ICT (Information and Communication Technologies) challenges for

post-disaster activities in Japan

July 2012Izumi Aizu

Co-Director, Information Support pro bono Platform (iSPP)

Senior Research Fellow and Professor, Institute for InfoSocionomics, Tama University

<iza@anr.org>

The worst disaster in Japan since WW II• The earthquake, 4 waves compound: M9.0• Tsunami: 10 - 30 meters, 3 times higher than

experts anticipated– Washed away everything: 30+ cities and towns

• Fukushima Nuclear Station

• Death: 15,867, Missing: 2,909• Total: 18,776 – so far – July 2012

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After 16 months• Things are not getting better, some parts worse• Natural Disaster turning out to be Social Disaster

• Many people are still 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

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qOlL2kbKGFQ&feature=g-vrec

Kamaishi Port

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cys8581RSXE&feature=related

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I lost my voice -couldn’t say anything

April 4, 2011City of Kesennuma

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You can still see this ship – from Google Earth

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This was a 3-story building

9

10

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from where I stayed

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After three weeks, no rescue team came here yet

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

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

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

Projects underway1.Provide ICT solutions (packages) to

recovery works – sending machines and people

2.Common API for Informational Support3. Information matching for relief works (goods

and people)4.NPO ・ NGO Coordination5.Visits to local governments who need more

support - coordinate with Prefectural & Central Governments

6.Survey on people’s information behaviors

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

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?

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Death and missing among family and relatives

(%) N=186

Direct interview:One third have casuv¥arities

Half for Iwate and Miyagi costal areas

Net Questionnaire11.2 ％ have casuaritires

Iwate: 36.2 ％ , Miyagi: 24.7 ％

(%) N=2815

No one

Death

Missing

Injured

Other

NA

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Changes of the Job

(%) N=186

Direct interview:Unemployed: 12.9 ％Job Change: 2.7 ％　

Net questionnaire:Lost jobs: 4.7%

Job Change: 2.9% 　

(%) N=2815

No Change

Job Change

Lost job

Others

NA

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Free answer: useful info sources:

A few hours 1 week 1 month 3 months

Radio Radio TV TV

TV TV Radio Radio

Mobile NHK Mobile/Paper Newspaper

NHK Mobile ― Mobile

One-seg Newspaper NHK NHK

Email twitter Internet Internet

twitter Internet Email twitter

Internet One-seg twitter PC

mixi mixi PC ―

Top Key words: radio, mobile, one-seg TV in early days, TV, Newspaper, Internet came later

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Useful info sources by areaIwate 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 Email to find family and friends in safe situation for a while. NHK TV was best to get info. (Koriyama, 62, F)

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Info sources NOT useful

A few hours

1 week 1 month 3 months

Mobile Mobile TV TV

Radio TV Mobile Radio

Email Radio Email Mobile

TV Email Radio Internet

Softbank Internet Mobile NHK

Internet EmailNewspape

r

One-seg

• Mobile was most mentioned• Gasoline, close to your daily life• TV and Radio was frustrating for Nuclear Power problem

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Mobile

• Mobile phone not working, only Email 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.

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Not useful sources, per areaIwate Inland Disaster BBS, Telephone. All onfusing. （ Morioka, 38, M ）／ I could use DoCoMo Mobile and Email 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)

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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

Fixed Phones

Radio

Mobile

TV

スマホ

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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

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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) 　

(N=186)

Iwate Inland Iwate Coast

Miyagi Coast Fukushima CoastFukushima Inland

Miyagi Inland

TV Radio PC FixedPhones

MobilePhones

SmartPhones

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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

Radio

TV

NewsPaper

FixedPhones

MobileVoice

EmailSMS

Internet

Wordof Mouth

Nothing

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On Nuclear Power plant（ Fukushima ）

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70% replied they heard the accident within 2 to 3 days, not on 3.11

N = 63 Fukushima Coast

Fukushima Inland

3.11 Mar.12/13

After1

week

Other

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People in Coast area immediately started to evacuate, people inland collected info

N = 63

Evac

uate

d

imm

edia

tely

Cons

idre

d to

Evac

uate

d W

ait &

See

Co

llect

ed m

ore

deta

iled

info

Did

n’t kn

ow

wha

t to

do

Oth

ers

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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.

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Web Survey ResultsN=2,815

Using web-based questionnaire, for 3 Tohoku prefectures: Iwate, Miyagi and Fukushima.

Devices that worked: Radio, Mobile, TV, Internet… all but Radio dropped at Day 1

Fixed phones much popular after one month

Useful info sources:radio, TV, mobile-TV for Day 1

Internet, Newspaper came lateTV

Internet

Radio

Newspaper

Mobile

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.

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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

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)

Lessons learned (tentative)

1. Mobile network should be robust enough2. Power supply be seriously considered, especially for

rescue and relief operation3. Flexible collaboration framework be placed4. Disaster management needs new understanding for

latest ICT services5. ICT people should establish new emergency

preparedness team – which did not exist before6. Establish ICT recovery support for local governments

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『 3.11 　被災地の証言』 “ 3.11 Testimony from Victims” published by iSPP

情報支援プロボノ・プラットフォーム（ iSPP ）　編著

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.

Thank you For your help and support

This could happen to youLet’s learn the lessons and be prepared

We shall build new and better society together

Izumi Aizuiza@anr.org

iSPP