2013 Volume 9 Pages 42-55
In the wake of the Great East Japan Earthquake, some unaffected municipalities voluntarily dispatched relief teams to affected municipalities. This study discusses the influence of the exchange programs that municipalities are involved in when deciding on such voluntary assistance and provides policy direction for conducting more effective disaster relief efforts in the future. We find that a municipality that has exchange relations tends to dispatch relief teams to its partner municipality. Such focused and immediate relief efforts based on these exchange relations are made possible by the existence of smaller municipalities (i.e., populations below 50,000). Although relief-providing municipalities must incur the enormous human and physical costs of these relief efforts, their activities are supported by local citizens based on the familiarity of the target municipality (i.e., the exchange partner). Although the Great East Japan Earthquake exposed the problems of localized relief efforts, it also demonstrated the intense and growing interest in mutual assistance agreements. This is because municipalities now place more importance on the support they would receive following a disaster rather than the cost they would have to incur. However, the agreement without the relationship of mutual trust would not work well. It is necessary to facilitate future exchange programs in order to foster the relationship between municipalities. The number of private enterprises concluding support agreements with municipalities has also increased since the earthquake. The private sector and municipalities need to jointly provide a support system that offers both short-term and long-term relief to affected areas.
