March 11 marks 14 years since the Great East Japan Earthquake. The disaster resulted in 22,332 deaths and missing persons, 406,157 homes either partially or completely destroyed, and an estimated damage cost of 16.9 trillion yen to social infrastructure, utilities, and buildings. A total of 241 municipalities across 10 prefectures fell under the Disaster Relief Act. Even today, 27,615 people remain displaced, and the nuclear emergency declaration issued at 7:03 PM on that fateful day has yet to be lifted. The disaster's impact continues to this day.

By the end of last fiscal year, approximately 41 trillion yen had been allocated for reconstruction (anticipated expenditure), and the physical infrastructure projects have been completed. Gross Prefectural Product has surpassed pre-disaster levels, and innovation hubs like the Fukushima Robot Test Field have been established. However, the everyday life that once existed and the many people who should be there have not yet returned. Building the same number of public housing units as the homes lost does not automatically revive a community. Regional recovery is still halfway there.

At the memorial and reconstruction ceremony hosted by Fukushima Prefecture, Prime Minister Ishiba declared, “We aim to become the world’s most disaster-resilient nation.” There is no disagreement with this. However, two years after the earthquake, the Basic Act for National Resilience was enacted, and in 2018, 160 measures were listed, including earthquake, tsunami, and landslide disaster prevention, strengthening disaster response capabilities in rescue and medical fields, and securing lifelines such as food, electricity, and telecommunications. A three-year plan was announced to allocate 7 trillion yen through 2020, aimed to complete or significantly advance these urgent measures. But has their effectiveness truly been assessed?

The Great East Japan Earthquake should have prompted us to fundamentally reassess the way society functions and our own perspectives on life. However, over the past 14 years, how have we lived? What has changed in society? Last year, the goal of reducing nuclear dependency was removed from national policy. National resilience measures failed to protect Noto in time.

On March 31, 2011, our company released an emergency report titled "The Economic Reconstruction Process and Its Impact on Key Industries Following the Great East Japan Earthquake," proposing that "Japan should be rebuilt with a new vision by clearing out the old structures and unresolved issues that have been preserved." Indeed, reconstruction is still ongoing.
 

Reference: We are offering our report "The Economic Reconstruction Process and Its Impact on Key Industries Following the Great East Japan Earthquake" (PDF, in Japanese), released on March 31, 2011, free of charge. If you are interested, please apply through our website. When applying, please write "Request for "The Economic Reconstruction Process and Its Impact on Key Industries Following the Great East Japan Earthquake" in the "Message" section. We will provide it sequentially.

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This Week’s Focus, 3.9 – 3.13
Takashi Mizukoshi, the President