## Chapter 3: Lessons of the Great Earthquake and the Role of ICT

Chapter 3, focusing on the role of ICT, presents an analysis of people's information behavior during and after the Great East Japan Earthquake in the disaster and the neighboring areas, and also discusses the business continuity of the local governments and private sector at and after the earthquake.

### 1. Information behaviors and usage of ICT in the disaster areas

Evaluating the media: during the time of the occurrence of the earthquake, radio broadcasting was highly evaluated for its capability of instantaneous information-delivery; for the period just after the occurrence of the earthquake, mobile phones and e-mail were positively evaluated for their bi-directional features, and also terrestrial TV broadcasting for its image-delivery features. (p. 27)

Media-utilization rate: as for information gathering on the earthquake and tsunami, media with high-instantaneous capacity and broadcasting features were highly used; however, the usage rate of radio-broadcasting, the highest rated among the media, was just over 40%. (p. 27)

Utilization of the Internet: some skilled users realized information gathering and communication with a region-specific and instantaneous information-provision capability. (p. 27)

● Evaluation of mobile phones: mobile phones, having been so highly evaluated as ready-to-use information terminals that most people evacuated with them, were highly criticized in terms of the serious negative-effects caused by their inability to be used for more than several hours. (p. 27)

### 2. Information behaviors and usage of ICT in the neighboring areas

● Initial media used to learn of the earthquake: TV is ranked the highest with a ratio of 53.4%; on the other hand, social media are ranked low, for example the usage ratio of SNS was 0.9%. (p. 28)

Most valuable media for obtaining disaster-related information: TV with a ratio of 63.1%, ranked far higher than other media. (p.28)

Media to obtain necessary information: according to the answers to the questionnaire, news-sites, with a ratio of 87.3%, ranked high at almost the same level as TV (88.2%). (p.28)

PC-mail and PC-web: only 22.1% and 11.3% respectively chose the answer “totally disconnected”; those media were in usable conditions. (p. 28)

### 3. Activities for business continuity and utilization of ICT during and after the earthquake

● After the earthquake, about 70% of the local governments decided to enhance the utilization of the Internet; it shows that they have altered their policies. (p. 29)

In terms of the preparation of BCPs (Business Continuity Plan), almost 40% of the prefectural governments have prepared their plans; however, only 3.5% of the town / village offices have such plans. (p.29)

As for the private sector, while large-sized enterprises have promoted BCP preparation (43.3%), medium/small-sized ones have been reluctant (14.0% BCP preparation rate); it shows that BCP preparation has not been uniformly promoted, depending on the corporate size. (p. 30)

● After the earthquake, 79% of the local governments decided to consider the introduction of cloud computing, while 45.2% of the large-sized private enterprises and about 60 percent of the medium/small-sized enterprises have not; it shows the policy difference between public and private organizations. (p. 29, 30)

### 4. Lessons of the Great Earthquake and utilization of ICT

At the time of disasters, prompt and firm information-provision by multi-dimensional delivery means that preventing information “air pockets” is vital; such means include the Internet and social media, as well as broadcasting and mobile phones.

As for mobile phones, because they are accepted as the most ready-to-use information terminals, the enhancement of the disaster-resistance of their network systems and simultaneous enhancement of terminal features is required in order to ensure the higher availability at the time of disaster.

In terms of business continuity at the time of disaster, the recognition-gap concerning its importance among sectors should be eliminated. At the same time, the implementation of cloud environments that can be relied on by local governments and the private sector is required.

For disaster-recovery and reconstruction, based on a futuristic view, cutting-edge ICT should be employed for the construction of future-oriented safe and secure communities; the creative-reconstruction-support projects employing ICT, such as smart-grid-communication infrastructure or the Tohoku-medical-megabank, should be promoted.