Rikuzentakata City

Business Continuity Plan (BCP) based on
Lessons Learned from the Great East
Japan Earthquake
Project Aims
The project aims to ensure the continuity ofgovernment operations by identifying highpriority activities in advance, securing thenecessary resources and defining theallocation method for the activities so that thecity can promptly and appropriately take thenecessary actions even in the event of largescale natural disasters.

Background and Reason for the Project
The city of Rikuzentakata suffered catastrophic
damage from the tsunami triggered by theGreat Eastern Japan Earthquake in 2011. Thecity hall was flooded and 111 people, or 25%
of its employees, lost their lives, which caused
major disruptions to government operations.

Project Outline
In the event of a disaster, access to resources
including people, things and information islimited. The City of Rikuzentakata hasestablished a business continuity plan (BCP)
which determines in advance the operational
structure, response protocol, and resources
required in order for its services to remain
operational even under such severe
circumstances.
While creating this plan, especially whenidentifying high priority targets, which would
both greatly affect civilian life and require thecity to make great effort to coordinate, the city
has developed five basic policies based on thelessons learned from the disaster.
1. Based on lessons learned from the Great
Eastern Japan Earthquake
Sort out activities to be given the highest
priority based on lessons learned from thedisaster that the government actuallyexperienced.
2. Save citizens’ lives above all else

City hall flooded by the tsunami

Inside the city hall after the disaster1

In the case of a large-scale natural disaster, thecity must focus on saving citizens’ lives.
3. Support victims’ lives
Although the government must treat citizens
fairly at all times, they must provide
compassionate priority care and support tothose who were most seriously affected by thedisaster.
4. Restoring citizens’ livelihoods at an earlystage
To ensure the provision of support to citizens
who need it from the government, it isnecessary to reduce the number of citizens tosupport. To do so, it is important to recovercity functions as quickly as possible to develop
an environment where citizens can lead anormal life by themselves.
5. Improve city employees’ awarenesstowards the business continuity plan intimes of peace
In order to properly execute the plan when adisaster strikes, it is important for every city
employee to confirm their roles throughregular emergency drills and exercises.

Temporaryheadquarters

disastercity has selected those that must be fulfilled as
high-priority activities for all city employees
across all departments and sections. There
were 1,374 tasks that needed to be handled
during the Great Eastern Japan Earthquake.
As for the task selection process, the cityemployed a bottom-up method: First, city
employees form the smallest groups required
to perform their tasks and within these groups
they select the most important tasks andconsider when they need to be performed
after the disaster. Second, the small groups
gather to form larger middle-sized groups with
their selected high-priority activities and go
through the same process as they didpreviously. Third, the middle-sized groups
bring their choice of actions into the group toshare among all. The reason the city chose thebottom-up method was because no matter
how small the task may seem, it can beimportant to citizens and should not be leftout. This activity raises city employees’
understanding and awareness of BCP by
getting everyone involved in the creation
process.
The city has also devised a plan where they
divided the period of one month after thedisaster into five phases, set an action
objective for each phase and selected highpriority activities based on it.
Phase 1 (In the first 30 minutes after anearthquake): Establishment of actions toprotect citizens’ lives and first response
systems
Phase 2 (After the first 30 minutes until theend of the day): Collection of damage
information and emergency support
measuresPhase 3 (Second day): Enhancement ofrescue operations and evacuee support
Phase 4 (From the third day to week 1): Startmanagement

Features and Innovations
Although there are so many tasks that need tobe performed immediately after a disaster, the2of emergency restoration activities andincreasing support services for victims”
Phase 5 (From week 1 until the end of thefirst month): Restoration of livelihood andgovernment operations
As a result, the city selected 17 tasks for thefirst phase, 41 for the second, 27 for the third,
16 for fourth, and 15 for fifth, or 116 in total.
As natural disasters are unpredictable, the city
has prepared an action sheet which lists theprocedures for high-priority activities andrelevant contacts, so that any city employee
who come into the office can perform thetasks even when a disaster occurs at night oron a holiday. In the event of a disaster it isimportant for city employees to work as one
team to respond to citizens’ needs.

Issues, Problems and Responses
To ensure that all the city employees complete
high-priority activities, they must understandthe details of the action sheet and repeatedly
conduct drills on a regular basis. In order toachieve this, employees must be made awarethat emergency response actions must beperformed by everyone regardless of which
department or division they work in.

Results of the ProjectIn the event of a disaster, small-sized local
governments
must
take
numerous
countermeasures against natural disasters
with a limited number of public employees
available. Therefore, it is highly affective forthe city to decide in advance on which highpriority activities should be completed during
an emergency. Furthermore, creating anaction sheet and enabling all employees
regardless of their type of service to performthe tasks allow the city to respond to disasters
in a prompt manner. This provides residents
with assurance, thus increasing public trust.

Reference URL
http://www.city.rikuzentakata.iwate.jp/

Future Developments (expected effects andproject vision and issues)
Once issues have been identified and verified
through emergency drills, the city canimplement a PDCA cycle which allows for newimprovements to brush up on the contents,
further refining the plan.

Contact
Division in charge: Disaster Prevention
Bureau Disaster Prevention Section
Phone: +81-192-54-2111
Email: bousai@city.rikuzentakata.iwate.jp
Terminologies and Coined Terms Used
High-priority activities
Actions that must take precedence overothers even in the event of a large-scaledisaster3