process of reconstruction. This has enabled people to obtain information using diverse media, including broadcast, mobile phones and portal sites. Public information commons started 24-hour, 365-day operation on June 13, 2011.

# Section 2 Results of the Survey on ICT Utilization at the Time of the 2016 Kumamoto Earthquake

### 1. Outline of the 2016 Kumamoto Earthquake

At 21:26 p.m. on April 14, 2016, a 6.5-magnitude earthquake centered in the Kumamoto area occurred. A quake of seven on the Japanese scale was measured in Mashiki town, Kumamoto prefecture. Then, at 1:25 a.m. on April 16, the largest 7.3-magnitude earthquake occurred and a quake of seven on the Japanese scale was again measured in Mashiki town and Nishihara village. This was the first time on record that a quake as large as seven on the Japanese scale hit the same place twice.

Restoration of lifelines took several months at the time of the Great East Japan Earthquake, while supply of power, water and gas was resumed within several days to several weeks, except for some areas, in the case of the Kumamoto Earthquake. Influence on lifelines was

## thus minimized generally

Communications and broadcasting were also suspended due to landslide and blackouts. Services to be provided by damaged mobile phone base stations were covered by neighboring base stations or deployed mobile base stations and the hindrance to communications was only limited. Communications in the government office areas were recovered in the morning of April 18 and communication networks were almost completely recovered by the afternoon of April 27. Broadcasting was also suspended but resumed within 72 hours.

In this manner, restrictions on the use of communication tools were relatively on a small scale even immediately after the disaster.

### 2. Informational Behavior at the Time of the 2016 Kumamoto Earthquake

MIC conducted an online questionnaire survey targeting disaster victims in order to analyze informational behavior in the disaster-stricken areas.

## (1) Useful Means for Communicating Disaster Information in Disaster-stricken Areas

Looking at means used for information collection in time series, mobile phone calls were most frequently used from immediately after the earthquake to the reconstruction period, followed by terrestrial broadcasting and SNS (LINE (family members, friends and acquaintances)). Use of terrestrial broadcasting and administrative agencies' websites was apt to increase as time passed (Figure 5-2-2-1).

Comparison between information collection means at the time of the Great East Japan Earthquake and those at the time of the 2016 Kumamoto Earthquake revealed that ordinarily used communication means, such as mobile phone calls and text-messaging and SNS, were frequently utilized in Kumamoto constantly from immediately after the earthquake to the reconstruction period. On the other hand, at the time of the Great East Japan Earthquake, used information collection means were fewer and most frequently used means changed over time from the radio immediately after the disaster to official disaster radio and the TV and radio in the emer-

Figure 5-2-2-1 Means Used for Information Collection (in time series)

(Source) "Survey on ICT Utilization at the Time of the 2016 Kumamoto Earthquake" (2016) by MIC