Abstract
Social security against the Tohoku Region Pacific Coast Earthquake consists of a three-tier system
in the same way as the Japanese three-tier safety nets delineated by Uzuhashi (Uzuhasi et al. 2010): the
1st tier is an employment safety net, the 2nd tier is social insurance and personal social services, the
2Y2th is social allowances and loans, and the 3rd tier is means-tested benefits.
There are some problems in the 2nd-tier safety net: coordination problems between social
insurance organizations, inequality between local governments, and lower benefit levels. They take
over the problems that have occurred under Japanese three-tier safety nets. In addition, instead of
unconditional benefits, loans have been mainly to counteract loss of income. This is a common problem
in the 2nd-tier and 2Y2th-tier safety nets.
The victims of the earthquake are required to meet two conditions to receive social security against
the disaster: a regional requirement, which means that victims need to have suffered losses within the
disaster area approved by government, and a damage requirement, which means that victims have to
suffer a certain level of damage set by the government.
Some victims, such as refugees from the disaster area, voluntary refugees, and indirectly suffering
residents, could not receive services from the safety net because they did not meet these criteria.
Especially, social security needs to be offered to the voluntary refugees, who evacuated to escape
radiation effects, and to the indirectly suffering workers, including primary industry workers around
disastrous area, who lost their jobs as a result of the economic downturn caused by the earthquake.
