Community Design in the Recovery Following the March 2011 Earthquake and Tsunami

Abstract

At the beginning of this chapter, the authors illustrate the framework for discussing community issues and arguments over the situation of communities in recovery following the Great East Japan Earthquake. During the process of recovery from the earthquake, the functions of mutual support and assistance were maintained in units based on the pre-disaster territorial communities through the stage when people were moved into evacuation shelters. But when people were relocated into temporary housing, the functions collapsed in many cases. Then, it could be said that community-design practice for people affected by the disaster had become one of most important issues, and the authors outline recent efforts in community design taken by national, prefectural, and local municipal governments, and private entities such as NPOs. The support systems for community design and community development formed gradually beginning in 2012 in multiple layers of government. After that, the authors describe a case in community-design practice performed in the city of Kamaishi as one of most successful and innovative cases of community-design practices in the recovery following the Great East Japan Earthquake. As the conclusion, the authors indicate the importance of ensuring the continuity of community development and an elaborate strategy for ensuring that continuity; then they explain the necessity of creating community- design practices based on collaborative multi-actor partnerships in the process of recovery following the Great East Japan Earthquake. These practices could be useful models not only for community design in a recovery following a future disaster, but also for community design in any urban area an aging population and falling birthrates.