The Great East Japan Earthquake in March 2011 caused serious damage in the large area of east Japan. Along with the speedy earthquake disaster reconstruction, the most important problem of the earthquake disaster reconstruction is to promote sustainable development of the stricken areas in a medium- and long-term. This paper introduces some findings from the survey of earthquake victims carried out by our research group in Kamaishi City every year after the earthquake disaster and examines the process of reconstruction policymaking and its implementation from the viewpoint of the governance of reconstruction. It points out that both too large reconstruction plans and too small ones may endanger the sustainable development of some stricken areas respectively.