Future Investment Assessment on the Great Earthquake Reconstruction

A Case Study of the “Woodlands School Project” in Higashi-Matsushima City, Miyagi Prefecture

Abstract

The Great East Japan Earthquake was a huge disaster that devastated an extremely large area of eastern Japan. The Japanese Government should have a reconstruction roadmap that will provide courage and hope to residents of the disaster areas. The Japanese Government set up an advisory panel named the Reconstruction Design Council in response to the Great East Japan Earthquake. This council submitted the final report on Basic Reconstruction Guidelines and suggested the importance of Community Based Planning. In this paper, I describe the planning process of the “Woodlands School Project” in Higashi-Matsushima City as a challenge to social investment for future communities in area damaged by the Great Earthquake. Japan has traditionally been a country with forests. However, we gradually lost the value of respecting our forests, and we pushed forests out of our lives during the 20 th century. The Woodland School Project will encourage an attitude of respect for nature and foster the basic understanding needed to design a sustainable community.