Message from Japanese Women
To Reduce Risks by Natural Disaster

We BPW Japan submit this message with our
Resolution
To BPW Jeju Congress
extracted

ENG

BPW Japan

versionBeginning:～Earth Quake～
It happened at 2:46 pm on March 11, 2011, when we were discussing
about women’s empowerment at the conference room of Fusen-kaikan inTokyo. The first attack was so strong as to stop the meeting and continued
for several minutes. Someone checked the quake information by PT andsaid the hypocenter to be Tohoku Area, 450km away from Tokyo.
We restarted the meeting, but could not continue the meeting and closed it.
However, when we went out, we found every transportation system wasout of service for the safety check. This was the start of Mega Disaster of
3.11 in 2011.

To this Mega Disaster～What we should do～This Mega Disaster affected human lives and living conditions.
Supporting victims, we thought that we should make reports about what
we did and what we should do for the risk reduction. Then we published abook titled “3/11 We Women Dashed Round” in Japanese.
To this book, we were asked to publish English version, but it was noteasy. Because it was required not only to report of this Disaster but towrite what women should do for the risk reduction and work forlegislation.

Draft for English Version
For the BPW Congress, we prepared English Version Draft. At UN
CSW58, we organized the side event titled “Disaster Risk Reduction andEmpowerment of Women” and Japanese government submitted aresolution on “Gender equality and the empowerment of women innatural disasters”.
From answers of the questionnaire at the side event, we found their
expectation to know information about disasters and women.
2Contents
1.

What women did at the megadisaster of 3.11

2.

On earth quake

3.

What people did on the time

4.

Activities of women who worked
heard at disaster struck areas

5.

Message from/to overseas

6.

Conclusion—on UN CSW58

May 2007

March 2011

May 2013

Before an earthquake disaster

After an earthquake disasterTwo years later

11. What Women Did at the Mega Disaster of 3・11
At 2:46 p.m. (Japan ST), on 11th of March, 2011, an earthquake
deformation occurred in the offshore of the Pacific Ocean near Tohoku
area in Japan, and the area was attacked by a very strong earthquake and agigantic tsunami. Also it destroyed the Fukushima Atomic Power Plant
owned by Tokyo Electric Power Co., Inc. The number of death andmissing caused by this disaster is nearly 20,000, and its disaster victim
including refugees from radioactive pollution was once 400,000.
According to the data published by the Reconstruction Agency, there arestill 289,611 refugees as of August 2013, two and a half years after thedisaster.
Formidable disasters, especially the tsunami, were broadcasted live insideand outside of Japan. Even distantly-positioned for about 400 kilometersfrom the epicenter, Tokyo experienced intensity 5, and the quake madethe capital become gridlocked with traffic. Many commuters couldn’t gethome on that day.
Though three years have passed since the quake occurred, the exact dataof damages have not published yet. It is due to the collapse of theatomic power plant that its damage is so big and inestimable.
Such a rare natural disaster taught a great number of lessons to different
levels of our lives; individual, community, society, and country.
Through such a disaster anybody has never experienced before, women’sNGOs also learned a lot. These lessons should be handed down tofollowing generations. This is why we published a book.
Through our experiences and activities, we realized women’s dignity andhuman rights were almost ignored. Furthermore we realized that they2

were put into inferior positions in being hired or reconstructing theirbusinesses. Women’s activities were not only cooking or cleaning at
evacuation sites but also reconciliation of landownership conflict which
regarded less typical.
From these experiences we submitted demand papers to government,
Gender Equality Bureau of the Cabinet, and insisted “Gender Equality to
be inevitable for decision making councils and deliberations.

3２．Earthquake and support
If we see the TV scene of the Day, we will be shocked by the destructive
power of nature. If the Nature snarled us with his fangs, what we can doto protect ourselves. Only a moment of time, a choice of road and a
judgment of action will divide their destiny. In order for the more
persons to meet the goddess of destiny, what the Disaster left us aslessens.
1) The Possibility of Occurrences of natural disasterWe should acknowledge amounts of the occurrences of natural disasters
such as earthquake, flood, eruption of volcano, typhoon and tornado
which destroy and/or give damages to lives of people. Though the scaleof damage is depend on situation of the area.
.
According to “Monthly Report of Earthquake and Volcano” by the
Bureau of Weather Observation, 16 earthquakes of over M6.5 wererecorded during one month of September, 2013.
Since 1900, in Japan we experienced 15 mega disaster which recorded
over 100 death or missed and half of them with tsunami. This is thereason why we are paying attention to the disaster of earthquake.
２) Report at the moment
On March 11 afternoon 2:45, 2011 the Earthquake started from the pointof N38°06’ 2” and E142°51’ 05” where is about 80 ㎞ from the sea shore
and at the depth of 24 ㎞. The wave of earthquake diffused through out
Japanese Island within several minutes and gave various impact to almost
all of Japanese. How they did and how they felt is important data to think
about measures to deal with issues. Even those who were near the focus
felt different emergency and showed various reaction.
So we asked members where and what and/or how you did at the4moment.
３．Disasters and Women’s Role
Women’s participation in support system has been expected topreparation for foods and distribution of care goods according and/or
sweeping of shelters. But we could see new women’s role model such as
intercession of land slide.
Importance of Internet was proofed to inform what are needed andwanted and many women helped to operate this. Because, with theoutbreak of earthquake, telephone became out of work but internet wasused as information tool. This was useful to appeal what were needed at
the area. Many members of our organization sent their report to BPW
office by e-mails which were useful to make our supporting plan
At the first stage, they wanted foods, wares and sanitary goods. But at thesecond stage, some of them expected how to keep their income andsomeone needed to be cared their psychological pains. The third stage
was to support for them to start business. We did this using the donation
funds by BPW International members.

5

“What were you doing at the moment?”
from reports of BPW Members
Aomori:(intensity= 4 ～ 3)
Sapporo:(intensity 3) On medical
examination at my office I was felt slow andlong wave and waited about 5 minutes withthe patient and switched on TV and foundserious damage.

I
felt my car trembling when I
rode on, and heard voices“earthquake” among discussion
at the Parliament in Tokyo. On
the way to Aomori I found every
signal being out of work andtraffics being out of order

Sendai: （ intensity 6 ）At the office of the 3rd
floor of old building, I
was frozen by noisy
sounds of broken glassesof windows, by dances ofsteal desks and heavy
copy-machines and by
blackout of the room. I
tried to run out but was
disturbed
bypapersslipped down from desks
and cabinets.

Yamagata : (intensity＝4～5) When I
took smell of ammonia, I felt uneasy
quake gradually strong and heard screamof women and the announcement to
refuge from the building. After heavy
quake, I joined trafficking jam by my car,and found falling snow.

Osaka: (intensity 3) Saying “goodbye” to kinder gardeners who weregoing to home with mothers, I felt
swaying and, at the moment,
ordered teachers to guard kids with
defending hoods. After news
checking, school bus started.

Nagasaki:
Only
thetsunami of 1
cm high wasobserved atnight though
they
were
surprised by
the report ofTsunami in
Tohoku area.

Tokyo:(intensity= 5～4) Almost
every train was stopped andpassengers went out from cars
looking for taxi or bus but foundtraffic jams on roads. The system
did not recover till midnight andmany traffic refugees were overflood on roads.

Kofu:(intensity 5 ～ 4)

Wakayama :(intensity 2)
The quake made them feel
as if they were dizzinessand not think earthquake,
because of the style withlong and calm wave.

6

At babysalon, breaking slates of floor andfalling parts of ceiling gave mothers
and babies shock. They were gathered
to the corner and though they were safe,
they were nerves because they lost
communication tools by telephone.

Nagoya (intensity 3) When I get off
from elevator, I felt sway but could notthink to be quake. I thought I might besick and5

３．Activities of women at disaster-struck areas
Here are some stories of women a side of supporters promptly.
1）. Building network of supporters scattered in the whole country.
Yuko Kusano, Representative of Miyagi Jo-net
I was working on the fourth floor of a building in the city center of Sendai
when the quake occurred. As soon as I felt the tremor, I tried to secure
my way out. I had been known that there would be high chances toexperience big quakes sooner or later in the area, so I secure all the doorsof the fridge and the cupboard not to open all the time. This time it
helped a lot, but still there were many books and even contents of
Buddhist alter fallen and missing.
The lifelines were completely out of order. But my family had an accessto water by opening an emergency tap of a water receiving tank at home.
We decided to share it with neighbors. Although we were lucky withwater, we did not use the precious water for toilet since we did not know
how long the situation be continued.
・
・
・
・
・
・
・
2. ） Open a disaster consultation center based on my 13 years
experience as a member of city council.
Wakako Sato, a member of Sendai City Council
I started a consultation center for victims, because I found that the
information for victims was not spread thoroughly. There were many7

elderlies who did not know there was financial support to restart theirlives if their home was destructed more than half of it, and those who did
not know how to apply for certificate of sufferers. I made a brochure of
the collected information about various support people can receive anddistributed it to the entire household in Sendai City.
・
・
・
・
・
・
3）Work hard to build supporting system
Miyuki Yusa, a member of the Miyagi Prefectural assembly
One year after Tohoku Earthquake.
Below are the problems and solutions concerning woman and/or childvictims at disaster sites through activities I got involved with.
Problems
1. Lack of changing areas for women, milk and underwear for babies, andplaces to play for children at shelters.
2. Fear of increasing domestic violence to children after the disaster.
Lack of systems to support such children by professional groups.
3. Lack of recognition of the importance of the presence of women indecision-making on disaster prevention of local plans andreconstruction planning.
4. Lack of positions of job for women who lost their jobs because of thedisaster.
5. Lack of gathering data of internal exposure to radiation for children
and expecting women as measures against radiation.
Solutions
1. Women’s participation to reconstruction plans
82. Dealing with domestic violence and child abuse
・Fifty support centers adjacent to temporary housing with a tightcooperation to consultation centers.
・One-step application for receiving public support
3. Including various needs and opinions of women, children, elderlies anddisabled people in revised local disaster prevention plans
4. Supporting female/young entrepreneurs or NPO leaders in new publicprojects
5. Conducting health check of children and expecting women
It will still take time to get back to normal. But in order to do so, I’d liketo do my best to realize the reconstruction of women’s lives.
4.） Support of the mental health for victims
Yasue Nunoshiba, Clinical Psychotherapist and Associate
Professor of Bunkyo University
In disaster-stricken areas, many people’s clock of their hearts has stopped
on the day of the earthquake. Their real clock ticks without mistakes, but
their clock in their hearts doesn’t let the time pass. We shouldn’t forgetthat there are many people who are suffered from the gap between theirreality and their clock which doesn’t go further than the day of thedisaster. Housing is usually referred to as the symbol of hearts, andscenery as the identity of residents. In other words, losing their houses
means their heart being severely broken, and the scenery being changed
completely means a crisis of identity. As a psychotherapist, I have been
trying to work out with people’s mental care in Sendai.
・・・・
5）. Challenge of delivering relief supplies
From Yamagata, a hub of support, to Sendai, the disaster site
9

Mitsuko Tanada, an administrative scrivener and Vice
President of BPW
Right after the quake, the logistic system stopped not only in the center ofthe disaster but in the eastern part of mainland. Residing in Yamagata
which is the neighboring prefecture of Miyagi, and having many of ourmembers’ relatives and friends in the center of disaster, we decided togather supplies within Yamagata and deliver them by our own cars. It was
hard to get hold of enough gasoline to drive, but we managed to do it. I
decided to deliver children’s bags hand-made by one of my friends. There
were more than 130 bags and I am sure that the children in Sendai felt
happy with them.
６）New Purpose in Life：Support from Boston
By Fish Toko Atsuko Board member of Fish Family
Foundation

Immediate Alarm
I could not believe my eyes when I first saw the damage from the Great
Eastern Japanese Disaster. My heart was tearing apart as I watched my
beloved home country being devastated by massive waves of water.…

Determination to go Tohoku
Resilience of Tohoku People
On the way to Ofunato
The power of Volunteers
Moving experience10

４．Report from the Field
1 Relationship of women and disaster
It says "many women are always the victims of disaster," but, why?
A disaster problem expert professor Kawata Yoshiaki emphasized
the importance of participation of women in the measures and research.
He says that we can not be disasters zero but reducing is possible.
Pursuing the realization of the mitigation is the most important goals.
2 Information exchange means of e-mailWith the recovery of the Communication environment in the affectedareas, information was brought by our associates in the affected areas.
That information was reported from various perspectives. Moreover
reportedly live. Therefor it was precious. In accordance with this, thebasic policy of support activities of BPW was determined below.
"Decision must be based on the request from the fellow in the affectedareas" .
…
3 Cooperation of our fellow - to the affected areas from Yamagata
For transportation of goods to the disaster area, Yamagata city waschosen as the city of stopover logistics of relief supplies. The city isrelatively close to the affected areas and less damaged from the disaster.
Day-to-day life began to return in three days after the earthquake. And
if we ensured gasoline, transport of relief supplies to Sendai district
was also made possible from Yamagata. So, fellow of Yamagata
exchanged information with each other, to collect the information of
the road. After that, fellow of Yamagata who could secured gasoline
was conveyed supplies to shelter people.
…
4 Efforts to a variety of problems - in the affected areas Miyagi
Along with the support of goods and sharing of information, we
11decided to address also psychological support. More specifically, we
campaigned for support each other to the concerns of women who
spend in shelter. In addition, in order to cheer up people who are
depressed by the earthquake, we planned an event at the "zelkova
tree-lined" the symbol of Sendai city. When the war ended, Sendai city
was destroyed by the air raid, and this "zelkova tree-lined" was planted
by citizens as a roadside tree. Though they were small seedlings at thattime but becoming a wonderful tree-lined now. That was planned awish that will stand up again.

5 Two months and half had passed from disaster. Light and dark.
…
6 Women's issues in disaster. BPW National Conference of disaster.
The BPW National Convention 4 to 5 June 2011, was held in Kofu, istaken up as a major theme of "problems of women and the Great East
Japan Earthquake" in a hurry, we have proposed a countermeasure to
the challenges of the future.
(1) Issues at the shelter(2) Issues related to women and the economy
・"Economic independence of women." as a goal of BPW.
(3) other• In the shelter, DV incidents against women tend to occurs.
…
7 Request to the Cabinet Office
8 "Road to recovery starting from a woman" Participation tointernational conference with our vest.
Also national convention after the end, it was established the slogan
12

"Road to recovery starting from a woman(Recover, Rebuild, Renew) ".
・・・・
9 Dialogue with women. "Seeing is believing" TourFor the events of "Dialogue with woman" from a woman volunteer
organization of Sendai, there was an offer of a "want to become aco-sponsor." "Seeing is believing" tour was planned as the wake of this.
・・①Women who have reopened in the wilderness of rubble②In Minamisanriku, temporary housing - sisters made new Move toresume business③In Minamisanriku-Woman grown by earthquake.
・・.
This tour, We met a lot of women started to move energetically insearch of tomorrow. However, We felt strongly that our culture is notgrown up enough yet to take advantage of the energy of women likethis. With the feeling the need to leave their message as a record, werecorded it and also quickly organized a meeting to think about what
they need in the future.
10 Connected with Skype. "Chatroom for women"
July 24, 2011, events in the call for women who have continued tohelp victims has held. The main venue was set at the Metropolitan
Hotel Sendai, and image communication via the Internet, connected
by Skype between the disaster area.
11 The request to the Cabinet Office about woman's businessactivities support.
13

5.Messages From/To Overseas
１．Messages from overseas one after another
Since the day immediately following the day the great disasteroccurred, we have received one message of sympathy after anotherfrom our worldwide sisters. The following lists are the names of thesisters, their titles, and the date that we received the messages. The
date stands for Japan Standard Time.
・・・.
2．Thank-you note for those who sent us messages and supportingfund● On March 21, 2011
President Matsubara of BPW Japan sent a thank-you email to President
Benham of BPWI and Sisters of BPW around the world as follows:
Dear President Benham, and Sisters ,…
I will report to you that, under such critical conditions, we, members of
BPW Japan, are cooperating and working together in order to support
the people who are suffering from especially heavy damages.
We embrace your warm support from all over the world in our memory
and we ask you for urgent support to the affected people .
Sincerely yours,
Toshimi Matsubara
President of BPW Japan

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3. The Report From JapanThe Report from Japan to the Office of BPW International
One month has passed since the attack of the Earthquake, Tsunami
and Radioactive Contamination to the East Part of Japan occurred. The
victims of these disasters are going to recover. The warm messages andfinancial support from you have encouraged us very much.
・・The invisible terror of radioactive contamination, which caused thecollapse of the nuclear power plant cannot but give a great influence to apolicy concerning energy problems in other countries such as France andso forth.
The next day we sent this report to President Benham of BPW
International, and she replied saying that they would upload this report in
the homepage of BPW International and that she instructed the office ofpresident to campaign raise-funds for Japanese victims.
4. The report on the support fund from sisters worldwide, thepurpose for which fund is going to be spent of
The 27th BPW International Congress was held in Helsinki in June,
2011. We expressed our gratitude to the sisters who gave us the heartfelt
sympathy and supporting funds, and we explained that we are going tosupport women’s victims to be as independent as entrepreneurs, and also
to give the report at 56th CSW on “Disaster and Gender” through what we
experienced this year.
The report of the Great East Japan Earthquake was published in the
newsletter of BPWI from our report to BPWI.
・・
5 A Speech at the side event at UNcSW 56 (2012９
15

The first opportunity to realize what we promised above came on
March 1, 2012 at the cosponsored event. This event which is held bycosponsored by UN organization/each government and NGOs, will beheld at UN headquarters, cohosted by NGO and government, for theholding CSW. The title of the speech is “Disaster and Reconstruction
from Gender Equality of View through the Experiences of Great
Earthquake and Tsunami at East Japan”. NGOs of here consist of The
International Women’s Year Liason Group, The National Women’s
Committee of the United Nations NGOs, and Japan Women's Watch.
We acutely felt the importance at this event to speak up to the world
what we learned through severe experiences such as the great earthquake,tsunami, and radioactive contamination.
Fig.1 a ship on the roadFig. 2 an interviewing member in red clothes

16Fig.3 members preparing hot meal

Fig. 4 ‘Hassaku’ orange

Fig. 5 photos of some families

Fig. 6 a picture of depicted vine on the homepage

17

6. Conclusion
From our experiences we assure that the key to reduce risks by natural
disaster is “Gender Equality and Empowerment of Women. It was true
from the first stage to the end, recover and rebuild of their lives.
So we appealed to government to promote legislation and to be dispatcherof the issues.
And we organized the side event at UN CSW58 on “Disaster Risk
Reduction and Empowerment of Women” and our government submitted
the resolution “Gender equality and the empowerment of women innatural disasters” which was supported by 79 countries.”
This stands for the voice of victims by the disaster in Tohoku Area.

18

XXVIII BPW INTERNATIONAL CONGRESSJEJU ISLAND, KOREA 23 – 27 MAY 2014

8: FORM FOR THE SUBMISSION OF RESOLUTIONSResolutions may be submitted by Affiliates, members of the Executive,
Standing Committee Chairpersons and Past Presidents, and must comply
with the requirements as set out in Regulations [R17], [R18] and in theProcedure Manual [8.6].

Resolutions fall into 2 categories:
・Those which relate to the operat ion of BPW Internat ional and the needs of members
and Affiliates: internal matters. These may include resolut ions on financial
matters such as dues.
・(X) Those which require advocacy by BPW Internat ional at nat ional or internat ional
levels and relate to the needs and rights of women generally: external matters.

BPW Japan(Name of Affiliate, Executive Member, or Chairperson of a Standing Committee)

Submit for consideration by the Resolutions Committee this motion for
debate at the XXVIII BPW International Congress 2014.
MOTION:

Gender empowerment to reduce damages by disasters
・Recognizing earth-worm and plate tectonics will increase natural
disasters such as mega earthquakes, tsunamis, mammoth
typhoons and tornados and floods
・Recognizing the number of victims and the damage to people bythese disasters are higher for females than males
・ Recognizing the human rights and dignity of women victims at
shelters and refugee- places are often neglected
・Recognizing gender gaps exist for job opportunities and access to
support systems to rebuild women’s lives
BPW Japan moves that BPW Affiliates demand of their government
gender equality in the decision making process of disasters which19means women should be included on planning committees and on
administration bodies, including:・before the disaster, women should be included on committees todiscuss disaster prevention measures, to reflect women’s interests
・at the disaster, women managers should be assigned in addition tomen managers at shelters to ensure women’s human dignity
・women should be added to committees to discuss support systems
for their economic independence, in order to prevent women’s
status being neglected
RATIONALE FOR THE RESOLUTION:

Japan experienced mega natural disasters and serious damage
resulting from the East Japan disaster, earthquake and tsunami
and were supported from our many friends and worldwide BPW
sisters. This unprecedented disaster taught us the importance ofgender equality to reduce damage by disasters, so we submit thisresolution expecting reduced damage in the event of futuredisasters. It is said that the number of women victims is higher thanmen, so to decrease women victims and the damage to women will
decrease the total impact of disasters on individuals.

International Federation of Business & Professional Women
Foundedin1930, BPW International empowers Business and Professional Women in over 98 countries on
5 continents with General Consultative Status at ECOSOC/United Nations.
RuedeSaint-jean26,1203Geneva,Switzerland | POBox2042,Fitzroy,Victoria3065,Australia
E:presidents.office@bpw-international.org |www.bpw-international.org

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at UN CSW58 on “Disaster Risk Reduction and Empowerment of Women”

21B P W Japan
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