Journal of Natural Disaster Science, Volume 34, Number 1, 2012, pp3-18

Utilization of Social Media in the East Japan Earthquake andTsunami and its Effectiveness
Brett D. M. PEARY*
Rajib SHAW*
Yukiko TAKEUCHI**Graduate School of Global Environmental Studies, Kyoto University(Received March 31, 2012 Accepted July 10, 2012)
ABSTRACTDuring the 2011 East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami, newly popular social media suchas Twitter and Facebook served as a lifeline for directly affected individuals, a meansof information sharing, and a way for people inside and outside Japan to volunteer andto provide information-based support to affected individuals. Social media was used toperform vital relief functions such as safety identification, displaced-persons locating,damage information provision, support for disabled individuals, volunteer organization,fund-raising, and moral support systems. This study discusses the potential for public, civilsociety, and government organizations to utilize social media in disaster preparedness andresponse.
Keyword: Social media, social networking, disaster relief, disaster prevention, 2011 East
Japan Earthquake and Tsunami

1. BACKGROUND

addition, social media is constantly being redefined
because of the evolving nature and the rapid changeof the technologies. Social media “employ mobile
and web-based technologies to create highly interactive platforms via which individuals and communities
share, co-create, discuss, and modify user-generated
content” (Kietzmann, Hermkens, McCarthy & Silvestre, 2011, p.241). It has been described as having thecharacteristics of participation, openness, conversation, community and connectedness (Mayfield, 2008,p. 2).
The term “social media” came about withthe creation of social networking websites such as
MySpace and Facebook, but some tools, which are
now considered to be part of social media, have beenaround for twenty years (Kaplan & Haenlein, 2010,p. 2). Social media has grown out of previous forms

In the simplest terms, social media is a set of applications and services that use the Internet to connect
people. More specifically, social media is a communication medium, made possible by the Internet, which
combines dynamic, collaborative Internet-based tools,
social networks, computers, and, increasingly, mobile devices. It allows users to connect to each other,exchange information and collaborate. It consists ofsocial networks such as Twitter and Facebook, which
act as a means of connection between users, and websites and applications that allow users to cooperateand create content, such as the websites Wikipedia
and YouTube. Its use has grown in recent years alongwith the development and increased use of the Internet and mobile devices, such as smartphones. In
3

BRETT D. M. PEARY, R. SHAW, Y. TAKEUCHIof user-publication based web tools such as a discussion system called Usenet, which started in thelate 1970’s, and blogs later in the 1990’s (Kaplan &Haenlein 2010). Social media is the content of Web
2.0, which is a term popularized by Tim O’Reilly ofO’Reilly Media to describe the shift from an Internet
made up of static web pages to a more complex andsophisticated one where users interact, collaborate,share information online and create content (O’Reilly,2005).
Beginning around 2005, social media has grownin popularity to become a part of the daily lives ofmany people in recent years. Since the tools and content that make up social media are dispersed, it can bedifficult to measure usage, but Facebook, the largest
social network, which started in 2004, only became
open to the public in late 2006 (Abram, 2006), as of
September 2011, had 800 million active users, 50
percent of whom access the website daily (Facebook,2011). Other social networks boast large numbers as
well; Twitter, which functions in a very different way
than Facebook and can be used with Short-Messaging
Service (SMS) text messages through mobile phones,
started in mid-2006 (Mashable, 2011) and has about
200 million users (Shiels, 2011). In addition, Google
entered social networking with Google+ in June 2011
(Kaste, 2011), and as of October 14th, 2011, had 40
million users (Svelik, 2011).
Social media has great potential, but there arealso issues for concern such as the potential for misinformation, the digital divide (the gap between users
and non-users, usually related to economics or age),
privacy, and identity theft. In order to understand anddevelop means of minimizing the negative impactsof these issues, further research is necessary. During
the 2011 East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami, newly
popular social media such as Twitter and Facebook
acted as a lifeline for directly affected individuals, ameans of information sharing, and a way for people
inside and outside Japan to volunteer and to provide
information-based support to those affected individuals. Social media was used to perform vital relief
functions such as safety identification, displaced-persons locating, damage information provision, support
for disabled individuals, volunteer organization, fundraising, and moral support systems as well as others.
This paper analyzes the roles of social media in pastdisasters, and then analyzes the role it played in the2011 East Japan earthquake and tsunami. Based ona survey on the users of the social media, the paper
analyzes the potential role it played in the disaster anddraws lessons on how its future role can be enhanced
in disaster preparedness and response.
2. USE OF SOCIAL MEDIA IN RECENTDISASTERSSocial media has been used increasingly in disasters, both natural and man-made in recent years.
The increase in use of the Internet and the increasein use of network-connected mobile devices have
led to more people having access to social media.
This increasingly larger group of individuals armed
with instant access to the Internet means that when adisaster happens they are likely to use that avenue ofcommunication because it is available to them at thatmoment. The way that the technology is used varies
based on the type of disaster, location, situation, andresources available. Individuals who make use of social media in disasters are limited by the types of services, tools, and number of users that they have available to them at the moment when the disaster occurs.
Due to the fact that the change to Web 2.0 is gradualand that new innovative web services develop overtime, we can see a difference between the early use ofsocial media in disasters and later, more sophisticateduses in the ways problems are approached.
Experience shows that social media is sometimes the only functioning communication method in
disasters (Acar and Murakami, 2011). In addition, theavailability of these new tools and the need for information during crisis spawns new organizational methods to accomplish tasks, some that were not possible
or imaginable before the availability of a specific tooland the need to communicate in that specific situation. When disasters happen, users of social media use
it to fulfill a need, and sometimes that need requiresthat they use the social media that they have at handin a way that was not previously imagined by the designer. Luckily, social media’s eclectic and flexible
nature lends itself to being “mashed up” and so thesecrises can create greater innovation.
When the coordinated suicide attacks in London, UK
occurred on July 7th, 2005, it was arguably the firsttime that social media had been widely used in any
kind of disaster. At the time, newly popular websites,
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UTILIZATION OF SOCIAL MEDIA IN THE EAST JAPAN EARTHQUAKE AND TSUNAMI AND ITS EFFECTIVENESS

Wikipedia and Flickr, along with recently available
photo-capable mobile phones became tools in thehands of witnesses of the attacks (“Cell Phones Capture,” 2005). Photos taken by people on the scene
were sent to others who using computers uploaded
them to Flickr, a photo sharing website created theyear before. In addition to the photos taken by people
on the scene, the website showed images of news
reports on television, as well as images expressing
condolences to people affected by the attack.
Images were also sent by SMS from camera
phones to the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC)and were broadcasted around the world. Over 1,000
pictures and 20 videos of firsthand accounts were sent
to the BBC in the hours following the disaster (Barnes& Carrell, 2005). The photos were used in the coverage of The New York Times (Cowell, 2005). This
event popularized the idea of the “citizen reporter”(Huck, 2005), which is the idea that with new technologies such as blogs and camera-capable mobile
phones average persons can become “reporters” helping to cover stories when they happen to be on thescene.
In October 2007, a little over a year after the
microblogging website Twitter was created, wildfires
that eventually burned over 400,000 acres and 1,500
homes broke out in southern California (Flaccus,
2007). Two San Diego residents began posting realtime, status updates on Twitter from multiple sources
such as radio, television news, SMS, and other online sources on information, on evacuations, meeting points, supply locations and other information(Poulsen, 2007).
At the same time, the website of the local public
radio station, KPBS, was brought down because of
too much traffic, 36 times the normal amount, fromindividuals looking for information on the state of thewildfires (Poulsen, 2007). In addition, several of theradio station’s towers were burned in the fire (Gibbs,
2007). The online editor of the website had been
experimenting with Twitter and so employees of theradio station began to use Twitter to share information with residents. They also made a Google Map“mashup,” which is a way that users of Google Maps
service can take data from various sources and place
it on the maps to interact with the data, with locations of shelters, supplies and danger zones (Poulsen,
2007).

In September 2009, during typhoon Ondoy,
which caused the heaviest amount of rainfall in four
decades and resulted in subsequent flooding that submerged 80% of Metro Manila, individuals inside andoutside the disaster zone used Twitter and other social
media tools to perform relief functions and “transformed themselves from content disseminators into
active rescue and relief workers” (Morales, 2010, p.
23). Individuals used Twitter to give updates on theirsafety and the situation around them and later communication changed into collaborative action. Thisaction took the form of making online spreadsheets
where individuals could enter up-to-date information on the disaster situation, such as information on
evacuation centers, emergency rescue numbers, dropoff websites for donation, and lists of people in needof relief, as well as the creation of an organization
called Philippine Aid by Filipino bloggers in order to
set up a PayPal account for online donations to help
support disaster victims. The organization collected
USD $12,500. Up until this point, no system for online donations existed and this drove the Philippines
Red Cross to create a PayPal account for donations in
response. A crisis map was also set up using Google
Maps that showed distress calls in real time. The crisis map became an “invaluable resource” for relief
workers in the field (Morales, 2010, p.23). Table 1
summarizes the role of social media in past disasters(Peary 2011).
On January 12th, 2010, a 7.0 magnitude earthquake hit Haiti’s capital Port-au-Prince, in which thedamage amounted to 220,000 deaths, over 300,000
injuries, 180,000 homes destroyed, 1.5 million people
made homeless and 3.5 million affected (“Haiti Earthquake Facts,” 2011). The use of social media in thisrecent disaster has been widely documented. Whenthe disaster occurred, individuals from the non-profit
company Ushahidi, which created “crisis-mapping” inresponse to post-election violence in Kenya, createda software platform to be used in Haiti and began toorganize. They created a crisis-mapping system, andSMS-based, alternative 911, since none existed at thetime, that uses information from the ground from Haitian people sent by SMS to a special number, 4636.
SMS received by the team based in Boston, Massachusetts in the US, were aided by 12,000 Creole andFrench translators in 49 countries who were organizedthrough a request sent out by the company through5

BRETT D. M. PEARY, R. SHAW, Y. TAKEUCHI

Table 1. Overview of disasters in which social media was utilized
Disasters in whichsocial media was used

Details on how social media was utilized in the disasters

The 7/7 Bombings in
LondonOne of the first examples of social media use in a man-made disaster. Newly
popular cell phone cameras were widely used. Flickr, a photo sharing site andWikipedia were used to share news and information. This in turn popularized theideas of the citizen reporter.

The 2007 San Diego
Fires

Twitter was newly popular. Users in and outside the fire zones used Twitter throughSMS. Information on safe locations and supplies was aggregated by outside users
and used to make mashups with Google Maps. A large TV station relied on Twitter
when its website crashed.

TyphoonOndoy/Ketsana

Twitter was widely used. Online spreadsheets were used to share information on
the disaster situation. PayPal was first used for online donations inspiring the Red
Cross to adopt the practice. A crisis map was created with Google Maps and was
described as “an invaluable resource” by relief workers.

The 2010 Haiti
Earthquake

The Ushahidi crisis map platform was widely used, helping to create an ad-hoc 911
system. A total of 12,000 translators were recruited through Facebook, making fora 5 to 10 second turnaround time for incoming SMS messages. The map was used
to track cholera outbreaks 6 months after the disaster. The system was widely usedby relief organizations.

2010 Yushu
Earthquake

A Twitter-clone site called Sina-Weibo was widely used to exchange information
after the earthquake. Information is limited because of language limitations with
Chinese.

Super-typhoon Megi

The Philippine Atmospheric Geophysical and Astronomical Services (PAGASA)
launched a Twitter account just before the typhoon. Their tweets were broadcasted
by conventional mass media. After a month, the organization had 28,000 followers.
There are 20 typhoons a year in the Philippines and the organization says it is themost cost-efficient way of making announcements to the public.

2010 Eruptions ofMount Merapi

A community radio station created to respond to an ongoing lava flow began
using Twitter to organize. They were able to send 700 volunteers to places thatwere not reached by government aid. The organization had 35,000 followers andwould make requests for help for driving and cooking and receive mass amountsof support from the community. It demonstrates the possibility of reducing
dependency on foreign aid for communities.

2010 Canterbury(Christchurch)
Earthquake and 2011
June Christchurch
earthquake

The government used Twitter to send a coordinated flow of recovery information
to residents. An official hashtag keyword was instituted. Misinformation was also
spread using Twitter during the disaster. A symposium after the disaster aboutsocial media in the disaster discussed creating an “Emergency 2.0 Wiki.”

Hurricane Irene

The US Federal Emergency Management Association (FEMA) encouraged people
to use SMS and social networks to keep in touch with family and friends instead of
calling by phone so as not to jam networks.

2011 Virginia
Earthquake

Twitter users in New York City and other locations saw tweets about theearthquake, which originated in Virginia state, up to 30 seconds before it was felt,
showing that information moves faster through networks than the earthquakes
themselves.

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UTILIZATION OF SOCIAL MEDIA IN THE EAST JAPAN EARTHQUAKE AND TSUNAMI AND ITS EFFECTIVENESS

Facebook. With the help of the translators the team
had a 5 to 10 second translation time for each of the
40,000 messages they received (PBS, 2011).
Through the crisis map the team can see, in
general, which areas are facing particular kinds ofproblems, as well as respond to specific requests for
supplies, medical aid or housing. The system wasalso used to track a cholera outbreak that began six
months after the earthquake. By mapping SMS requesting medical help for cholera, the team could tellwhich areas are still affected by the cholera outbreak(PBS, 2011). The US State Department, recognizing
the potential of the crisis-mapping system, organizedwith the Red Cross, the US Coast Guard, and Ushahidi. Then local radio was used, which 90% of Haitians use, to inform people that if they need help, theyshould text the 4636 number. In Haiti, 80% of people
have mobile phones. There are no specific numbers
on how many lives were saved, but the US state
department claims lives were saved based on experiences such as the rescue of a woman giving birth in
the middle of the street (PBS, 2011).
Since then, the Ushahidi platform has been usedin disasters in Chile, Pakistan, and Japan, and theUnited Nations asked Ushahidi to make a team that
can always be on call when a crisis hits. The team was
first used when the uprising in Libya began in February 2011. Also during the crisis resulting from theearthquake, a new tool called the Transnational Information Sharing Cooperation (TISC), which grew outof a file sharing system for countries with a low levelof infrastructure developed by the Pentagon called the
All Partners Access Network (APAN), was released
and utilized by the US military’s Southern Command(Hodge, 2011). The tool was scheduled to be tested ina simulated hurricane in Haiti and the Dominican Republic around the time that the earthquake hit and so
the tool went live to help in the earthquake relief. The
tool is, in essence, a social network or “community”
that becomes a hub for information sharing, made up
of organizations and individuals, currently 1,700 in
Haiti, related to the relief effort (Pierce, 2011). The
network is an unstructured, online community of web
portals set up by the organizations and uses wikis, forums, SMS, and email (Redmon, 2010).

3. USE OF SOCIAL MEDIA IN EAST JAPAN
EARTHQUAKE AND TSUNAMI
Of the examples of social media during that disaster that were found online, Twitter appears to be
the most important tool in exchanging informationand helping people to connect. Twitter started in mid2006 (Mashable, 2011) and had about 200 million
users as of July 2011 (Shiels, 2011). When a user isfollowed, that person’s status updates, or “tweets”
will appear in chronological order in the timeline, themain portion of the website or application used. The
timeline is made up of all the tweets that a person
follows. Every time a user follows another user, thefollowed user’s tweets will appear in the timeline of
the user. The relationship between users can be oneway, meaning that the person followed does not haveto follow the person who follows him or her, or the
relationship can be two way. During the disaster,
Twitter published a blog post in Japanese and English
with an explanation of how to use Twitter during thedisaster and the hashtags for different topics. Twitter also published a mobile phone website with thesame information (http://twtr.jp/earthquake) “Touhoku
chihou,” 2011). This is significant because although
only a portion of the population in Japan has smartphones, which can use applications for Twitter, nearly
all mobile phones are Internet capable, so access toa mobile phone based Twitter website would makeTwitter available to virtually anyone with a mobile
phone, which is almost 115 million mobile phones fora population of 126 million.
Although having yet to take off in Japan, Facebook is the largest social network in the world and, assuch, it played a great role in communication after thedisaster. Many people around the world learned about
the disaster through Facebook and used Facebook to
express their support as well as donate to the relief
effort. The social network also played a large role inhelping friends and family of directly affected individuals get in touch with their loved ones. Facebook
and its group functionality were also used by manyorganizations and spontaneous volunteers to help
with the relief effort in terms of direct support andinformational support. It provided the means of communication for the groups to function. In addition,
due to the fact that Facebook is very popular outside
Japan, many foreign residents rely on Facebook for7

BRETT D. M. PEARY, R. SHAW, Y. TAKEUCHI

communication with friends and family back in theircountries of origin, and so when the disaster occurred
it became the most logical method for communication. There are countless articles and comments inmass media surrounding the event about how Facebook became a lifeline in the disaster. Facebook, as
an organization, also helped out in the disaster by
providing a centralized page for disaster information
called Disaster Relief. As of October 2011, the page
was being followed, “liked,” by over 680,000 people.
For users in Japan, Facebook also put information on
blackouts and train service above users’ News Feeds,
the first page users see when they log into Facebook.
Mixi, as a company, also took action to help inthe disaster. At the log in page of the website after
the disaster, large images with links to Google Person Finder were placed as well as messages asking
users to conserve energy. Mixi also provided a blog
post with a list of all the communities related to thedisaster and links to other websites and services.
The list had four categories: general, affected person’s support information, regional and “other.” The
groups had very high membership numbers because
Mixi prohibited the making of new groups during thedisaster (“Jishin – Mikushi,” 2011). This was probably to make sure that more than one group for thesame topic was not made, which often happens with
Mixi communities. This style of approach is uniqueamongst the examples of social networks.
As previously stated, SMS is not used widelyin Japan. Mobile service providers have an internal
messaging system for use between users of the same
service provider. At the time of the disaster, and in thecase of Softbank, this messaging system was SMS,
so Softbank users could use SMS to communicate
with individuals using Softbank and others abroad.
For communication between different mobile service
providers, mobile email addresses are used. Twitter,
which is arguably the most helpful form of social media in disasters, uses SMS, except for inside Japan forthe previously mentioned reason, but it does not use
email. Therefore, users of Twitter in Japan for mobile
use must rely on applications such as those used bysmartphones or mobile web browser to view Twitter’smobile web page. Applications and mobile web pages
use significantly more data than individual SMS
messages, and so this could create an unnecessary
burden on networks in disasters, which would meanthat less vital disaster information would be able toget through. This could delay communication at vitaltimes. The major mobile carriers in Japan, Docomo,
KDDI, SoftBank Mobile and eAccess (Emobile), announced that inter-carrier SMS would begin in Japan
starting July 13th, 2011. This date is after March, 11th,
2011 and so inter-carrier SMS was not used during thedisaster. Given this development, if Twitter provides a
local SMS number for Japan, SMS and Twitter could
be used together in the case of another disaster, which
would be beneficial because of its low data use.
There are also topic specific wiki websites related to the disaster. One such example is the website Olive (https://websites.google.com/website/
oliveinenglish/), a wiki specifically made for designoriented solutions to the problems created by thedisaster. The website is in Japanese, Korean, Chinese,and English and has directions for various solutions
for disaster related problems, such as how to makea mask out of a shirt or how to make an aluminum
can stove. Some Wiki pages have an extremely large
amount of information in Japanese and English related to the disaster such as information on the details of
the earthquake, tsunami and nuclear accident, disasterprevention, electricity, tsunami warnings, hospitals,
shelters, people finding, etc.
Smartphones, which are mobile phones that canuse applications like a computer, such as the iPhone
and Android platform phones, have recently become
popular in Japan. Many of the phones rely on mobile
Internet data to function. During the disaster, applications that run on the iPhone and Android platform
phones and interface with Twitter Facebook and otherwebsites were used by smartphone users. In manycases, the mobile phone lines were jammed becauseof an excess of calls, but individuals with smartphones were able to use 3G mobile Internet data andthese applications to obtain and share information,
which suggests that these applications and devices
can be extremely helpful in disasters.
Maps such as Google Maps and Google Earthare powerful tools in disasters when combined withother information. Sinsai.info was a website built
during the disaster that uses the Ushahidi platform, acrisis-mapping platform described in the section about
the 2010 Haiti earthquake. The website overlays data
gathered from individuals throughout the affected
area, the country, and the world using social media,
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UTILIZATION OF SOCIAL MEDIA IN THE EAST JAPAN EARTHQUAKE AND TSUNAMI AND ITS EFFECTIVENESS

email, mobile phone email, SMS and other forms ofcommunication. The website can show information on
where to find shelter, which areas have lost electricity, evacuation locations etc. This type of information
gathering is called “crisis-mapping” and would not
be possible without mapping services such as Google
Maps and Open Maps. Table 2 summarizes the use ofsocial media in the case of the 2011 East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami (Peary 2011).

(Peary 2011, Peary, Shaw and Takeuchi 2011). An extensive quantitative online questionnaire survey was
undertaken. Based on a literature review, the following factors were identified to measure the experiencesof users of social media during disaster: information,
motivation, problems, evaluation, and expectation.
In addition, based on the documented experiences ofsocial media use in past disasters, the following categories of users of social media during disaster wereidentified: non-user, non-sender, basic sender, volunteer sender, and manager sender. To analyze the results of the online questionnaire survey, a framework
for analysis was created. The framework consists ofuser roles, factors (general areas to be understood,
such as motivation), parameters (specific questions

4. USER SURVEY AND ANALYSIS OF RESULTS
This study was performed by reviewing social
media use in disasters, with specific focus on the East
Japan Earthquake and Tsunami of March 11, 2011

Table 2. Summary table of services and software used and their characteristics
Services and software used

Characteristics

Social Networks

Act as network between tools. Vary greatly by type.

Twitter

Popular in Japan. Highly public. Concise and fast information is easily
shareable and user driven. High level of anonymity. One-way relationships
possible. Character amount limits. Had problems with rumors.

Facebook

Popular amongst foreign community. Less public. Not so popular in Japan. Low
level of anonymity. More likely to have personal friends. Resending shared
information not always straight forward. It has groups, and is good for group
networking.

Mixi

Popular in Japan. Japanese language only. Sharing information is less fluid. New
group creation related to the disaster was locked to centralize info. Directed
users to Google Person Finder.

Email

Main text-based type of communication for cell phones in Japan. Sharing of
information possible, but more difficult than on social networks. Tracking theorigin of information is difficult because it is not public. Accounts of chain
mails with incorrect information widespread.

SMS

Cell phone based. At the time in Japan, not for cross-network use so use wasminimal. Used widely outside Japan to collect donations. Highly valuable indisasters in general. Character amount limits.

Wikis

Crowd-sourced. Information rich. Accessible by even low level users.
Collaboration usually is by higher level users. Commonly used as Info list.
Innovative.

Webpages or blogs

Commonly used. Common for info lists, but usually created by one person,
differing from wikis. Information shared in social media links to them.

Smartphone applications

Must have smartphone to utilize. Offers GPS functionality. Mobile. Highflexibility. Not commonly used by lower level users.

Maps

When aggregating other information, easily useable to understand a complex
situation using crisis-mapping. Requires a computer to use easily. Usable onsmartphones but somewhat difficult.
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BRETT D. M. PEARY, R. SHAW, Y. TAKEUCHI

disaster. The webpage for the survey was visited 1,538
times and there were 206 responses to the survey (156in Japanese and 50 in English). Table 3 shows the attributes (language, age and sex) of the respondents.
There were individuals who shared information
with family or friends, others who worked withingroups or organizations, and yet others who designed
or created or managed these groups. After comparing and categorizing all the collected examples, three
types of senders were also identified: basic sender(sending on an individual basis), volunteer sender(sending through cooperation with others), manager
sender (sending while leading a group volunteer
senders). The term non-sender is used to differentiate receivers who did not become senders from other
senders.
Therefore, every individual that utilized social
media has a receiver-sender relationship, such asreceiver-basic sender, receiver-manager sender, or
receiver-non-sender. Throughout this thesis, the termthat fall under the factors), and indicators (specificaggregated answers of question response sets). Reflecting the framework for analysis, the questionnaire
was structured to measure the factors of motivation,
problems, evaluation and expectation by user role.
The following figure is a graphical representation of
the theoretical and functional structure of the online
questionnaire survey that combines these factors andthe user roles mentioned here (See Fig. 1).
The survey was made available for response ona webpage designed specifically for the survey overa one-month period from September 13th to October
13th, 2011. In order to generate a specified response,
the survey was distributed to groups and individuals identified as having utilized social media in thedisaster. Following this, general appeals were madethrough the social networks Twitter and Facebook bycontacting users who had shared information related
to the disaster. The survey was made available to all
regardless of location or use of social media in the

Figure 1. Theoretical structure of the online questionnaire survey
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UTILIZATION OF SOCIAL MEDIA IN THE EAST JAPAN EARTHQUAKE AND TSUNAMI AND ITS EFFECTIVENESS

Table 3. Attributes of respondents
TOTAL
Manager
Volunteer sender
Basic sender
Non seder
Non user
Total

5
32
100
25
44
206

Language
Japanese
English
5
0
23
9
76
24
21
4
31
13
156
50

18-35
1
11
49
14
16
91

receiver includes all sender types, as senders also firstreceive information. The following concept diagram
describes these relationships (See Fig. 2). All roles
are in reference to the use of social media during thedisaster. (i.e., the term non-user refers to a person
who did not utilize social media during the disasternot a person who does not use social media in general). Reflecting the framework for analysis, thequestionnaire was structured to measure the factors ofmotivation, problems, evaluation and expectation byuser role. The following figure is a graphical representation of the theoretical and functional structure of
the online questionnaire survey that combines thesefactors and the user roles mentioned here.
Respondents were primarily between the ages of
26 to 45. There were no respondents below the ageof 18. Individuals over the age of 45 made up 19%
of respondents. Data on gender by user role showsthat the division between the sexes is nearly equal.
Respondents were asked for their location during thedisaster. For analysis, areas were divided into affected areas (Tohoku region and Kanto region), otherareas in Japan and outside Japan. A large majority of
respondents, 88%, were in Japan at the time of theAge Group
36-55
4
19
49
10
22
104

Sex
>56
0
2
2
1
6
11

Male
4
15
53
12
19
103

Female
1
17
47
13
25
103

disaster. Around 55% of respondents were in areas
affected by one of the three disasters, Kanto and Tohoku, during the disaster. Respondents were asked to
identify their level of affectedness. Thirty percent ofrespondents were not affected. Of the remaining 70%,
18% were indirectly affected to a low level, 23%
were indirectly affected to a high level, and 29% weredirectly affected.
Manager senders found social media to be themost reliable source of information during the disaster, as well as volunteer senders (See Figure 3).
For these two groups, the Internet also makes up avery large portion of the most relied on source of
information during the disaster. For basic senders,the Internet, followed by social media were the mostreliable, with the two combined making up the vast
majority, which is the same for the other groups thatshare information. Basic senders also rely on TV toa large degree. Groups that do not share information
have a larger variety of sources that are viewed as
the most reliable. For non-senders, social media, theInternet, and TV have nearly equal amounts, althoughsocial media and the Internet combined make up over
50%. Non-users relied on TV the most, followed by

Figure 2. Concept diagram of relationship of types of users of social media use in the 2011 East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami
11

BRETT D. M. PEARY, R. SHAW, Y. TAKEUCHIManager senders (n=5)

1

1

3

Volunteer senders (n=32) 111

11

18

Word of mouth
Loudspeaker
Newspaper

Basic senders (n=100)

4

18

41

Radio

37

TV
Non-senders (n=25)

11 2

6

7

8

8

14

12

2

80%

100%

Email
Internet

Non-users (n=44)

7 1
0%

20%

40%

60%

Social media

Figure 3. Most reliable source of information during the disasterthe Internet, radio and then word of mouth. A small
percentage of non-users found social media to be themost reliable source of information during the disaster. This might be because the users did not personallyuse it themselves, but perceived it as such through theobserved use of others. The results show that the usergroups that have a higher level of participation, suchas manager senders, are more likely to find social
media or the Internet to be the most reliable source of
information during the disaster. Interestingly, email,which many people use with mobile phones, as opposed to SMS, was not chosen at all.
Basic senders and volunteer senders have similar
patterns in receiving information. General information
comprises the largest group followed by infrastructure and then safety information. Non-senders mostly
received information related to safety followed bygeneral information and then infrastructure. Interestingly, they received almost no information on special
needs or necessities. Non-senders do not have a needfor this information. Since they chose safety information first, but almost no information on necessities, it
might follow that they, after confirming that they are
not threatened, did not feel the need to receive more
information or to share information. Manager senders
received special needs information the most followed
by general information, infrastructure information,and necessities. Due to the fact that manager senders operated a group that shared information during
the disaster, it is likely that their awareness about
the needs of others, the individuals they are attempting to support, is high, and explains why they havesuch high rates of received information about special

needs, infrastructure, and necessities. Individuals
who share information, as opposed to those who donot, seek out information that may not be applicableto themselves at higher rates with the intention of
sharing that information (Figure 4). Answers were
multiple choice and the specific options have been aggregated into the groups, general (general information
related to the disaster), safety (information related tomaking oneself safe during the disaster), special (information for individuals with special needs in the disaster such as deaf individuals or individuals who are
not proficient in Japanese), necessities (information
on food, water, shelter, etc.), and infrastructure (information on power outages, public transportation, etc.).
The graph represents the percentage of individuals ineach group that received that specific type of information.
There are vast amounts of research materials
available on the role of media and information sources during disaster. However, in this paper, discussion
is restricted to the use of social media and its role in
information gathering during a disaster. Acar and Murakami (2011) conducted a survey with Twitter two
weeks after the earthquake, tracking status updates ofindividuals in the affected area. The aim of the survey
was to understand the benefits of social networks forindividuals directly affected by the disaster and others
who were not affected but using Twitter to find news.
The research found that directly affected individuals’
status updates tended to be related to “their unsafe
and uncertain situation” and that individuals in remoteareas used Twitter to let others know that they were
safe. They also found that status updates in the disas12

UTILIZATION OF SOCIAL MEDIA IN THE EAST JAPAN EARTHQUAKE AND TSUNAMI AND ITS EFFECTIVENESS

Figure 4. Types of information received during the disaster (multiple choice)ter hit areas were warnings, help requests, and reports
about the situation and that official local authority
Twitter accounts, which were set up after the disaster,
were particularly useful because the information was
well followed and re-tweeted extensively, especiallyin the case of tsunami warnings. The research also
found that there were many re-tweets that were inaccurate information as well as that there were manycalls for help that were hoaxes or misplaced. In addition, users were concerned by these types of misinformation, but there were not enough status updates
from the government and mass media to combat themisinformation.
In another research study related to the disasterand social media, the Mobile Marketing Data Lab(MMD Lab, 2011) conducted a survey over the Internet over a five-day period from April, 22nd to the29th, 2011, with 1,891 individuals on the use of social
media in the disaster on mobile devices. The survey
consisted of a series of questions about the usage ofthe social networks Twitter, Facebook, and Mixi, asking whether individuals used the networks before or
started to use them after the disaster and if the networks were helpful during the disaster. The responses
show that 63.9% of Twitter users said that informa-tion obtained through Twitter was helpful, with 34.7%
of Facebook users saying information from Facebook
was helpful and 26.0% of Mixi users saying information from Mixi was helpful. Responses also show thatusers thought that each social network was not helpful
for anything at the following rates: 30.7% for Twitter,
49.4% for Facebook, and 57.9% for Mixi. Similar
research was also carried out by Hirotada (2012), whopointed out several issues with the use of the Internet,
social media and other mass media during disasters,
especially focusing on the nuclear meltdown.
Respondents were asked what tools they utilized
in receiving information (See Figure 5). Non-senders
rely on primarily social networks and web pages aswell as mobile devices to some extent. Basic senders
also rely on social networks and webpages primarily,
with video sites and email to a lower extent. Whilevolunteer senders also rely on social networks andwebpages to higher, and nearly similar rates, othertools seem to be all around the same levels. Manager
senders rely on web pages, social networks, and email
to the same degree, followed by mobile devices, andthen video and crowd-sourced sites. Senders shareusing a greater variety of tools when compared with
non-senders. Group senders use crowd-sourced sites

Figure 5. Types of tools related to social media utilized during the disaster (multiple choice)13

BRETT D. M. PEARY, R. SHAW, Y. TAKEUCHI

more than basic senders.
A series of questions on users’ motivations forusing social media during the disaster were asked ofeach user role group. Reasons for using were aggregated into technological barrier (to using some otherform of communication), ability barrier (some sort ofdisability drove users to utilize social media, such as
non-Japanese speakers not being able to understandinformation being shared on TV), convenience, quality of information, prior experience, mass sending
ability, desire to help, and encouraged by someone(See Figure 6). Non-senders cited convenience mostoften followed by quality of information. Basic senders cited convenience the most often followed bymass sending ability, quality of information, and thendesire to help. Major reasons for volunteer senders followed the same order. Manager senders citedprior experience and mass sending ability followed
by desire to help, with convenience being relatively
high also. Senders have a relatively high level of priorexperience, which might explain why they are more
likely to share. Manager senders have a high level ofprior experience also, so their prior experience would
explain why they have a higher level of participation.

Desire to help is high among senders and low among
non-senders.
Respondents were asked a series of questions
related to problems experienced in receiving andsending information through social media during thedisaster. Respondents were asked to identify specificproblems they experienced during the disaster andresponses were aggregated into problems related totrustworthiness of information, utilization related
to skill, failure in the goals of utilization (i.e., users
were not able to accomplish what they were trying to
do with the technology), and lack of electricity due
to power failure (See Figure 7). The most common
problems amongst all the groups were related to thetrustworthiness of information.
Responses following the framework measuring
the factors were used to analyze the results based on
location. Location is specified as the areas affectedby the disaster, the Tohoku and Kanto regions, otherareas in Japan besides these two areas, and outside
Japan. See Fig. 8 for responses to the most relied on
source of information during the disaster. Although
the number of respondents was small (n=31), respondents in the Tohoku region, affected by the earthquake

Figure 6. Reasons for utilizing social media to receive information (multiple choice)Figure 7. Problems in receiving information through social media during the disaster (multiple choice)
14

UTILIZATION OF SOCIAL MEDIA IN THE EAST JAPAN EARTHQUAKE AND TSUNAMI AND ITS EFFECTIVENESS

Figure 8. Relationship between location and most relied on source of information during the disasterand tsunami, relied upon social media primarily, followed by the Internet, and then word of mouth and
TV. Respondents in the Kanto region also relied uponsocial media to the largest degree, but also on the Internet to a high degree, followed by TV. Nearly 50%
of respondents in other areas of Japan relied on theInternet for information, with TV and social media
being used to the same degree. Respondents outside
Japan relied upon the Internet the most, followed bysocial media, with radio and TV making up equal portions. All areas except for the Tohoku region reliedon social media as well as the Internet, followed by
TV. Respondents in Tohoku used a greater variety ofsources of information, although social media was themost relied upon. This might be due to problems suchas lack of electricity and need for immediacy, where
the social media could be used on mobile phones inspite of the immediate effects of power failure.
Key findings show that over 60% of nonaffected individuals, nearly 80% of indirectly affectedindividuals (individuals who were not affected, but
had family or friends that were affected), and over
55% of directly affected individuals (individuals who
experienced the earthquake to a strong degree or had
to evacuate due to the tsunami) responded that social
media or the Internet was their most relied on sourceof information. While areas outside the Tohoku region cited social media and the Internet combined at a
rate near 70% (Kanto 71%, other areas in Japan 69%,
areas outside Japan 80%), individuals in the Tohoku
region, the area affected by the tsunami, cited social

media and the Internet combined at a much lower rateof 45%. Respondents in all areas in Japan evaluated“lack of trust in information” as the greatest problem
associated with social media use in the disaster, withrespondents in all locations rating it over 33%, whereas respondents outside Japan rated it much lower at
14%. Users regardless of location (inside disasterareas and non-disaster areas) or level of affectedness(non-affected, indirectly affected, and directly affected) both overwhelmingly evaluated social media to be“helpful” or “extremely helpful” during the disasterat a combined rate of 94%. Support for governmentuse of social media for respondents in the disaster affected areas (Tohoku and Kanto regions) was 95%,higher than those of other areas, which was over 84%.
Support for government use of social media in disasters is extremely high, above 80% for individuals inall locations, levels of affectedness, and user roles.
6. THE WAY AHEAD
The results of the current survey suggest thatsocial media was reliable in the disaster to very highlevels regardless of user role, location or level of affectedness and perceived reliability was even higher.
For directly affected individuals and individuals in theaffected areas convenience and mass sending ability
were the strongest reasons for utilizing social media
during the disaster. Problems with trustworthinessof information were experienced by all to a certain
degree. Even though problems were experienced, us15

BRETT D. M. PEARY, R. SHAW, Y. TAKEUCHI

ers found social media to be extremely helpful in thedisaster and beneficial in disasters in general to an
overwhelmingly degree. Users felt that all areas of
information sharing through social media in the disaster need to be improved, infrastructure information
to a particularly high degree. Support for governmentuse of social media in disasters was extremely highand was higher among directly affected individuals,
individuals in disaster areas, and group senders. The
higher the level of participation in sharing of information through social media during the disaster, themore likely an individual was to received and share abroader amount of information, with a higher likelihood that that information was from a credible source(Peary Shaw and Takeuchi 2011).
As Tseng, Chen and Chi (2011) demonstrate,social media can be used for information dissemination and resource mobilization that allow the public
to participate in disaster relief and play vital roles as
collaborators, and that social media is a more efficientmethod of disaster backchannel communication, so
government and public participation in disasters is
possible. In addition to this fact, results of this survey
show that participation by organizations and government bodies in social media use for disaster preparedness and disaster relief can be beneficial. The key
findings of this research can be used to explain why
organizations and government bodies should utilize
social media for disaster preparedness, relief, and recovery.
An important aspect of social media use indisasters is its ability to be used inside and outside
the disaster-affected areas. When speaking of social
media use in disasters, often people imagine only directly affected individuals utilizing social media. This
research shows that directly affected individuals andindividuals in the affected areas believe that social
media and the Internet combined were the most viable forms of communication so social media is valuable to these groups, as the collected examples show
there are many individuals who use social media to
contact their family or friends and there are also many
individuals who use social media to provide support
such as the case of the Anpi Report or to receive vital
information such as the case of the “homemade” sign
language news group. There are many examples ofways individuals can offer support from outside thedisaster-affected areas, such as gathering informationon the safety of individuals or gathering information
for crisis-mapping, etc.
After the 2011 East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami, there was a great outpouring of good will anddesire to help, but it was made clear by the government and organizations that the only way to help was
to donate funds. One possible way to direct this good
will and mass amounts of human resources into a
positive form of support for affected individuals may
be through encouraging individuals to participate insocial-media-driven support projects. Finally, due tothe fact that social media use in disasters is relatively
new, it is likely that, just as new uses for social media in disasters are being developed, new problems
will arise. Organizations and governments that utilize
social media in disasters should be aware of theselimitations and risks and do their best to minimize
negative impacts from them.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This research was partly supported by Church
World Services and MERCY Malaysia research grants
to Kyoto University, and the first author acknowledges the support of a MEXT scholarship for his study in
Kyoto University.
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