Abstract
The goal of disaster recovery is for survivors to regain stability in their lives, livelihoods, and housing. A people-centered housing recovery requires that residents are empowered to make decisions about their housing reconstruction, and that policies create housing options that support the ability of all residents to reconstruct their homes and lives. The 1995 Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake caused the largest amount of damage in Japan since World War II, and the subsequent recovery is a starting point for understanding contemporary post-disaster housing reconstruction policies in Japan. Beyond an overview of housing reconstruction programs, we can understand the impact these policies had on Kobe residents’ housing and community recovery. In many cases, housing policies implemented after the Kobe earthquake fragmented communities and caused further damage and disruption in the lives of the survivors. A single-track approach failed to support the entire population of the disaster-stricken area. In subsequent years, Japanese disaster reconstruction laws and policies have seen modifications and improvements. Some of these changes can be seen in cases of recovery after more recent disasters, notably after the 2004 Chuetsu Earthquake in Niigata Prefecture. In the context of these past examples, we can consider what is needed for a people-centered recovery in the Tohoku area after the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami.
Highlights
Introduction reconstruction in JapanAfter clarifying the main aspects of housing recovery in Kobe and key differences in later recovery processes, especially after the 2004 Chuetsu Earthquake in Niigata Prefecture, we offer some recommendations towards a more people-centered housing recovery after the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami in Tohoku.The following section introduces the term “peoplecentered housing recovery” in the context of related terms used in disaster recovery literature and posits key aspects of people-centered housing recovery in Japan
We focus on two primary aspects of the basic housing recovery policy after the Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake: (1) the main single-track approach of the reconstruction process, in which the government built temporary housing and permanent public rental housing; and (2) the lack of compensation or support for homeowners to rebuild their houses or privately owned rental structures
After the Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake, the main governmental support for housing recovery in Kobe took the form of material compensation in a one-size-fits-all solution: temporary housing construction, followed by “disaster recovery public housing” construction
Summary
The term “people-centered” or the phrase “putting people at the center” has gained traction within the international post-disaster reconstruction community and has been defined as a basic and fundamental approach to disaster recovery. In a section titled “Achieving People-Centered, Integrated Reconstruction,” the World Bank publication Safer Homes, Stronger Communities explains the fundamental importance of a people-centered aspect of disaster reconstruction:. After the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami, the Indonesian government adopted the principle of a people-centered recovery process (BAPPENAS 2005), which has been endorsed by the Asian Coalition for Housing Rights and collaborators in Sri Lankaiii (ACHR 2005). In these examples, we can see that “people-centered” is usually used to refer to the process while “putting people at the center” of the reconstruction is equated with members of the affected population making the decisions that will shape the recovery
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