Nexus of Resilience and Public Policy: Tohoku Disaster Cases

Abstract

This chapter provides a systemic review of cases involving the 2011 Tohoku Disaster (Great East Japan Earthquake) in Japan, with a focus on resilience and public policy or resilience-based public policy by utilizing the structural and operational views outlined in Chaps. 2 and 3. Given the typical overemphasis on the “response” phase immediately following disasters, we review the Tohoku Disaster by highlighting the pivotal question of how do we promote resilience-based public policy, more specifically, how to incorporate resilience-based approaches (i.e., enabling the capacity to create environments or systems that remain functionally intact when impacted by unexpected events, which is accomplished by emphasizing situational awareness and understanding “whole system” linkages over short-, medium- and long-term perspectives) into public policy. As such, this chapter provides (1) analytical views of the nexus of resilience and public policy in disaster risk management, (2) a systemic review of different cases around the Tohoku Disaster, with a focus on resilience-based public policy, and (3) lessons learned and their policy implications.