Trial Study to Aggregate the Flow of Relief Funds for the Great East Japan Earthquake: Matrix of Relief Fund Inflow and Outflow

Abstract

The 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake caused unprecedented damage. Innumerable nonprofit organizations held voluntary emergency relief activities in the damaged areas. Although contributions were generous, donations to disaster relief funds of nonprofit organizations remains low. As the flows of donations are so complex, people cannot find sufficient information concerning how nonprofit organizations use their donations. At the source of the issue seems to be the lack of a clear method for grasping the framework or flows of donations. To exam these problems, we attempted to aggregate the flow of disaster support funds by constructing a matrix to represent the inflow and outflow of relief funds at various disaster support organizations. Throughout this process, we discuss the statistical method of accounting for the various relief fund flows. Using the matrix, we found that donations for disaster relief funds totalled over 675 billion yen, and each of them has various use. In addition, we found that there are no specified accounting rules for relief fund reports provided to the public, which further confuses donors.