Rebuilding housing in Japan's tsunami-hit towns and cities

• Published in: European journal of housing policy Vol. 13; no. 4; pp. 433 - 445
• Main Author: Godzik, Maren
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Abingdon Routledge 01.12.2013; Taylor & Francis Ltd
• Subjects: Accidents; Agricultural land; Assets; Boats; Citizen participation; Clearing houses; Demographics; earthquake; Earthquakes; Economic development; Factories; Family; Fishing; Fishing vessels; Housing; Japan; Land; Natural disasters; Official documents; Participant observation; Population; Post-conflict reconstruction; Prospects; reconstruction; Relatives; Residents; Shops; Stagnation; tsunami; Tsunamis; Urban renewal; Villages
• ISSN: 1949-1247; 1461-6718; 1949-1255
• DOI: 10.1080/14616718.2013.852301

The earthquake that hit Japan on 11 March 2011, and the series of tsunamis that followed, caused horrendous damage to thousands of houses and literally erased villages and parts of towns and cities from their sites in the Tohoku region. The process of rebuilding housing in Tohoku has been characterised by the intent to build safer housing with regard to future tsunamis, i.e., not rebuilding houses on the same sites and in the same way. Moreover, residents in the affected areas not only lost their houses and all their belongings, but, often, also their work and other assets that had been the basis for their lives, such as shops, factories and fishing boats - not to mention family members. Agricultural land along the coast has become unusable because of salinisation. The rebuilding process, therefore, depends on how support is provided to the population to rebuild their lives. The nuclear accident in Fukushima has further complicated the situation, as prospects for making the region habitable again are unclear in many areas. Japan's economic stagnation and its demographic development have represented additional challenges to reconstruction. This paper discusses the measures taken to provide housing in north-eastern Japan, drawing on official documents for post-earthquake reconstruction, secondary literature and participant observation in Tohoku.