Abstract
Local construction companies that signed disaster relief agreements with the local goverment contributed to the rescue by promptly removing road obstacles for providing transportation after the 2011 Tohoku earthquake. The experience has been highly regarded as a proof of the effective functioning of the disaster relief agreement. Coversely, there have been reports that other disaster relief agreements did not proceed as smoothly owing to poor communication. Learning from the Tohoku earthquake, previous disaster relief agreements should be reviewed. Establishing an emergency response scheme is urgently needed to tackle future disasters. This study deals with effective disaster relief agreements for large-scale natural disasters that require the help of local construction companies.
