3.11 From One Disaster to Another: Japan’s Earthquake

Abstract

This paper recounts the experience of the Great Eastern Japan Earthquake on 11th March 2011 and offers an assessment of reactions to it on personal, social and policy levels. Almost a decade after the event, it looks at traces of the disaster, discussing in particular the following questions. What were the consequences if any for Japan’s energy policy? What other consequences were there, for example, concerning crisis management? How did people integrate the earthquake into their view of history? How did the earthquake affect people’s life satisfaction? And how does it relate to current events? It argues that despite its for all concerned unprecedented severity the disaster led to gradual improvements, rather than fundamental change.