Special Issue on Crisis Management and Recovery Following Tokyo Metropolitan Near Field Earthquake Disaster

It is expected that Tokyo Metropolitan area and her vicinity may be jolted by a devastating earthquake with a 70% chance for the next 30 years. The worstcase scenario for Tokyo Metropolitan earthquake is a M7.3 earthquake beneath northern Tokyo Bay. According to the Central Disaster Prevention Council, A total of 12,000 people will be dead and economic losses will exceed 112 trillion yen. Areas with a seismic intensity of JMA 6 – and more will include Tokyo, Chiba, Saitama, and Kanagawa, resulting in 25 million victims – 20% of Japan’s total population. No country has not experienced such a large-scale earthquake in recorded history, but it does not mean such a disaster will not occur. In order to cope with such an unprecedented disaster, we must face and solve a lot of new problems in addition to all of existing problems appeared in the past disasters. Thus it is mandatory to take a holistic approach to implement effectively and seamlessly emergency response, relief, and long-term recovery. With the severity of possible consequences due to this earthquake, a special project, entitled as “Special Project for Earthquake Disaster Mitigation in Tokyo Metropolitan Area” (2007-2011), is commissioned by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology of Japan (MEXT), This special project consists of three subprojects; Seismology, Earthquake Engineering, and Crisis Management and Recovery. This subproject considers Tokyo Metropolitan Earthquake as a national crisis occurred in the Tokyo metropolitan area. All the available knowledge of disaster researchers should be gathered from nationwide, including both emergency response and long-term recovery to minimize damage and losses. This project examines measures for improving the capacity for the people from disaster management organizations to react to crisis and help rebuilding life recovery of disaster victims. An information-sharing platform will be proposed to comprehensively manage individual disaster response and recovery measures. “Training and exercise systems” will be introduced to empower local capacity to mitigate and recover from disaster by integrating all of the project achievements among stakeholders. The final goal of this project is to make ourselves prepared for help the anticipated 25 million victims at most due to Tokyo Metropolitan earthquake. In this issue of JDR, we will introduce 10 papers from the subproject on Crisis Management and Recovery as a part of the achievements of this subproject for the last five years.