Towards Sustainable Communities
Yoshikazu Funato
Specially-Appointed Assistant Professor,Reconstruction and Community Revitalization Unit, Research Support and IndustryAcademic Collaboration Center, Iwate University

Ten years have passed since the Great East Japan Earthquake. However, we do not hear
this spoken about often in disaster-stricken areas. This may be because people know it ismeaningless to be astounded by how much time has passed, as it is not as easy tosegmentalize their daily lives spent towards reconstruction and recovery in units of time.
People and community activities are still in the process of recovery, and challenges are
becoming more prominent, especially in disaster public housing. A man (80 years old) whoserves as the president of the residents’ association in a collective housing project of about
60 households has actively implemented various events since moving in four years ago to try
to promote connections between people. However, the number of participants did notincrease despite outreach, and he says, "I gave up because I was tired." Before the new fiscal
year, he asked the executive to find a new president, but was strongly requested to keep
serving in the role, and reluctantly decided to do so.
Disaster public housing, in which people who do not know each other live together, hasseen its share of problems such as solitary deaths, which provoked the need for support suchas community formation and watching over one another. There are many examples of
supporting the president, as mentioned above, on the premise of independence fromexternal support and in favor of a resident-led group. I am also one of those who provide
support, and I feel frustrated at the bleak outlook. In a survey conducted in Iwate Prefecturein November last year with disaster public housing government officials and Japan National
Council of Social Welfare staff (Funato, n=150), 18% responded that the status of theresidents’ organization was "unchanged" after three years, whereas 63% mentioned the "lackof leaders and participants and functional decline." In other words, many forms of support
are targeted at only a small number of "executives" with high levels of awareness on theissue, resulting in a lack of alternative human resources and a less sustainable residents’organization.

© 2021 Institute of Disaster Area Revitalization, Regrowth and Governance, Kwansei Gakuin University

Many of the types of support focused on the residents' initiative, but they did little toarouse interest among those who were indifferent; in some cases, they were left to dissolve
under the guise of residents’ independence. The residents are getting older, and thus, theshortage of candidates is a serious matter. How can we increase self-help in the face of aprospective decrease in recovery support and public assistance?
To take the example of a small case, it has been 4.5 years since the prefecture-operated
Tochigasawa Apartment (225 residents) in Rikuzentakata City advocated a "community
with a total participation of residents." The term of service for the group leader responsible
for activities such as collecting money was shortened from the usual 1-year term to 1 month
to familiarize everyone with the role early on to foster a sense of sharing of responsibilities. I
have also been involved in helping the council stimulate exchange of thoughts and ideas
among residents. More than 30 members participated in the monthly council meeting, andprogress is being made every year. As a new development, the presidential election wasconducted by taking a vote from all households, which is unusual for disaster public housing.
These forms of self-government and self-help, which were not seen before the disaster, aretaking root as Tochigasawa culture.
The words “Build back better” were often heard in terms of reconstructing infrastructure,
but they should also be used to discuss social infrastructure. Whatever human recovery thatcan be realized is only accomplished through the accumulation of small efforts rooted in life.
A lesson to be learned from the Great East Japan Earthquake is, what should community
support look like in the affected areas? True value as a supporter is required to form a newparadigm of sustainable communities.
July 2021© 2021 Institute of Disaster Area Revitalization, Regrowth and Governance, Kwansei Gakuin University