９ People △１，７６５ People
Households ２４，３３２ ２４，１４１ △１９１ Households
Households Households
7

8. • Municipal Disaster Response Central Facilities:
Details of the Disaster Results 2:46PM, Friday, 3/11/, 2011
• Levigation gates closed. 111 gates closed at time of
warning. 93 gate locations in Miyako District. 18 closed
in Tarou District
• Evacuation orders given: 2:46PM, Friday, 3/11,/2011
• Evacuation orders lifted: 5:58PM, Sunday, 3/13,/2011
• 5,227 homes ordered to evacuate. 12,842 people.
• Shelters/Evacuees: 85 locations / 8,889 evacuees (at
peak)
Estimate numbers of Evacuation places and Evacuees
3/14 6/14 8/11
Number of Number of Number of
Area evacuation
Evacuees Evacuees Evacuees
evacuation places evacuation places
places
１（市営住
Miyako ３４ ４，２０６ ６ ２７３ ４
宅）
Kuwafasaki ４ ３７２ ３ １１６ ０ ０
Sakiyama １０ ９１４ ０ ０ ０ ０
Hanawa ３ １８０ 0 0 ０ ０
Tsugaruishi １２ １，３０５ ２ ３０ ０ ０
Omoe １０ ６１９ ５ １２２ ０ ０
Taro １２ １，２９３ １ ５２８ ０ ０
Total ８５ ８，８８９ １７ １，０６９ ※10月7 日、完全閉鎖
１ ４ 8

9. Evacuation places and Evacuees
At the beginning Stable Period
■What was needed?
■ Road and Lifeline Restored
○Water, Food, Stove, Fuel -> Offered by residents
○Blankets →Reserve storage, voluntary ○ Movement of people and roads,
deployment transportation organizations, electric
■Shelter operations by early administration was
○Bathroom → Voluntary deployment power, communications
challenging →Response provided by school ○ Materials distribution base operations
staff, volunteer disaster response organizations stabilized. Prepared to respond to needs of
and area residents shelters.
□Reasons: ■Evacuees act by themselves
○Municipal building damaged and isolated. Staff ○ Evacuees self-organized, provided daily internal
trapped inside severely delaying initial and external information. Information exchange
between shelters and government sped up.
response.
○ As volunteer disaster response groups and
○In addition to the loss of 70 public government become familiar with shelter
vehicles, gathering and dissemination of operations, volunteer support comes up to speed
information was limited by interruption of and support broadens.
electric power, causing constraints on
availability and deliverability of supplies.
Daily community helps and supports
The challenge to run evacuation places
○Facilities people use daily have to be designated as evacuation places and equipped with disaster-prevention functions such as
supplies and communication facilities.
○Communities ran the evacuation places at this time. Support for voluntary anti-disaster organizations is needed.
9

10. Temporary Housing
■Number of structures ２，０１０（６３
places）
■Ready for occupancy: Aug. Houses
Location 11
Miyako ７４５ Units
Kuwagasaki ２２４ Units
Sakiyama ５１ Units
Hanawa １１４ Units
■ Features Tsugaruishi ２５０ Units
・Location near to prior residences before the disaster Omoe ８４ Units
・Avoid school facilities Taro ４８２ Units
・Small groups with 10 to 30 houses
Niisato ６０ Units
・Arranged house assignment to retain local
community Total ２，０１０ Units
The challenge
○City parks should be preserved as anti-disaster spaces to construct temporary housing when
necessary
Every possible consideration must be paid to maintain local community for the prevention of
solitary deaths and suicide
10

11. Economic and Infrastructural Damage
■Sites Damaged
１５,２３１ sites
■Economic Damage
1,975 billion yen ( 2011 initial budget amount for Miyako city: 303 billion yen)
Details of the damages
・Destroyed houses 6,934 houses／1,066 billion yen
・commerce and industry facilities 1,079 damages／281 billion yen
・Fisheries-related business 6,278 damages／215 billion yen
・Tourist industry 52 damages／136 billion yen
・fishing harbors 147 damages／127 billion yen
Washed up cultivating equipment Destroyed public housing
11

12. Disaster Waste Matter Situation
Type Debris Volume Disaster Waste
Timbers / Dimension
３７，６００
lumber Huge numbers of the waste
Burnable １１６，７００
Entrust disposal to Iwate prefecture
Non-burnable ４２７，７００
Ref: Ave. waste disposal for city is 20,000
Sediments tons/yr
(Reconstruction materials: １０７，８００
Concrete related) Disposal in larger area
・Tokyo: From Nov. 2011 to June 2012
Metal scraps ２３，１００
Daisen City: Began April 2012
・East Azuma Sanitation Facilities
Plastic ２，９００ Cooperative (3 facilities: Nakanojou, East
Azuma, Takayama) = Acceptance from June 8
Straw mats １，０００
Amount disposed as of May21:
Other (fishing nets, About 41000 tons
１５，３００
etc.) 5.6% of the total
Total ７３２，１００
12

13. Warm Support
○Donations distributed to quake victims *of direct donations to city
Approx. $7M (to 2,162 households)
(at .78 exchange rate) Current 6/1/2012
○Education assistance Distributed to children orphaned in the disaster
Approx. $750K (to 173 households)
(at .78 exchange rate) Current 6/1/2012
○General Assistance Avail to city for disaster recovery measures
Approx. $3.9M (to 733 households)
(at .78 exchange rate) Current 6/1/2012
○Also receiving many other types of material and personnel support for
temporary clinics, temporary daycare facilities, construction of care
homes and etc.
13

14. Miyako City Great East Japan Earthquake Reconstruction Plan
Reconstruction Plan 【Basic Plan】
Plan Period: 2011～2019 Reconstruction Plan 【Proposal
■1st: Start Plan】
■2nd: Policy for buildup of city foundations ■Project implementation for reconstruction
■Project implementation for reconstruction by region
■3rd: Initiatives (efforts) toward
reconstruction Regional reconstruction plan
Rebuild dwellings and livelihoods
33 disaster districts
Industry and economic reconstruction
Industry and economic reconstruction ・Draft and present a pattern for city re-
construction planning .
■4rth: Important reconstruction projects
Residential reconstruction assistance project ・Regional re-construction planning to be
formulated by Residents
Port city industrial development promotion
project Forest, river and ocean-base Start up Planning Commission
renewable energy project composed of regional residents.
Disaster Prevention City Joint Action
Panels by local residents
Project
Disaster Memories Preservation Project ・事業手法の決定、法定手続
■5th: Region-specific Reconstruction ※ 検討会立上型 10地区
Planning policy direction 全体協議型 23地
区
Taro region, Miyako region, Omoe region
■6th: to propel (drive forward) the Pay utmost respect to the opinions
reconstruction of the residents.
14

15. Miyako city will recover for sure!
"Miyako Fall Festival" Splendidly...
Rikuchu‐kaigan National Park
"Joudogahama"
We appreciated warm support from all parts of the country.
15

16. Importance of local disaster
prevention capability in the East
Japan great earthquake disaster
~
Learning from activities in Minami
Sanriku city
Ｓａｎｄａ Ｃｉｔｙ Ｆｉｒｅ
ｄｅｐａｒｔｍｅｎｔ Ｊｕｎｉ
ｃｈｉ Ｍａｔｓｕｏ
Ｗｅｄ．Ａｕｇ．２９．２
０１２

17. Ｍｉｎａｍｉｓａｎｒｉｋｕ ｆｒｏ
ｍ Ｓａｎｄａ Ｃｉｔｙ
２０ Ｔｈｅ Ｅａｒｔｈｑｕ
hours
６００ｍ
ａｋｅ Ｐｏｉｎｔ
Ｔｈｅ Ｔｏｗｎ ｏｆ
ＭＩＮＡＭＩＳＡＮ
ＲＩＫＵ
ｉｌｅｓ
Ｓａｎｄａ Ｃ
ｉｔｙ

18. Minamisanriku Fire Station
Responsibility
・ Take on the role of the fire dept. in stricken
areas (Fire, Rescue、First Aid)
・ Search & rescue and first aid service at shelters

19. Issues In Firefighting Activities
・ It took too long to decide where to dispatch fire and rescue teams
from other parts of Japan and from all over the world. (Rescue teams
from Hyogo pref. were dispatched right after the earthquake. However,
they couldn't find any survivors because their destination of Minami
Sanriku city was decided on the 14th and rescue service didn't start
until the 15th.)
・ Hyogo rescue teams had 50 fire engines and ambulance, and 200
rescue members but there were not enough places for both cars and
people to camp. (Teams had to camp away from the earthquake
stricken areas.)
・ The affected areas were covered with debris and the only road
(just made by the self-defense forces) was so narrow only one vehicle
could get through at a time. It was avery rough road that caused many
flat tires for fire engines and ambulances.
・ The stricken areas were spread wide but large fire engines and
other large trucks and machines couldn't get through so transportation
for rescue teams had to be provided by ambulances.

20. Learning From the Experience
・ Few people were rescued by firefighters.
(In the 1995 Kobe quake, 98% of rescues
were performed by neighbors.)
・ Awareness and training of firefighters and
volunteer disaster response organizations is very
important.
・ (Importance of disaster response training for
junior and high school students.
・ The key to find missing people is everyday
neighborly relationships. (Everybody knows where
his/her neighbors are when life-line is cut off.)

21. Regarding Shelters
・For food supplies, survivors at shelters brought
food from houses which weren't affected by the
disaster due to their higher elevation.
・As the days went by, refugees rapidly increased
beyond the local evacuees directly following the
disaster.
・For heating at shelters, survivors brought fuel
from their homes and used kerosene stoves at the
shelters.

22. Conditions at shelters (1)

23. Conditions at shelters (2)

24. What I heard and saw at a shelter with 500 evacuees
(1)
・Clean bathrooms (cleaning was regular and
buckets were provided)
・There was always somebody loading snow into a
temporary water tank.
(To flush toilets and for washing hair)
・I don‘t remember what time but it got very quiet
at night. (I could only hear somebody coughing or
vomiting.)
・When helicopters with supplies arrived at
shelters, people lined up in a single line and the
conveyance of supplies went smoothly.

25. What I heard and saw at a shelter with 1500 - 2000
Evacuees
・Frequent dispatch requests
・Residents were in a state of chaos
・Toilets were plugged and overflowing.
(Nobody cleaned the bathrooms and buckets
were scattered around.
・I often saw people making suggestions to
disaster response HQ.
・There were many doctors and nurses at the
shelters but they appeared to be always busily
running around.

26. Lessons learned from observing shelters:
・ Shelters with around 500 refugees are easier to
manage.
・ Ongoing neighborhood relationships from
before the disaster seem very important. (Probably
people who act as leaders were already leaders
before disaster.)
・ If a shelter is large scale with a disaster
response main office inside, Then a mayor, police
officers, the self-defense force, firefighters would be
stationed there. This situation may encourage
people to be more vocal with their demands.

28. The Emergency Management HQ Building at 15:30

29. The roof top of the Emergency Management HQ
Building at 15:40

30. Disaster response unite office immediately after
the disaster

31. Finally
・I want to say 'thank you' to people from all over
the world for your assistance and warm words
toward disaster stricken areas in East Japan.
・I also want to thank Prof. Nishishiba, students
and faculty from PSU, and people from the city of
Portland for creating this opportunity to present
this information.
Thank you for listening.

32. Lessons learned from the case of
registered tangible cultural properties
case 3
Sakuragawa-city, Ibaraki-prefecture
Hiromasa Konno

33. 自宅
Profile of SAKURAGAWA
Sakuragawa is a city in Ibaraki, Japan. It was formed on October 1, 2005. It is
Composed of Iwase-machi, Yamato-mura, and Makabe-machi.
The city is known for its stone works using the resources of Mt. Kaba, and its
agriculture using the abundant flatlands to the west of the mountains.
The City name, Sakuragawa River is running from north to south through the city.
SAKURAGAWA
真壁

34. Major aftershocks
Eurasia plate 3/11
3/12
4/7
North
America
Direction of crust shift
Plate
3/11
3/12 3/11
4/11
3/15 3/11 Pacific plate
Philippine Seat Plate

35. It must
be tough
I don’t
on you.
mind
it.
I love this
town.
Makabe – planning a town of tradition and hospitality
筑波大学が製作した展示用町並み模型（1/400縮尺。中心部1/150も製作）

36. Head
Vice-Head
Spirit of autonomy that has been
passed down in generations Facilitator
Consulting
Administration
Resident Resident Resident Resident

37. Sake brewery Shinto Shrine
Silk mill
Japanese-style restaurant&hotel

38. “ Makabe hina doll festival ”

39. 400 year-old town
layout still exists
Edo period

40. Silk mill

41. 自宅
Sake brewery

42. 自宅

43. Immediately after quake: 2 mud warehouses collapsed. Gate pillars shifted.

44. Day of quake: Stone warehouses built in this period lack earthquake preparedness.

45. Day after quake: Oya stone fences were completely destroyed.
Stone warehouses with structural problems collapsed.

46. Cultural Affairs Agency 文化庁
Response meeting
災害復旧修理方針の検討
Mayor 市長

47. It must
be tough
I don’t
on you.
mind
it.
I love this
town.
Makabe – planning a town of tradition and hospitality
筑波大学が製作した展示用町並み模型（1/400縮尺。中心部1/150も製作）

48. Discussion