2019 Volume 49 Issue 1 Pages 79-94
The 2016 Kumamoto earthquakes are a series of earthquakes, including a magnitude 7.0 mainshock beneath Kumamoto City of Kumamoto Prefecture in Kyushu Region. And Kumamoto Castle, another Important Cultural Property sustained damage to its roof and exterior buildings and walls because of the earthquakes and associated aftershocks.
This paper pays attention to the problem of measuring impact of the Earthquake Disaster on the Kumamoto and Kyushu Economies. We then illustrate “Kumamoto Earthquake Damage and Reconstruction Indexes”. This index is composed of 11 dates about production sector and industries sector including agriculture and tourism, life sector, and public investments sector. In addition, we use “Regional Domestic Expenditure Index （RDEI）”, which indicates monthly 4 series, consumption of households, private residential investment, private non-residential investment, public investment. And we compare impact of the Earthquake Disaster on Kumamoto Prefecture and Kyushu area.
The results of the analysis are summarized as follows. Kumamoto index fell sharply in April 2016 when the earthquake occurred and remained below the level before the earthquake until September 2016. Then this index shows measuring impact of the Earthquake Disaster on Kumamoto Prefecture and can assume measuring the influence of large-scale disasters in other areas. In addition, the index can be useful in comparing the situation on other prefectures, because it is based on RDEI. And the index has significance that we can grasp the damage and reconstruction situation of other areas by selecting series based on the influence on the surrounding area.
JEL Classifications:E32, R11, R15
