Abstract
In this article, we discuss the Great East Japan Earthquake as a wide-spread system disaster. A wide-spread system comprises multiple infrastructure and life-lines, and a huge distribution and service network. The system normally protects us against disasters, and provides enormous advantages. But any failure in this system has extensive effects. Restoration is difficult and delayed. Furthermore the relationships between the center and periphery of the system before the failure increase the severity of the situation. A wide-spread system has not only physical and economic aspects but also social aspects such as family, administration, politics, mass communication, science, and so on. Mankind finds itself incapacitated in the face of the collapse of this large and complicated system. In this disaster Tohoku became the periphery, and even Tokyo, the center of Japan, lost control. This situation had not been observed in the 1995 Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake. What happened between 1995 and 2011? Further discussion about the relationship between man and community in a wide-spread system is necessary to find an answer.
