Panel Discussion Part 2“Preserving and Passing on the Lessons from Disasters by the Media”
Coordinator：Takashi Ota Producer, MBS Radio Station Station-(Broadcast)Panelists:

Nobuki Sudo Reporter, Kahoku Shinpo News Department
Fumiaki Ando Local News Reporter, Kobe Shinbun
Seiji Kondo Director, NHK Osaka Broadcasting Office, Special Researcher at DRI

Ota

Today’s theme is “Preserving and Passing on the Lessons from
Disaster by the Media. All 4 panelists are on the ground reporters,
and through their experiences gathering information and reporting
after the Great East Japan Earthquake, I think we can consider
how to pass on these lessons going forward.
As a reporter for the Kahoku Shipo in Sendai City, Miyagi
Prefecture, Mr. Sudo, what was the role of local media in sharing
information? And along with feedback from Mr. Ando of the local Kobe Shinbun, about theexperience 17 years ago after the Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake, how was information
about the Great East Japan Earthquake disseminated? NHK’s Mr. Kondo, how was theearthquake and tsunami disaster captured through broadcast media?

Sudo

First, after the Great East Japan Earthquake of March 11 lastyear, we received so much support in the disaster area, and also
at Kahoku Shinpo. Thank you so much.
I will briefly explain Kahoku Shimpo. The main office is in
Sendai City, and the company was started in 1897. There are alsobranch offices in 16 locations in Miyagi prefecture, and in the 6prefectural capitals and regional centers of Tohoku. We have acirculation of 460,000 copies printed in the 6 prefectures in Tohoku, but most subscribers
are in Miyagi. In ‘Kahoku Shimpo’, ‘Kahoku’ means Tohoku, and comes from the historicteasing phrase ‘North of the White River, there are only 100 books’ (in this sentence, kameans river and hoku means north). Our company, which published these insulting words,
also includes the meaning of commitment to developing the Tohoku region.
For Kahoku Shimpo, broadcasting played a central role in sharing information after theGreat East Japan Earthquake, when there were questions about what happened, what
was the result of the disaster on the lives of the residents, how is the situation worsening,
what are the reasons it happened, etc., which was recorded in detail. We are continuing toreport on it up until now. This is because we must preserve the record of what happened,and the many people whose lives were sacrificed to the tsunami are not able to pass on
the lessons to future generations themselves. A year has passed since the disaster, and I
think that from now, little by little, we will have more articles about the recovery process,but because of the large scale of the disaster area, and the large numbers of disastervictims and survivors, there is still a lot of work remaining to record the events from thetime of the disaster.
Next I will explain about making the newspaper on the day of disaster March 11 lastyear. On March 11, in the midst of many difficulties, we continued operations, and on thefollowing day, March 12, we delivered a thin 8-page version of the paper to evacuation
centers and our subscribers in their homes. Usually the Kahoku Shinpo is 28 pages long. .
I think most subscribers were a little bit surprised or very shocked. The surprise wasdue to the fact that even after such a big disaster, the next day’s morning paper was
delivered as if nothing had happened. The big shock was due to the photo that was
published in the paper. Even in areas outside of the tsunami disaster area, power outages
continued for days, and most people did not have access to T.V. or internet and getting
information only from the radio, had not had any visual information about the large scale ofthe tsunami disaster. When they saw the photo in the morning paper the next day, they
saw the tsunami disaster for the first time before their very eyes.
On the day of the disaster, the plan to make some kind of temporary paper was madeby the evening. At the time of the disaster, there were 3 main requests from news
agencies. First was the condition of lifelines and building damage and situation. Next was
confirming the safety of disaster survivors and evacuees, and then also about the situationof daily life. My news department mainly covered the disaster situation and that of thedisaster victims. Our 50 member news department was joined by an additional 30 people
the next day to report on the disaster. Reporters from branch offices inland also covered
the disaster, while commuting to coastal areas. In the disaster area cell phones didn’t work,
there was a shortage of gasoline, and we couldn’t move freely. We started covering thesituation, in the midst of flooded areas full of debris.
We started covering the situation near the main road, and the next day went a littler
further, and the next day a little more. When we first entered an area, it was the first timeto understand the disaster situation there. As we searched for areas we hadn’t reported
on yet, we learned new information about the disaster area. For about a month, we
continued this kind of reporting to publish in the newspaper.
Starting a month after the earthquake, we started to include the organization of thenews content by theme for the publication of the newspaper. The corner “The Great
Tsunami I Saw” included the disaster victims, where they were, what the tsunami looked

like, how they escaped. To recreate the situation, we published the pictures of that time
drawn by the tsunami survivors. As much as possible, we tried to recreate the voices ofthe survivors at that time, and the smell, etc.
In the “Witness” corner, we gathered what had been witnessed by many people, torecreate what had really happened in that place. To write one article, we listened to thestories of 20 to 30 people. The tsunami coming closer, the feeling of the people who were
there, while escaping, the feelings in the hearts of those people at that time wererecorded, including the feeling of those who escaped with their lives, and about those
who perished, many different memories were preserved, and published in the paper.
The “Documenting the Great Disaster” corner pieced together the true story frominformation that was first received in a fragmented and chaotic way, confirming the details
and double checking the information that was first presented.
The “Focus” corner, covered issues at the time that they appeared along after thedisaster, with subjects such as daily life, work, health, education, that were relevant at thattime. Others columns included various topics, such as “Disaster Survivors, Now,” or “FromNow,” etc., which we also published online.
Now I will explain about making Kahoku Shimpo’s newspaper on the day of the disaster.
When the earthquake hit, Kahoku Shimpo’s office building also shook a lot. I was on the 5thfloor, but everything on the desk fell like an avalanche, the bookshelves all fell, there was
not even a clear place to stand. Cracks appeared in the hallways and stairs, the ceiling fell,water pipes broke and overflowed. We escaped to the parking garage, and had a meeting.
Everyone went off to start gathering information for the news, but because the stop lights
were all out of order, there was complete traffic congestion, and it was impossible to getanywhere by car. Motorcycles or bicycles were more effective. At that time, we didn’t knowthat there had been a tsunami, and there was no information about it on our cell phones
from 1SEG (Japanese digital broadcasting). That day we were not able to gather verymuch information for the next day’s morning paper. That day, the copy editing department
did not do the layout of the paper, because the computer used for layout had beendamaged and was unusable. This paper was made thanks to the mutual support
agreement between local newspapers. On the day of the disaster, Niigata Shinpo
formatted the paper, and sent the data to a printing company in Sendai City, which is how
we could get the next day’s morning paper out.
After printing, the paper had to be delivered. Newspaper shops in the coastal area had
been destroyed by the tsunami, and the safety in the disaster area could not be confirmed.
Each newsstand in the area reported on the situation, to what extent delivery was possible,
confirmed newspaper readers who could deliver them. Based on this, the next morning’spaper was delivered.
There are some major points for reflection regarding newspaper production. One is theuneven collection of data. Within Miyagi Prefecture alone there were 15 municipalities thatwere destroyed by the tsunami, and the goal was to report on the entire disaster area that
also included the coastal regions of Iwate and Fukushima Prefectures. With no previous
experience in such a situation, Kahoku Shinpo assigned many reporters to cover thedisaster area, but even still there were some places that did not receive coverage. To
publish information, both staff and documents are necessary. The situation was especiallydifficult for a while after the disaster. I think that other news organizations also had thesame experience.
There is one prime example. Three months after the earthquake, the situation of
donations received by all disaster stricken municipalities was surveyed. Higashi
Matsushima City had lost 1000 people and suffered heavy damage, but had received little
news coverage. Minami Sanriku, which had suffered disaster damage on the same scale,
had been in the news extensively, as reporters from all over Japan had come there fromearly on. Minami Sanriku had received many times more donations than Higashi
Matsushima. From reflecting on this, we need to avoid unfairness that results from news
coverage, and keep an eye out to try not to have any area that doesn’t receive coverage.

Ando

I was a member of the special disaster section of the local news
desk, but to be honest I didn’t expect there would be anotherdisaster like the Great Hanshin Awaji Earthquake, so we mainly
focused on preparations for the Nankai earthquake. However,when the Great East Japan Earthquake occurred, we discussed
what could a reporter do who had experienced the Great Hanshin
Awaji Earthquake, and decided on 2 main points. One is news toconnect people to people, and the other is reevaluation of disaster mitigation and recovery
in the Great East Japan Earthquake and Great Hanshin Awaji Earthquake.
When I went to the evacuation center in Tohoku, people there thanked me from comingfrom far away, and said that it was hard after the Hanshin Awaji Earthquake, wasn’t it? andtried to give me supplies. When I refused, they would say that we were both from thedisaster area with the same hardships. I really took this to heart.
For a few days after the disaster I was at the local news section of the main office, andwe received many phone calls from readers. Many of these were from survivors of the
Hanshin Awaji Earthquake, with messages for the disaster area, or wanting to know where
they could send donations. Receiving those kinds of requests, making the title of “Connect”

rd

to the 3 sector, we asked Kahoku Shimpo to collaborate, and started publishing a sectionthat alternated between messages from Kobe and messages from Tohoku.
There were many people who felt that they had not been able to do anything after theGreat Hanshin Awaji Earthquake, and these people came from Kobe to volunteer in thedisaster area. We focused on that kind of topic to publish in “Connect.” Published with thetitle “to Live,” we documented Minami Sanriku Town’s recovery by observing the same
point over time. From a person who lost their daughter and mother: “Everybody worked
together and Kobe recovered, so Tohoku can too.” To have news that would turn attention
from the current living conditions, mental state, and situation with insufficient supplies, we
wanted to connect with information about support from Kobe and Hyogo.
The plan for “To Live” was originally developed by Kyoto Shinbun together with Kobe
Shinbun at the time of the Great Hanshin Awaji Earthquake. At that time, I was a highschool student, but I often read that column. I thought that connecting people is one of theroles of a newspaper. That is where the name “to Live” came from.
As I was the person in charge of disaster mitigation, I decided to look at the Great
Hanshin Awaji Earthquake once again from the beginning. In 1974, Kobe Shinbun had
published an article titled “Danger of an Earthquake directly under Kobe,” but looking
closer, underneath it said “there is no need to worry.” I don’t know why the reporters at thetime did not reiterate that information, but as a reporter, I felt the lack of imagination of themass media. There is also reflection about the government. At that time, Kobe City, did notpredict any disaster that would require a response, and therefore had no budget for it.
Therefore, the discussion about what to do about an earthquake that no one knew whenwould occur was put off. “Considering the Hypothesis” was a series that tried to pursue
this. Hyogo Prefecture’s Disaster Reduction Plan at that time pointed out the location
above an active fault, but did not include any countermeasures. Actually, that kind of plan
must have been made before the Great East Japan Earthquake. The Central Disaster
Prevention Council also had the same discussion repeatedly, as was introduced by theseries this time. Based on these kinds of reflections, I think we have to pursue a new kindof disaster prevention.
Finally I would like to talk about the examination of recovery. We were also involved ina survey by Shizuoka Shinbun about the 20 items you should prepare ahead of time tocarry with you in case of disaster, but Kobe basically lost to Shizuoka. The only thing wewon (answered correctly) was cash and bank book. Looking at the free answers, many
people said that even if you survived, you need money to live. I lived in Kobe City at thetime, and I thought I remembered what it was like one year after the Great Hanshin Awaji
Earthquake. For the first year we received support. In the second year, my father’s salarydecreased, news coverage decreased, and we started to feel the pain of recovery.
About half the bereaved families still have trauma now, and long term support isimportant. People who became disabled in the disaster are another problem. Goingforward, we have to convey that community building, psychological care, and life recovery
are not finished.
Housing construction that started a year after the Great Hanshin Awaji Earthquake wasabout twice that of the year before, but in the case of Tohoku, there is the large problem ofrelocation to higher area, and the situation is the same as last year. On the other hand, inKobe too, with Shin Nagata community planning, we can’t say that everything went
perfectly. A detailed investigation of the problems of resident participation according to thephase of recovery will be useful for Tohoku recovery going forward.

Kondo

NHK is the only public broadcaster in Japan, and including TV

and radio, has 8 streams, including local broadcasting for the local
area, and local news directed at the entire country. As specified by
the Disaster Countermeasures Act, we are established as a publicagency and disaster and emergency information are our importantmissions.
For the March 11 Great East Japan Earthquake, we issued an
Earthquake Early Warning at 14:46:50, and continued to broadcast emergency
information. I myself was also involved in field reporting and creating the program in Tokyo.
As in the case with other disasters, I met many other reporters in the field who were also
shedding tears. For everyone who suffered from the disaster, I want to express myheartfelt sympathy.
As it is beyond my ability to introduce all of NHK’s activities, today I would like to talkbased just on my own personal experiences.
I started working in 1994, and at the time of the earthquake in Kobe I was a first year
employee. As a newcomer to Kobe, I reported from the disaster area. After that, I’ve
bothered people in many places for special editions, etc. From that, I feel 2 important
points: the variety of disasters, and the local quality of lessons from disaster.
Many wooden houses were destroyed in the Great Hanshin Awaji Earthquake. Large
fires broke out. Highways were destroyed. There were many disaster stricken places; onthe evening of the earthquake, the first place I reached was Nigawa area in Nishinomiya
City, Hyogo Prefecture. There had been a large landslide, burying houses and killing morethan 30 people. It was a really terrible situation. Of course I took pride in covering the story
on live TV or in feature articles. However, I don’t think I fully conveyed the reason for thelandslide as the man made foundation of the dirt embankment, and now I feel there weremany places where I did not explain the lessons completely.
I often receive criticism. For example, in Akashi City, I am scolded that in the first place,the name “Great Hanshin Awaji Earthquake” does not express the variety of the disaster.
Akashi City is neither in the Hanshin area or Awaji Island, but many people perished.
Aren’t there many things like this that remain hidden? Now I think that among the many
places, we did not come face to face with all of them.
Compared to the experience of Kobe, the Great East Japan Earthquake area is much
more huge and more varied disaster area. There were 10 cities and 10 towns specified by
the Disaster Relief Assistance Law after the Great Hanshin Awaji Earthquake, but in thecase of the Great East Japan Earthquake there were more than 200 municipalities
designated within the special disaster zone. I covered many areas in Iwate and Miyagi, butthere are still many municipalities I never visited, and I have never seen the disasterdamage in Hokkaido. I also only know the situation in the north part of Kanto based onnews reports, and I still don’t know the condition of the inland area. There are many people
who lost family members, and many whose remains have still not been found. With noconclusion for this feeling, the situation is terrible. The search for remains still continues.
Of the many people whose houses were destroyed, some are managing to live on their 2ndfloors, and other in a bitter existence, and because of ground subsidence, many are
wondering if they can rebuild at all. People are suffering in the situation where livelihood is
not returning, and towns are not recovering, including individual shop owners and factoryowners. Many people say “already a year has passed,” but I think many more feel like ayear’s worth of progress has not yet been made. There is impatience and irritation, butalso exhaustion and I think it is extremely difficult to consider all of these.
I would like to talk about the number of articles in national newspapers, including NHK,
about the municipalities in Iwate Prefecture. There are many about Rikuzentaka, Kamaishi,
Otsuchi, but on the other hand there are also towns that we hardly hear about like Kuji,
Tanohata, or Hirono. Realizing this, NHK is attempting to add more local people fromTohoku to its staff. The goal is substantial increase of news produced locally for a local
audience.
Volunteers came to Noda Town in Iwate Prefecture 20 days after the earthquake, but
the conditions were almost unknown by people in Kansai, so with cooperation with thevolunteer group from Nishinomiya, we created and broadcast a weekly radio show aimed
at Kansai, called “News from Noda.” This is part of wanted to inform people that there aremany different areas.
As there are many places, so there are also many lessons. According to the area, thereare unusual lessons. Based on the location, the height of what is referred to as “high land”
is completely different. Also you cannot understand what “close to the sea” means until
you have been to that place. Now, Morioka broadcasting office is involved with collecting
the stories what happened at that time, and one by one, they take people back to the place
they were, and ask them to talk about what they did then. They are edited into short 3
minute segments, and viewable online. Each person’s own testimony is shared in theirown voice. I think that it is important to take the lessons from this.
I don’t know if the lessons from Kamaishi have been used in Wakayama, but theexample of the wide low land in Natori may be useful for Kochi, and we are continuing toreport and broadcast with this hope.

Ota

Both of you pointed out the unevenness in reporting. As media, what do you tell andhow do you tell it, or in other words, how to you think about the recorded facts? Can we
ask you to summarize the challenges related to this?

Sudo

After learning of the unevenness from the survey of donations, we are careful aboutchoosing the area to report on.
I have been involved in earthquake or disaster information for 10 years, in the pages of
the newspaper taking up evacuation behavior, supplies, and also the importance ofvolunteer activity after the disaster. Simply, after this disaster, the top priority was toreduce the number of disaster victims by even a little, by even 1 person. This means byevacuation, supplies, or making the best use of volunteers.
At that time, what became the basis, is the record of the time the earthquake occurred.
Even along the coastal area of Miyagi Prefecture, the disaster damage situation wascompletely different depending on the area. The geography is also different, as thenorthern half of Miyagi is a rias coast, and the southern half is the Sendai Plain. In eacharea, there are cases of both successful and unsuccessful evacuation. In the Yuriage areaof Natori City, many people tried to evacuate by car, the highway became very congested,
and many people were washed away just like that in their cars. However, in Nakahama
Elementary School in Yamamoto Town, teachers and local residents saved the children by
shuttling them by car to safe areas of higher elevation. Even in geographically similarareas, there are also many differences, so it is important to follow and report on theelementary school and that area for a long time, I think.

Ando

I think at the level of local residents, disaster survivors have a tradition of verbal
archives. However it is difficult for media to report on everything. In addition, I think that

how to select which to convey, for example, is a point that leads to deciding on an archive.
What do you think?

Sudo

More than the selection, the plan was anyway at first to gather many voices from a wide
area. The reporting department chose an area to report on spontaneously, but otherwise,
the media section was involved in accumulating records of what happened where, throughmessages from residents, blogs, or photo contributions. In addition, through collaboration
with a Sendai non-profit involved in the activity of gathering disaster recover, we built astock of data.
There was also Tohoku University’s archive called Shinrokuden, research institutions
and private companies, news organizations, along with Kahoku Shinpo. This time, thedisaster area was so large, disaster records were collected jointly using various means;with the goal that they will be useful for future earthquake and tsunami research, as well
as local disaster mitigation. It takes a lot of time, but we are involved in gathering
information from as many areas as possible.

Ando

I have an 8 year old daughter, but of course she doesn’t know about the Hanshin Awaji
Earthquake. When I interview bereaved families of victims of the Hanshin Awaji
Earthquake, I ask two questions. What do you want to tell the reader the most, and after
17 years how does it the reaction to the disaster victim change? For the first question,
they say they don’t want the same tragedy to be repeated. It is often said to pass on thelessons of Hanshin Awaji, but personally I don’t think that just conveying only the sadness
is enough. I want to tell my daughter so that she can survive.
When asked how they survived the Great East Japan Earthquake, everyone first saysthat it was chance. But, if you ask various people, there is the strong feeling that they did
something to create the chance.
For children, first is survival, and then want to think about how to live. If an earthquake
happens on the way to school, what should they do; the Hanshin Awaji Earthquake is notjust about recovery, but I think there also must be a shift to disaster prevention. In addition,
I think for the people who survived, how to continue to live 17 years after the earthquake,and they avoided death, how the survivors can teach what they learned to children,

Ando

The two of you overlap, but even through there are many things that are needed for aregional scale disaster, there is an inclination for the region to emerge as a theme. In
discussion with just people involved with media, there are times were there is no solution
and resolution that can be seen, so I think that as much as possible, it is important to hearthe opinions of many people. Along with experts from many fields, residents from various
areas, people in government, the opinions of local media can make a contribution.
Starting 8 years after the earthquake, NHK Kobe Broadcasting has continued to air
almost unedited interviews with local residents, volunteers and experts in a 10 minutesegment within the news broadcast. Originally the segment was called “Earthquake
Message,” and has continued until today under the title “Life Connections of the
Earthquake.” We convey directly media criticism as well as experts’ evaluations. Together
with local society, we are involved within the framework of the thought that there issomething that was not enough.

Ota

Now, what the new media of the internet, mass media can lesson the distance between
disaster survivors and other residents, but there is the question of how open to be news
and photos, video, and sound.

Ando

Actually, it is very difficult to handle video related to disasters, most videos of people
recorded in the field during emergency operations doesn’t have the permission of thesepeople, so to show to the public is extremely difficult.

It is minimal also for the movies

offered to DRI. Basically, most cases there are no remaining related people.
Because of difficulties to use past movies, now permissions are held, and at the sametime, start to planned a system to develop online. At the Osaka Broadcasting Office, thereis the ‘Disaster Liaison,’ with gathers lessons for disaster prevention and recovery thesame website, including news videos and interviews, shown through animation. Little bylittle, an environment is being arranged, to create the systems needed to show the things
for which permission has been arranged.

Sudo

At Kahoku Shimpo, basically everything that is printed on the pages of the paper ismade available publicly. The editor of the media section carefully examines the contents,
and the photos directly contributed by residents themselves, as their stories from the timeof the disaster, are made available online.

Ota

Kobe Shinbun puts a substantial number of articles online, where they can be readfreely; can you tell us about that?

Ando

Kobe Shinbun’s database can be viewed at DRI, and articles are also displayed at
Kobe University. They are all available. The newspaper’s own records remain for somethings where official information does not remain, which I think is the difference of theinternet.

Ota

Even now, the keyword of ‘uneven distribution’ is still discussed, and it is also
discussed how after 1 year the volume of media coverage decreases. This problem has
been discussed since a long time ago, but along with the local coverage of uneven
distribution that was just mentioned, there is also uneven distribution by time. Do you havesome opinion about that?

Ando

Although it is often mentioned that Kobe Shinbun has continued coverage of theearthquake and recovery for 17 years, but more than the newspaper company, this is dueto the many readers who are concerned with earthquake recovery and verification. The
readers can point out the feeling that there is a large volume of articles that are related tothe earthquake.

Kondo

At the turning points of 1 year, 3 years, 5 years, the volume of news increased; in theth

6 year, I think there is a tendency was a sharp decrease. A serious point of reflection, I
would like to avoid this after the Great East Japan Earthquake. After 3.11 too, there wasan increase in coverage, but what to do afterword is a currently being considered.
The Kobe Broadcast Office started to express this after some days had passed after
the earthquake. To avoid being stuck at points of 1 year, 2 years, there are also thoughts
day by day along with the disaster survivors. The Atom bomb dome in Hiroshima is an
example of this. Although it is a small effort, reflecting on the days, is one example.

Sudo

At the moments 3 months, 6 months, 1 year after the earthquake, news organizations
arbitrarily define these points, but I don’t think that disaster survivors feel these
distinctions very much.

After disaster, the situation of re-establishment of daily life varies

by individual, and there are still many people for whom time has stopped at the day of thedisaster.
Even before the earthquake, much of the disaster area was already facing the
problems of low birthrates and aging society, industrial decline, lack of medical services,
etc. This progression that would have taken 10-20 years suddenly came to the surface
because of the earthquake.

I think it will take a long time to recovery this region.

Currently, I think that as a newspaper with local roots, alongside the disaster survivors
we want to keep broadcasting disaster related news for 10, 20 years. If we don’t cover theneeds that are unrelated to the disaster, we also have to accept criticism from readers. I
think that we will continue, as now, for 10 or 20 years.

Ota

We have discussed records and preservation in general, but it’s not just simple
recording, rather transmitting to the future, with the main point for us in Kansai beingraising awareness towards the Nankai Earthquake, Tohoku, or Aomori Offshore, Ibaraki
Offshore, Chiba Offshore, or other future disaster, which I think is that we should think
about as the future goal of the press.

Sudo

In September, 6 months after the earthquake, Kahoku Shinpo picked up a readers’archive related to the earthquake. At that time, I strongly felt that Is was very difficult totransmit and pass on the information. The Miyagi Offshore Earthquake, which occurs on
about a 30 year cycle, is predicted to occur with is a 99% chance, which is almost certain.
From 2003, Kahoku Shinpo adopted a logo “Prepare” to use for news related toearthquakes, and after the 2008 Iwate/Miyagi Inland Earthquake, took the opportunity tohave establish a monthly earthquake disaster prevention page.
We surveyed 100 disaster victims from the coastal area to find out if this page was
useful for the disaster this time. 40% were familiar with earthquake disaster prevention
page or the “Prepare” logo. In response to the question if this page had been useful forthis disaster, the Great East Japan Earthquake, over 70% answered that is was not usefulat all. In answer to why, responses said that on that day, they were desperate to escapeand didn’t have any time for thinking about anything else, or that they were know how toevacuate without the newspaper articles, which was the answer of many people on the
Sanriku coast.
In thinking about how Kahoku Shimpo intends to be involved in the future, revisiting
problems and awareness in the newspaper articles is extremely important, but more thanthat, many people have said they want increased disaster prevention education in the local
area. News is important, but I don’t think that just introducing disaster prevention
education in the newspaper is enough. It is especially difficult to convey the importance of
preparing for low-frequency natural disasters. In the news department was are discussing
how to go beyond just by printing a page that shows a evacuation planning workshop
conducted with a university in a local area, but how important it is for us to actually get
involved as well.

Ando

Kobe Shinbun also has the Hyogo Disaster Prevention page, including how to reduce
disaster, and increase preparedness, but the readership is low. After our Disaster
Awareness Survey, we receive 1,000 responses in 3 days, so know there is an impact fordisaster related articles, so

we want to know what the readership is low for the Hyogo

Disaster Prevention page. One thought is that it is because of the location on the page. I
think the best way would be a progress involving thinking together with residents, asking
readers questions and create the pages of the paper while engaging in a dialogue with
them.

Kondo

I think that to some degree, using video can be a powerful way of passing on stories.

DRI also uses video in their exhibit, but if examined carefully, we can see that the video isjust showing the scariness, and making an impact with that, but I have the feeling thatwithout using printed words together well, we can’t tell the story completely.
About working together, starting about 5 years ago, we held a study meeting once
every 2 months, with local government officials from Hyogo Prefecture and Kobe City,
experts, volunteers, DRI researchers. It was an effort to raise feelings about disaster
reduction and recovery to the same level. Practically everything learned in these meetings,
including harsh realizations that were pointed out, was aired live. With the involvened thatexceeded that of a usual broadcast, I think it was very important from the point of view ofthe passing on lessons.

Ota

I have also been involved in disaster reduction reporting for 20 years, and 10 years ago
I was involved in making a TV program with DRI Director Kawata, where I heard for the
first time the term ‘Super Extensive Disaster.” At that time the Director said that from now
we will have to help our selves, and not rely on government or other rescue, and this timeafter the Great East Japan Earthquake, I felt that deeply.
The traditional knowledge that remains in the disaster area, which I think all of you
know already ‘Tsunami Tendeko’ is really an excelling archive I think. Really, thank youvery much.