Comparative Analysis of Disaster Management between Japan & India

Abstract

Natural Calamity is a bitter truth from which no one can escape. So many deaths, diseases, economic and social loss are few results of natural calamity. Disaster risk is on the rise all the way through the world. The economic losses and the number of people who have been affected by natural calamities have increased significantly over the past decades than the population growth, which slows down the economic growth of the affected country. The physical, social, particularly the emotional aspect and economic losses caused by these disasters are particularly more expensive for developing countries. To minimize the damages caused by disasters, various efforts have been taken by government, society, NGO's and international communities. Despite highest disaster preparedness by Japanese Government, on March 11, 2013, northeastern part of Japan has been severely devastated by magnitude 9 earthquake followed by tsunami (called Tohoku Earthquake) which killed 25,000 people, 50,000 people missing and made 250000 people homeless and preliminary loss of lives and properties worth of $310 billion dollars. The severity of the disaster was beyond imagination which caused such big damage of valuable lives and properties. Even as horrific disaster that struck Japan continues to linger in our minds, one cannot but wonder what would happen if a similar disaster were to strike India? For this reason, community should be more conscious about disaster prevention culture and mitigation. They should be involved in post disaster recovery and reconstruction process for facing the future disasters and mitigate it. Japan Government's initiative and commitment to mobilize local and international community to minimize the damage and loss from Disaster is highly commendable. Japanese experience of disaster management and mitigation and community involvement in the Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake had been proven most successful. Now days, India is also facing such consequences very frequently. Japanese lessons can be helpful to India to overcome with this challenging and vulnerable situation. In this paper we examined the major disaster phenomenon in Japan and India, a comparative study of disaster management system of Japan and India, techniques of community mobilization in Japan for successful implementation of disaster preparedness planning and recovery from post disaster situations. We would like to replicate some experience; we gained from Japan to our country and recommend some suggestions on effective community mobilization in India.

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