Pre-Existing Inequalities, Post-Event Social Environmental Changes, and Long-Term Trajectories of Life Recovery: Findings from Five-Wave Natori City Life Recovery Panel Survey

Abstract

This study aims to clarify: 1) the life recovery trajectories that the Great East Japan Earthquake (GEJE) survivors have followed; 2) the interrelationships between the life recovery trajectories and pre-existing inequalities as well as post-event social environmental changes; and 3) pre- and post-GEJE characteristics of the survivors with stagnant life recovery. The analyses are based on five-wave panel data from “Natori City Life Recovery Population Panel Survey” (n = 316), which was conducted in Natori City, Miyagi Prefecture from the fourth to the tenth years after the GEJE. Cluster analysis was performed to classify the life recovery trajectories and identified six distinct patterns. Two types of them remained at a low level of life recovery throughout the five-wave survey. Multiple correspondence analysis was conducted to analyze the relationships among life recovery trajectory patterns, pre-existing inequalities, and post-event social environmental changes. As a result, the survivors in these two types were typically older people, small household members, poor people, and persons with disabilities. These findings indicate that people with vulnerabilities who would experienced daily life troubles before the GEJE were also struggling even after the disaster.