Circumstances of Fishing Village Damaged by the Great Earthquake and Tsunami, and Considerations for Reconstruction

Abstract

The coastal areas in Iwate, Miyagi and Fukushima Prefectures prospered as fishery regions from many years with the Sanriku-Oki (Northwest Pacific Ocean) , one of the three largest off-shore fishing grounds in the world and with abundant aquatic animals and plants. Fishing ports and communities prospered with the fisheries.
However, ‘ The 2011 Offshore Pacific Coast Tohoku Earthquake' and ‘ Tsunami' that occurred on March 11, 2011, annihilated the fishing ports, communities, fishing boats, fishing gear and aquacultures facilities destroying the fishing industry of the region along with people's jobs and places to live.
The coastal areas of the region not only depended primarily on the fishing industry, but their lifestyles have evolved by concurrently working and living in the same place. Therefore, the adverse effects of ‘ The 2011 Offshore Pacific Coast Tohoku Earthquake' exceeded any assumptions at an unprecedented level.
Accordingly, for reconstruction of the stricken fishery areas, we reviewed challenges of Earthquakes and Tsunamis in the past and considered the necessary viewpoints for resumption and restoration of the fishery communities in the future, as well as evaluated the devastated conditions of the region.
Based on these considerations, we classified the affected areas into zones to enable selections according to actual conditions in the region and to formulate a reconstruction project. After clarifying the conditions, we developed the fundamental concepts for planning reconstruction of the fishing port and fishing village facilities.
Furthermore, we showed that it is important to create a restoration plan based on the characteristics of fishery communities such as kinds of fishing, community scale and geographical features.

JEL Classification: R11, R14