Title: Enhancing resilience through public policy : lessons from disaster logistics in the post-2011 Tohoku earthquake in Sendai city
Author: Mrs.Megumi Okumura
Year: 2024
Keywords: Disaster Logistics,Resilience,Policy Integration,Stakeholder Coordination
Theme: Disaster and Crisis Management
Advisor(s): Carl Nigel Middleton
The full thesis available here.
Abstract: In recent years, the integration of resilience into disaster policy has gained global traction. Despite being widely adopted as a concept by international institutions such as the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR) and the World Bank, resilience often remains underdeveloped at the operational level and is frequently seen as a “buzzword.” Even in Japan, although recognized for its disaster preparedness, there has been limited debate on how resilience is integrated in public policy. The 2011 Tohoku Earthquake prompted fundamental questions such as “Resilience to what?” and “Resilience for whom?”, highlighting the need to examine the purpose and direction of resilience within Japan’s disaster policy. In this context, disaster logistics has emerged as a critical area, particularly regarding the challenges of last-mile delivery—the final transport of emergency supplies to affected communities.This study analyzed how resilience-based public policies have been integrated and implemented in Sendai City, a municipality at the forefront of disaster response during the 2011 earthquake. It aimed to evaluate how such policies have influenced disaster logistics practices and contributed to building community, physical, and social resilience. Through qualitative methods, data were collected via interviews with government officials and experts from the academic field. Supplementary sources such as policy documents and academic literature were analysed using content analysis. The findings revealed three main insights. First, stakeholder engagement has improved significantly since 2011, with stronger coordination mechanisms emerging among different administrative levels and sectors. Second, there remains a gap in the conceptual clarity of “resilience” in policy language, limiting its practical application. Interviewees from both Sendai City and the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism (MLIT) acknowledged this ambiguity. Third, coordination between local and central governments remains challenging, particularly due to decentralization and ambiguity over who should take the lead in disaster management. Some municipalities resist external involvement, which complicates efforts to achieve seamless coordination. The thesis argues that the extent to which resilience-based public policy for disaster logistics has been adopted in Sendai City reveals both progress and persistent gaps, particularly in clarifying the purpose of resilience and in strengthening the linkage between local and central governments—factors that are crucial for enhancing the resilience of social systems.This study contributes to disaster logistics and resilience policy discourse by examining how resilience concepts have been integrated into public policy and translated into practice. The choice of Sendai City—a key site for global disaster governance and a host of international resilience conferences—provides a valuable case for examining how resilient-based public policies in disaster logistics have been integrated into public policy and implemented in practice