1. ICT (Information and Communication Technologies) challenges for post-disaster activities in Japan
July 2012
Izumi Aizu
Co-Director,
Information Support pro bono Platform (iSPP)
Senior Research Fellow and Professor,
Institute for InfoSocionomics, Tama University

2. The worst disaster in Japan since WW II
The earthquake, 4 waves compound: M9.0
Tsunami: meters, 3 times higher than experts anticipated
Washed away everything: 30+ cities and towns
Fukushima Nuclear Station
Death: 15,799, Missing: 4,053
Total: 19,852 – so far

3. After 16 months Things are not getting better, some parts worse
Natural Disaster turning out to be Social Disaster
With all due respect, not capable of handling problems
Many people are suffering - even those who moved from shelters to “temporal houses”
rooms too narrow, rain leaks, ants coming in, flies from dead fish etc.
no reconstruction plan yet announced from central govn’t
According to previous experiences of Kobe, many more problems will surface

4. I lost my voice -couldn’t say anything
April 4, 2011
City of Kesennuma
I lost my voice -couldn’t say anything

5. You can still see this ship – from Google Earth

7. This was a 3-story building

10. from where I stayed

11. no rescue team came here yet
After three weeks,
no rescue team came here yet

12. What can ICT/Internet do for them?
There were little Emergency Preparedness among Internet/ICT community
Informational gap was the source of wider problem – ineffective logistics, relief and support works
Started “pro bono” platform for information support based on individual capacity – another trials & errors

13. Information Support Pro bono Platform (iSPP) established
Multi-stakeholder platform to address info-gaps
Individuals from gov, industry, NGOs and academia
Projects and coordination beginning

14. iSPP aimed at Lateral collaboration
among relief information providers such as Yahoo, Google, Amazon, Shinsai-info, Tasukeai Japan, Save MLAK etc.)
among relief ICT providers
Vertical collaboration
between devastated areas and relief providers outside
Project Management – platform and system being proposed for longer term activities

15. Projects underway
Provide ICT solutions (packages) to recovery works – sending machines and people
Common API for Informational Support
Information matching for relief works (goods and people)
NPO・NGO Coordination
Visits to local governments who need more support - coordinate with Prefectural & Central Governments
Survey on people’s information behaviors

16. Survey on people’s informational behaviors
Field interview
186 people in the devastated areas
Interview by people in the same region
Easier to share stories
Online questionnaire
2,815 samples in the devastated areas
Mostly ICT literate
Conducted in early July
First of its kind in scale

17. Questions: Which tool and media were useful? Which are not?
How devastated people relied on which info resources?
Any difference in chronological order and locale?
Was Internet or twitter really useful?
What kind of lessons can we draw from?

18. Death and missing among family and relatives
Direct interview:
One third have casuv¥arities
Half for Iwate and Miyagi costal areas
Net Questionnaire
11.2％ have casuaritires
Iwate: 36.2％, Miyagi: 24.7％
No one
Death
Missing
Injured
Other
(%) N=186
(%) N=2815 NA

19. Changes of the Job Net questionnaire: Direct interview:
Unemployed: 12.9％
Job Change: 2.7％　
Net questionnaire:
Lost jobs: 4.7%
Job Change: 2.9%　
No Change
Job Change
Lost job
Others
(%) N=186
(%) N=2815 NA

20. Free answer: useful info sources:
Top Key words: radio, mobile, one-seg TV in early days, TV, Newspaper, Internet came later
A few hours
1 week
1 month
3 months
Radio TV
Mobile
NHK
Mobile/Paper
Newspaper ―
One-seg
twitter
Internet PC
mixi

21. Useful info sources by area
Iwate inland ・Twitter　I could obtain various information including disaster situation and infrastructure. Also found my friend’s situation（Morioka, Student, 21 yrs, M)
Miyagi inland 　Only Radio – NHK, Tohoku Bs provided information (Kurihara, biz owner, 52, M) Fixed phone helped found my parents situation.
Iwate Coast No info sources at all (Otuchi, 70, M) Had no time to use any info, just trying to find students safeness from morning to night (Otsuchi, Kirikiri, 37 M, Civil servent)
Miyagi Coast Radio told “Big Tsunami Warning – evacuate to higher hills” helped me to escape from Tsunamii (Yuriage, Natori, 43, Female) One-seg TV showed Tsunami coming to Kamaishi that helped me to escape from Tsunami (Higahi Shinjo, Kesennuma, 56, F)
Fukushima Coast Municipal speakers – not 100 5% worked, Mobile phone – to reach acquaintances, battery gone soon, (Okuma, Farmer, 69, M)
Fukushima inland　Power stayed OK, watch TV and Radio. Listened NHK broadcast, just getting to know what is going on, but could not really “use” them. No information could help us within a few hours for that scale of earthquake (Fukushima, 43, Office worker, F)
。Mobile phone – could use to find family and friends in safe situation for a while. NHK TV was best to get info. (Koriyama, 62, F)

22. Info sources NOT useful
Mobile was most mentioned
Gasoline, close to your daily life
TV and Radio was frustrating for Nuclear Power problem
A few hours
1 week
1 month
3 months
Mobile TV
Radio
Internet
Softbank
NHK
Newspaper
One-seg

23. Mobile
Mobile phone not working, only could be sent occasionally. Disaster BBS was hard to use and spent many hours to find my sister.
No connection for Mobile made me so worried about my kids.
I could not use Mobile phones thus not able to find my family, very frustrating.
Mobile phone not working immediately after, could not contact my family members.
Mobile was not usable at all.

24. Not useful sources, per area
Iwate Inland Disaster BBS, Telephone. All onfusing. （Morioka, 38, M）／I could use DoCoMo Mobile and within a few hours, then lost connection at all. Softbank was useless, could not find my family at all! (Osaki, 31, F)
Miyagi Inland　All lifelines stopped. I wished at least the mobile be working (Sendai, Office worker, 50, M)
Iwate Coast　Disaster information system nto working, phones were all out (Kamaishi, Fishing, 47, F) Mobile phones for confirming safety did not work (Kamaishi, Partime, 47, F) All lifelines could not be used thus so inconvenient (Ofunato, Partime, 56, F)
Miyagi Coast Radio only told us “Tsunami is coming”, but no details (Sendai, Office worker, 57, F) Only police presence was announced until Tsunami came from the City disaster management broadcast; Tsunami at other area or more realistic live information was needed (Sendai) Mobilewas so useless; it was a miracle that I found SoftBank BBS to find my family safe (Sendai, Businessman, 38, M) There was no means to get information from local administration (Okachi, Ishinomaki, 65, Fishing, M)
Fukusihma Coast　TV did not tell any truth on Nuclear power station, I heard the explosion sound, but could not figure out what it was (Minami Soma, 54, F) NO mean told me where is safe to evacuate. We thought it better to go far and went to Kawauchi vilage, but that turned out not to safe and thus had to move several places. (Tomioka, Housewife, 62, F)

25. Available information tools
Right after：Radio: 65, Mobile: 47, TV:30, Smartphones: 9.7%
1 week: Radio, TV, Mobile
1 month: TV, Mobile, PC recovered
3 months: Fixed phone went up
(%) N=186
Radio
Mobile
Fixed Phones TV
スマホ

26. Useful information sources
Right after: Radio, TV, One-seg broadcast, Word of mouth
1 week: Radio, TV, WoM, Mobile, Newspaper
1 to 3 months: TV, Newspaper, Radio, Mobile, Internet
(%) N=186

27. Available Tools, per area
Right after: Iwate, Miyagi Coast was “Info Vacuum”
Whole Iwate: no PC, fixed lines usable
Only Radio due to power loss &communication lines destruction
Coast Area: TV (2), Mobile (2) （N=28)　
Iwate Inland
Iwate Coast
Miyagi Inland
Miyagi Coast
Fukushima Inland
Fukushima Coast
(N=186)
Fixed
Phones
Mobile
Phones
Smart
Phones TV PC
Radio

28. Huge difference by Area
Right after: Iwate Coast, only Radio（68%）and WoM (46%) above 10%
MiyagiCoast, Radio (64%), One-seg (23%), Mobile talk (14%)
(%)　N=186
Iwate Inland
Iwate Coast
Miyagi Coast
Fukushima Coast
Fukushima Inland
Miyagi Inland TV
Radio
SMS
Word
of Mouth
Mobile
Voice
Internet
Nothing
Fixed
Phones
News
Paper

29. On Nuclear Power plant （Fukushima ）

30. 70% replied they heard the accident within 2 to 3 days, not on 3.11
Fukushima Inland
N = 63
Fukushima Coast
Mar.
12/13
3.11
After
1 week
Other

31. People in Coast area immediately started to evacuate, people inland collected info
Evacuated
immediately
Considred to
Evacuated
Wait & See
Collected more
detailed info
Didn’t know
what to do
Others

32. Free answers for reliable information sources
There was info on the accident, but for evacuation very confusing
Only heard the Siren. First, get outside 10 km away, then got to Futaba or Kawamata, just WoM. Traffic jam was bad, no info on roads.
From people working for the power plant. They got first.
Was working inside the power plant.
Mobile One-seg broadcast. Car Radio, WoM,but not reliable … Internet, searched the municipal website, but not serious information was found. We have to make own judgments.
People in the neiborhood, word of mouth.
TV, news
My relative working in the local government told me at midnight, Mar 12.

33. Web Survey Results N=2,815
Using web-based questionnaire, for 3 Tohoku prefectures: Iwate, Miyagi and Fukushima. 33

34. Devices that worked: Radio, Mobile, TV, Internet… all but Radio dropped at Day 1 Fixed phones much popular after one month

35. Useful info sources: radio, TV, mobile-TV for Day 1 Internet, Newspaper came late

36. Situation was so different by area and timeline
People in Iwate and Miyagi prefectures faced large-scale power cut right after the quake (for a few days); people relied on Radio & Word of mouth. TV, Internet and mobile were almost useless in the early hours.
Radio was largely available, but the content was not so satisfactory.
Internet, twitter and other SNS used where power and access are available. They have limited use, but found to be useful by these people. Very different picture from that of Metropolitan Tokyo.

37. From people’s comments:
Mobile phones were primary source of confirming family and friends
Yet it became primary target of frustrations
Power loss was the biggest cause of information black box
Radio and “one-seg” mobile broadcast was useful
New devices needed
twitter was useful to find local information such as food and gas supply – as long as there was connection
Special dial/Internet services were not used

38. Multi-stakeholder came, naturally
Traditional government structure does not work sufficiently for such emergency
Industry and Civil Society must work together with Central and Local governments
But how? - complementarily
No official recognition made (yet)

39. Lessons learned (tentative)
Mobile network should be robust enough
Power supply be seriously considered, especially for rescue and relief operation
Flexible collaboration framework be placed
Disaster management needs new understanding for latest ICT services
ICT people should establish new emergency preparedness team – which did not exist before
Establish ICT recovery support for local governments

40. 『3.11 被災地の証言』 “3.11 Testimony from Victims” published by iSPP
インプレスジャパン刊　2012年3月5日発売　定 価3,990円
[『3.11 東日本大震災　情報行動調査で検証する デジタル大国・日本の盲点』
Based on Information Behavior Survey, testimonials and interviews from the people in the devastated areas are compiled into a book. We found “information blackout” existed almost in the entire devastated areas, but details differ very much by locale and timing. 40

41. Thank you For your help and support
This could happen to you
Let’s learn the lessons and be prepared
We shall build new and better society together
Izumi Aizu
iSPP