There has been steady progress in the handling and treatment of debris from the Great East Japan Earthquake. Local municipalities have mainly been in charge of this progress, and with continued cooperation from non-affected areas and the national government treatment the disposal is now in its final stages. On one hand, treatment of the waste in areas that have been evacuated has been accelerated so that people can begin to return back to their homes. However, because the types of disaster debris left over by the Great East Japan Earthquake are varied and intermixed, the severity and extensiveness of the damage and clean-up needs exceeds what has been seen in previous disasters. Guidelines for Disaster Waste Management have been revised to include the following four points :
① Prevention is described as being crucial to the prevention stage, emergency response stage and recovery and reconstruction stage.
② Coastal municipalities and supporting municipalities will be responsible for the practical develop of their own disaster waste treatment plan.
③ Promotion of the pre-development of cooperation and mutual interaction systems among prefectures, municipalities, and related organizations.
④ Promotion of separation and recycling.
In addition, the Ministry of the Environment is promoting the establishment of a Resilient Waste Management System that incorporates substitutability and redundancy in the case of any future disasters. This will allow for rapid handling of a situation if any other massive earthquake disasters, such as the Nankai Trough Quake or Tokyo Inland Earthquakes, ever occur.

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The Great East Japan Earthquake that occurred off the Tohoku region′s coast in the Pacific Ocean caused not only loss of human life but also the generation of a significant amount of disaster waste to be dealt with. There are still many municipalities that are experiencing difficulties in processing this waste independently. Miyagi Prefecture is proceeding with waste disposal, relying on cooperative efforts from both within and outside the prefecture. The prefecture aims to complete its disposal program by FY 2013.

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In February 2007, the city of Sendai planned out its Implementation of Guidelines for Disaster-generated Waste Treatment by Sendai City to correspond with the anniversary of the Great East Japan Earthquake that occurred in March 2011. After looking back carefully on the experience, the city now aims to develop practical revisions to the Guidelines for handling disaster debris and its management. This is taking place approximately one year after the start of Fiscal 2012. All amendments were completed by May 2013. This report summarizes the contents of the revisions that have been made to these Guidelines.

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Watari-cho is a town that was profoundly devastated by the Great East Japan Earthquake, which struck on March 10, 2011. One of history′s largest tsunamis surged forth out of the sea and changed everything for our region. Pine trees that had been planted along the coast to protect against the force of a tsunami, as well as family homes, were swept clean away in a most unimaginable scene. Under such conditions, the handling and treatment of debris and rubble were required beyond what conventional disaster prevention planning systems had prepared for. On top of that, there were also the problems of having to search for more than 500 missing people and how to remove the massive amounts of debris leftover from the disaster. We promptly performed all of the required tasks for disaster waste disposal. Based on national policy, disaster wastes were collected and distributed for disposal in three stages : preliminary, intermediate and final. Watari-cho has developed the original procedure manual for this process. This paper introduces important points brought out in the manual in the hope that it will be useful to others in the future.

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The Great East Japan Earthquake that occurred on March 11, 2011 in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of the Tohoku Region was the 4th largest earthquake in human history. Due to the unprecedented severity and the fact that they had no experience to fall back upon in existing guidelines, local governments found it difficult to develop a plan for the disposal of disaster wastes. In particular, the existing plan was not able to respond to issues such as treatment of tsunami deposits and how to carry out the removal of scattered rubble left by the tsunami. There were no past cases that could answer questions on how to remove the massive amounts disaster wastes, and public roads that would be important in the transportation of disaster wastes had been destroyed by the tsunami. This makes the removal of scattered rubble in flooded areas a lot more time consuming than expected.
As for intermediate treatment of the disaster wastes, incineration plants that could deal with the heavy salt contained within the wastes had to be built. In order to recycle the disaster waste, treatment facilities were set up to handle ash and tsunami sediments. Diffusion of radioactive materials emitted from the accident that occurred at TEPCO′s Fukushima nuclear power plants was another serious problem, and areas that could accept these contaminated wastes were limited. In this report, I introduce some of my experiences as an SMW consultant in disaster cases and try to clarify some of the perspectives that can be incorporated into planning strategies.

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A major tsunami that was caused by the Great East Japan Earthquake attacked the Pacific coastline of Japan′s Tohoku district. The disaster called for the processing of tsunami deposit and debris, which is currently being carried out in eight districts of Miyagi Prefecture. In order to make an efficient disaster debris management plan the challenges of performing the processing for tsunami deposits and debris for this record level clean up must be carefully studied. This report provides a summary of the disaster waste disposal treatment program in Kesennuma-shi. Important points in tackling disaster debris management planning, based on problems that arose during debris processing, are examined here.

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Up until 2005, the author was engaged in an administrative position for a period of 24 years. Some of his duties consisted of administrative jobs regarding waste disposal treatment, including the planning and construction of waste treatment and disposal facilities. After the Great Hanshin Earthquake struck in January 1995, the author had the experience of working in an office that oversaw the application of government subsidies for management planning related to disaster wastes.
　In light of this work and in response to the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake disaster there was a request for assistance from Hyogo Prefecture. The prefecture asked for help in development of a plan for disaster debris management and processing. We therefore went directly to the site to provide assistance in developing strategies for handling of the debris from this natural disaster. In response to another direct request from Amagasaki City, we spent a total of 18 days as the 2^nd Branch of the Kansai Union, visiting Ishinomaki City from March to April 2011 and also Kesennuma City from April to May.
　This paper sets forth points to take into consideration when developing strategies for the handling of natural disaster debris in order to more quickly and appropriately respond to disasters that are certain to occur in the future.

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Almost 30 months have been passed since Japan came face to face with various critical situations caused by the Great East Japan Earthquake.
　The media is drawing comparisons between the delay seen in disposing of the current Earthquake/Tsunami debris with the situations seen during the Great Kanto Earthquake in 1923 and the Great Hanshin Earthquake in 1995. On the other hand, in this case there also exists the extremely critical factor that a deadline of March 2015 has been set for completion of processing all the debris.
　Taking into account the varied viewpoints, this report investigates the present status of the debris left from the Great East Japan Earthquake and scopes out conceptual ideas for how to recycle it.

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