Process of Choosing the Place of Residence among Households Affected by the Great East Japan Earthquake

Abstract

This study aimed to clarify changes in intention from the immediate aftermath of the Great East Japan Earthquake occurred 2011 to the decision to reside in District A, Area U of Kamaishi City, Iwate Prefecture, where a land readjustment project to assist in the restoration of the city's urban areas was introduced after the disaster. This study analyzed data from interviews conducted with residents in 2012 and 2017 using text mining. The analysis revealed that “money,” “family,” “land,” “surroundings,” and “community” were important factors in residents’ decision to rebuild. In particular, residents in their 60s and 70s exhibited a strong co-occurrence of the word “everyone,” indicating that they chose their place of residence based on their surroundings. The word “neighborhood association” appeared in 2017 and indicated the importance of “community” in the residents’ decision to rebuild. Because neighborhood association in District A was active even before the earthquake. The results showed that the activities of the neighborhood association, which was the center of the community before the earthquake, once again served as a cordon and tether, and functioned as a mechanism to incorporate the opinions of households that had left the district.