Messages from Departments and Centers of NILIM

Beginning of Full-scale Process for Housing Recovery
MIZUTANI Akio
Director of the Housing Department(Key words) The Great East Japan Earthquake, Rebuilding of houses, Livelihood support, Regional challenges
1. Introduction
It has been 2 years since The Great East JapanEarthquake. The damages caused to houses in the greatearthquake were: about 150,000 houses werefully-destroyed, 270,000 houses were half destroyed,730,000 houses were partially destroyed. As ofDecember, 2012, 320,000 people are still forced to livein shelters or temporary housing, and prompt
development of restoration is a great challenge. Eachmunicipality has been setting up a line of rebuilding
homes with reconstruction plans, but counting just Iwate
and Miyagi prefectures 90,000 housing supplies aspermanent housing are needed in the future, and 20,000
houses of these have been planned as disaster public
housing. The number will be further increased when aportion of Fukushima prefecture is crystallized in thefuture. This portion has not been published yet due to theeffect of the nuclear accident. The number of housing
construction has been increasing in the disaster-stricken
regions, but full-scale process of rebuilding homes will
be desired with the development of reconstruction
projects in each region.
2. Past efforts
Immediately after the disaster to now, efforts
regarding securing housing and livelihood support for
the victims that respond to each stage such as refuge life,
securing of temporary housing, rebuilding homes andrestoration have been continued, and NILIM has done
related research for supporting such as giving advice tothe municipality at each stage.
Especially, the disaster happened in areas wheredepopulation and the aged population have been growing,
various challenges have actualized including livelihood
support of elderly people, maintenance of the regional
community, maintenance of the vitality of local society.
Supports for these challenges are also in securing
housing and housing planning has been required.
Exemplifications related to the housing field that
NILIM has addressed are: Guidance and advice tomunicipalities regarding temporary housing construction,technical support for improvement of capacity of thehousing supply system in the region, and technicalsupport for the establishment of supply plan andplanning model projects towards public disaster housing
construction promotion.
3. Future challenges
Challenges have become clear during the past efforts.
The challenges of rebuilding homes that have shifted
into full swing are: ① Establishment of a housing
production system that responds to demands and speeds
up of the rebuilding of homes. ② Housing supply thatmeets residency needs of the disaster-stricken inhabitants.
③ Continuation and vitalization of local society andregional community. ④ Maintenance of housing after alarge amount of supply.
Towards these problems, NILIM continue to shape
resolutions and address them by creating models offuture development, creating institutions and structure,and establishing standards and assessment measures.
① For establishment of housing production system that
responds to demands and speeding up of rebuilding
houses
It can be said that speeding up supply and rebuilding
homes to resolve refuge life in temporary housing assoon as possible are the most important task. Also, it ispredicted that housing demands will increase rapidly
with the development of reconstruction in the future.
Establishment of housing production system is an agenda
to supply a large volume in a short period, and efforts
from various angles such as securing materials,
transportation, and people will be needed.
Moreover, reconstruction has already become
full-scale and the increase of cost of building materials
has been concerned. Measures to greatly cut costs down
for the liability relief of residents are needed.
② For housing supply that meets residency needs of
It is thought that support to municipalities is needed
continuously for early materialization of housing supply
plans based on the truth of disaster-stricken inhabitants.
Regarding response to livelihood support of elderly
people, vitalization of the regional community, housing

Messages from Departments and Centers of NILIM
supply that fits regional homes, and planning of housing
design with care to regular vocation of inhabitants,
consideration will continuously be needed. Inhabitantconsciousness is high regarding regional disasterprevention in the devastated areas, and consideration isneeded for housing planning.
Moreover, residence needs may change as time goeson, and responding flexibly by reviewing housing supply
plans is also an agenda.
③ For continuation and vitalization of local society andregional community
Housing supply contributes to the continuation andvitalization of local society and regional community, andalso the vitality of local society contributes to theimprovement of residence quality. It is needed toproceed with “Renewal of regional potential” regarding
the crystallization of housing planning.
Also, the issue of battered city center that many local
cities have is an evident fact, and it is important toaddress with a standpoint to recover the vitality with thereconstruction.
④ Maintenance of housing after a large amount ofsupply
After the supply of housing and to maintain thefunction in a long period, proper operations for theadministration and maintenance are needed. It is alsoneeded to arrange the maintenance system with thesupply system in advance. From the stock management
standpoint, it is needed to consider the time to renew.
4. Conclusion
It is said that a disaster exposes challenges that regions
have. The Great East Japan Earthquake is not
exceptional. Aging, depopulation and regional
communities, each of these is a challenge that has to bestrongly addressed in other regions. Also, there are many
regions that are required to respond to the challenges offacing disasters.
The process of reconstruction after the Great East Japan
Earthquake will be a model of disaster prevention
enhancement for other regions, and it also has to be amodel in a standpoint that responds to various challenges
that the regions have.
I was dispatched to China when The Great East Japan
Earthquake occurred, and observed responses after thedisaster from outside of Japan. The response to thedisaster was seen with major concern also in China. It
can be said that it gathered attention from not only China,
but from all over the world.

The disaster, the process of reconstruction, challenges
that have become clear, and the direction of resolution
should be applied to not only Japan, but also foreigncountries for development of a region and housing
construction.
In addition, the majority of reconstruction process ofthe 2008 Sichuan Earthquake has been completed in 3years. The reconstruction process was very quicklydeveloped. The Sichuan Earthquake also wreaked
enormous damage (I was dispatched to a project related
to the reconstruction process.) where as many as 87,000
people died or were missing (Most of them were causedby collapsing residences and schools.), more than 5
million rooms collapsed. The processes of evacuation
immediately after the disaster, temporary residence suchas temporary housing, rebuilding and relocation ofhouses were same as Japan, but according to the report
after 3 years, 2.2 million houses were rebuilt, and 4.4
million houses were repaired. It is said Chinese
government also attached importance to quickreconstruction, and was aware that the process ofreconstruction would be a ‘Model’ for the future.
Difference of the state of affairs in a country,
especially segregation of duties of local government andcentral government, strong development of economic
cooperation between regions, and reconstruction in asoaring economy, many parts are from a different
background and context of our country, but the process(including: let it be a lesson to everyone) such as
crystallization of quick planning, prompt businessdeployment, cooperation and support system, efforts toregional economic revitalization, records and storingshould be referred.
[Sources]
1) RESEARCH REPORT of NILIM No.52
Emergency Responses and Engineering
Contributions by NILIM for the Recovery fromthe 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake, Jan.
2013
http://www.nilim.go.jp/lab/bcg/siryou/rpn/rpn0052.htm

2) Reconstruction Agency Website “Actual status
and effort of reconstruction”
http://www.reconstruction.go.jp/topics/main-cat1/sub-cat1-1/
3) The Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA)
WebsiteChina Earthquake Resistant Architecture Human
Resource Development Project
http://www.jica.go.jp/project/china/006/index.html
4) National Diet Library Reference 2011.9 “3 yearsfrom China Sichuan Major Earthquake - The
sequence of reconstruction and challenges”