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Iranian J Publ Health, Vol. 41, No.6, Jun 2012, pp.12-20 Review Article
Crisis Management of Tohoku; Japan Earthquake and Tsunami,
11 March 2011
*M Zaré 1, S Ghaychi Afrouz 2
1. International Institute of Earthquake Engineering and Seismology (IIEES), Tehran, Iran
2. Mining Engineering, School of Mining Engineering, University College of Engineering, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran
(Received 12 Dec 2011; accepted 22 Apr 2012)
Introduction
The magnitude 9.0 Japan’s Tohoku Earthquake
occu
ed at 14:46 local time on Friday, 11 March
2011, 125 km east coast of Honshu and 380 km
far from Tokyo and rattled the large parts of Ja-
pan and some part of east China and Russia with
30 km depth of the hypocenter (1). This earth-
quake that lasted approximately 3 minutes (170
seconds) caused a 130 km long by 159 km wide
upture zone on the pacific plate subduction zone
and followed by a huge tsunami with more than
40 meter waves. The destructive aftermaths of this
incident made an i
eparable disaster not only for
the Japan, but also for the whole world because
except for the enormous death toll and de
is, the
damages of nuclear power plants were a hazard-
ous unexpected tragedy.
Casualties and damages
According to the report of the Japanese National
Police Agency, 15854 dead, 3167 missing and
26992 injured across twenty prefectures are the
esult of this devastating earthquake and tsunami
which ruined more than XXXXXXXXXXbuildings. Moreo-
ver, it caused long blackouts for more than 4.4
million buildings and left 1.5 million buildings out
of water for days (2), also large fires were triggered
one after another even for weeks after the main
quake. Explosion and demolition of the Fuku-
Abstract
The huge earthquake in 11 March 2012 which followed by a destructive tsunami in Japan was largest recorded
earthquake in the history. Japan is pioneer in disaster management, especially earthquakes. How this developed
country faced this disaster, which had significant worldwide effects? The humanitarian behavior of the Japanese
people amazingly wondered the word’s media, meanwhile the management of government and authorities
showed some deficiencies. The impact of the disaster is followed up after the event and the different impacts are
tried to be analyzed in different sectors. The situation one year after Japan 2011 earthquake and Tsunami is over-
viewed. The reason of Japanese plans failure was the scale of tsunami, having higher waves than what was as-
sumed, especially in the design of the Nuclear Power Plant. Japanese authorities considered economic benefits
more than safety and moral factors exace
ate the situation. Major lessons to be learnt are 1) the effectiveness of
disaster management should be restudied in all hazardous countries; 2) the importance of the high-Tech early-
warning systems in reducing risk; 3) Reconsidering of extreme values expected/possible hazard and risk levels is
necessary; 4) Morality and might be taken as an important factor in disaster management; 5) Sustainable devel-
opment should be taken as the basis for reconstruction after disaster.
Keywords: Japan, Earthquake, Tsunami, Disaster, Crisis Management, Fukushima
*Co
esponding Author: E-mail address: XXXXXXXXXX
Available at: http:
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Zaré & Ghaychi Afrouz.: Crisis Management of Tohoku …
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shima I Nuclear Power Plant (Fukushima Daiichi),
which generated radioactive contamination near
the plant’s area with i
eversible damages to the
environment, was one the most significant issues
of this catastrophe and ranked 7 (the most sever
level for nuclear power plant) based on the Inter-
national Nuclear Event Scale, similar to the Cher-
nobyl disaster on 26 April XXXXXXXXXXTherefore, it
is not strange to consider to this earthquake as the
most important destructive seismic event of the
eginning of the twenty first century in the ad-
vanced industrial world.
Losses intensified by hit of the tsunami as the sta-
tistics shows it was more fatal (Fig. 1) and also
more buildings destroyed by its strike; However,
the quake was the main cause of the partial dam-
age of buildings (4). Figure 2 manifests the build-
ing losses distribution through affected areas and
Fig. 3 reveals the relative impact of the earthquake
vs. tsunami in each prefecture of Japan (4).
Fig. 1: Division of total 19100 death and missed
people by the reason as of 10th March 2012
(CATDAT)
Fig. 2: Building damage distribution (CATDAT)
Fig. 3: The relative impact of the earthquake vs.
the tsunami in each location
Iranian J Publ Health, Vol. 41, No.6, Jun 2012, pp.12-20
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Seismology and Seismic History
This mega thrust earthquake is categorized as a
great earthquake with the magnitude more than 8
in scientific seismological classification (5). Over
1000 aftershocks, some of which were larger than
the recent catastrophic earthquakes in Iran such as
Bam, Iran 2003, hit the area since the main shock.
Regardless of the consequent tsunami, the To-
hoku Sendai Earthquake XXXXXXXXXXis the largest rec-
orded earthquake in the history of Japan in terms
of magnitude while the te
itory of Japan is known
y numerous and critical earthquakes. There are
two momentous calamitous earthquakes in history
of Japan: The great Kanto earthquake with magni-
tude of 7.9 on 1 September 1923 which destroyed
Tokyo and Yokohama rigorously by the severe
quake and subsequent fires and caused more than
143000 deaths (6, 7); and the Kobe earthquake
(also known as Hanshin- Awaji earthquake) with
magnitude of 6.9 on 17 January 1995 that left
more than 6400 demises (6, 8). The Kanto inci-
dent is still the deadliest earthquake in Japanese
history and the Kobe earthquake was the most
costly natural disaster of the world since Tohoku
Earthquake XXXXXXXXXX).
Methodology
Japan crisis management system
Japan has an overall population of 127 million and
is one of the most densely populated countries in
the world (340 persons per Km), where the popu-
lation highly concentrated around Tokyo (6). This
earthquake-prone country as a pioneer in crisis
management has a comprehensive plan for pre-
paring against disasters, consists of the Central
Council for Accident Prevention, chaired by
Prime Minister, set of cohesive rules for imme-
diate response to all of the unexpected incidents,
the advanced research system and the extensive
public education about disasters. As the result of
this plan, in the case of an accident, people, gov-
ernment officials and rescue departments know
exactly what to do while the alarm is sounded,
without chaos.
It was after the disastrous Kobe earthquake of 17
January 1995 (M6.9) that crisis management of
Japan greatly promoted since the government set
up a GIS system and a general computer network.
This system contains different subsystems to op-
erate all disaster related functions from prevention
efore the disaster to damage evaluation after it
(10). Additionally, the most advanced earthquake
and tsunami early warning system of the whole
world is installed in Japan during 2003 to 2007,
which is one of the main parts of this crisis man-
agement system. This warning system had a con-
siderable role in Tohoku 2011 earthquake to re-
duce losses and save lives. Several Japanese media
such NHK channel and also mobile phone net-
works have the most responsibility of
oadcast-
ing the news of early warning system.
In management of the 11 March 2011 crisis, one
of the most facilitative factors for emergency
managers was proper behavior of people who fol-
low the commands cautiously. In other words, the
“social capital” in this country had a significant role
in recovery after the incident as people’s high re-
spect to roles and moral values and their solidarity
prevent them from influx for aid and looting and
motivate them to consider the public benefits in-
stead of self-interests.
Response to the disaster
Immediately after the event, The Government of
Japan (GOJ) held National Committee for Emer-
gency Management, headed by Prime Minister.
The government declared an emergency in ef-
fected area and dispatched the Japan Self Defense
Forces for rescue operations (11). All ministries
and departments such as Foreign Ministry, Minis-
try of Transport and Ministry of Health were in-
volved in this response, also local offices of disas-
ter response in all prefectures begins their opera-
tions as their duty was already clear. The Ministry
of Health was in charge of preparing suitable ve-
hicles for supplying water and assigning hospitals
for remedy of casualties and people who have
een exposed to radiation. Ministry of Agriculture,
Forestry and Fisheries with Ministry of Finance
were responsible for providing food, portable toi-
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let, blanket, radio, gasoil, torch, dry ice and other
essential things. By the command of the govern-
ment, all of the main highways in north of the
country were completely occupied for emergency
esponse activities. Besides, the transport systems
includes subway, shipping and the Shinkansen
ullet train ceased their activity in Sendai and To-
kyo instantly after the quake.
Moreover, at the day of event the Government of
Japan declared “the state of nuclear emergency”
due to the threat posed by reactors in two Fuku-
shima nuclear power plants (I and II) and 140,000
esidents within 20 km of the plant evacuated. At
15:36 JST (Japan Standard Time) on 12 March,
there was an explosion in the reactor building at
Unit 1 in Fukushima Daiichi (I) power plant. At
11:15 JST on 14 March, the explosion of the
uilding su
ounding Reactor 3 occu
ed. An ex-
plosion at 06:14 JST on 15 March in Unit 2, dam-
aged the pressure-suppression system. When the
disaster began on 11 March 2011, reactor unit 4
was shut down for periodic inspection and all fuel
ods had been transfe
ed to the spent fuel pool
on an upper floor of the reactor building. On 15
March, an explosion damaged the fourth floor
ooftop area of the unit 4 reactor.
Japanese Red Crescent Society (JRC), which had
a substantial role in initial relief operations and
temporary housing, deployed its teams promptly.
JRC