The Japan Meteorological Agency has built a database for tsunami forecasts that has 100,000 results of simulated calculation, and it tries to provide announcements of tsunami warnings or cautions just a few minutes after the occurrence of earthquake. In addition, the JMA cooperates with concerned organizations including 77 tide level observatories that the JMA installed on its own accord and GPS wave gauges that MLIT port bureaus installed offshore (12 points) to announce observed values such as height of tsunamis at 184 locations nationwide. However, some of these observation facilities were destroyed, and the monitoring and observation of tsunamis were partially impeded in the Great East Japan Earthquake. It is therefore necessary to progress the building and maintenance of monitoring and observation systems which are more disaster-resistant.

Municipalities also provide information like evacuation instruction based on tsunami warnings. For this, it is required to secure various communication measures like the usage of cell phones, as well as community wireless systems.

Even though the reinforcement of such approaches is necessary, what is essential is how quick actual evacuation is taking place. At the time of the Chile Middle Coast Earthquake in 2010, despite the tsunami warnings (the first time in 17 years), the low percentage of residents' evacuation or municipalities' evacuation instructions were pointed out to be problems. $ ^{1} $ With disasters having low frequencies (e.g. tsunamis), there is a fear that people will underestimate the disaster or the evacuation information and, expecting only a minor tsunami, not take any action. Therefore, concerned organizations should work closely together to discuss how to provide local residents with trustable disaster and evacuation information, including effective hazard maps.

## General Mobilization of All Policies Regarding the Creation of Tsunami-Resistant Towns

It is necessary to forcefully promote measures for tsunami protection based on the lessons learned from the Great East Japan Earthquake in accordance with town planning in order to overcome the problems mentioned above. This is not only the basic concept of the restoration of the areas affected by the Great East Japan Earthquake, but also of the prevention of similar tragedies in the areas which are fearing about the possible occurrence of the Tokai, Tonankai, or Nankai earthquakes.

MLIT plans to take approaches towards the creation of systems which promote "tsunami-resistant town building" with "multiple protections" combining policies of hard and soft policies and with consideration to the characteristics of each area, based on the "Proposal for Restoration – Hope in Disaster" by the Advisory Committee Tasked to Work out a Vision on Countermeasures for the Great East Japan Earthquake; the "Basic Policy for Restoration from the Great East Japan Earthquake" based on the above proposal; discussions in expert research meetings regarding earthquakes and tsunami countermeasures based on the lessons from Tohoku Earthquake in the Central Disaster Protection Council of the Cabinet Office; the "Concept for Building Tsunami-Resistant Towns" from the planning section in the Traffic System Subcommittee of the Council for Transport Policy and Social Capital Developed Council of the MLIT.