This article briefly reviews the causes and impacts of the massive eastern Japan earthquake and tsunami of 11 March 2011, and comments on the response measures taken by Japan to cope with this devastating disaster. Mass losses occurred mostly because the intensity of the quake and the induced tsunami exceeded local coping capacity. Particularly, the nuclear power plant crisis triggered by the tsunami significantly increased the short-and long-term impacts of the disaster. While the coping capacity Japanese society built after the 1995 Hanshin-Awaji great earthquake tremendously mitigated the damages, there is room for improvement despite Japan's great efforts in this disaster. Investigating the tsunami preparedness of the coastal nuclear power plants is an issue of paramount importance. In response to future large-scale disasters, there is an urgent need for a highly collaborative framework based on which all available resources could be mobilized; a mutual assistance and rescue system against catastrophes among regions and countries on the basis of international humanitarian aid; and further in-depth research on the multi-hazard and disaster-chain phenomenon in large-scale disasters and corresponding governance approaches.

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This paper aims to present an illustrative case study on the economic impacts of transport infrastructure disruptions caused by the hypothetical Tokai-Tonankai earthquakes in Japan. We formulate a spatial computable general equilibrium (SCGE) model, which integrates a transportation model that can estimate two types of interregional flows of freight movement and passenger trips. The case study shows the impacts of transportation disruptions and the importance of network redundancy with transport-related economic losses corresponding to several scenarios from disasters and network levels of development.Spatial computable general equilibrium model, catastrophic earthquakes, transport-related losses,

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This paper provides an overview of economic impacts in the first year after the 2011 Tohoku-oki earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear accident-at an estimated ¥16.9 trillion (US$211 billion) in direct damage, the costliest natural disaster on record. Documented costs to date include ¥2.9 trillion in insurance payouts and ¥17.7 trillion in response and recovery budgets by the national government that will be financed largely by tax increases and bonds. In the regions with physical damage, fisheries and agriculture, among other sectors, were very hard hit. The disaster also caused measurable economic impacts well beyond the damage regions, including losses in gross domestic product (GDP), in manufacturing from supply-chain disruptions, and in retail trade and tourism due to restrained consumption and radiation fears. Reduced capacity for generating electricity has led to substantial energy conservation nationwide. Results from applying a loss estimation model demonstrated good agreement with observed post-disaster economic activity.

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This research aims to investigate a method for estimating the production capacity loss rate (PCLR) of industrial sectors damaged by a disaster, such as an earthquake, tsunami, or nuclear radiation, especially in the case of the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake. PCLR is fundamental information required to gain an understanding of economic losses caused by a disaster. In particular, this paper proposes a method of PCLR estimation that considers the two main causes of capacity losses as observed from past earthquake disaster, namely damage to production facilities and disruption of lifeline systems. To achieve the quantitative estimation of PCLR, functional fragility curves considering the relationship between production capacity and earthquake ground motion and lifeline resilience factors for capturing the impact of lifeline disruptions have been adopted, while actual recovery curves are considered mainly for damaged facilities. Through the application of this method to the case study of the Great East Japan Earthquake, PCLR in various industrial sectors is estimated; the estimated PCLR in the manufacturing sectors are then compared with the corresponding index of industrial production. The results demonstrate that the estimated values are close to the actual production indices in the overall manufacturing sector and many of the individual sectors.

This paper discusses the resilience factors of industrial sectors under lifeline (electricity, water, and gas) system disruptions. The resilience factor is one of the quantitative measurements of lifeline impacts, which focuses on the production output of some industrial sectors during lifeline disruptions. Recent studies have provided the detailed structure of business resilience that includes multiple resilience options, such as production rescheduling, inventories, and back-up generators. However, the impacts of these options on resilience factor are not thoroughly investigated due to the lack of data. In addition, resilience factor in previous study is assumed to be applied only to the single-lifeline disruption case, which is a limited case in large-scale disasters. In this study, the resilience factors for 27 industrial sectors are estimated based on the empirical surveys conducted in the Aichi and Shizuoka Prefectures, Japan, focusing on more rigorous characteristics of resilience. One particular contribution of this paper is introducing the resilience factor that considers individual and compound effects of available resilience options along with multiple lifeline disruptions.