Page 231 - Special Topic Session (STS) - Volume 3

STS541 Masao T. et al.

Figure 5 Ratio of ordinary households moving by reason for the moving due
to the Great East Japan Earthquake of main earner – Japan (2013)

6. Lessons Learned and Challenges
From the experience of this great earthquake, we believe that there were
some issues and lessons learned
about the development of official statistics. We will introduce two main points
below.
The first point is that statistics play a fundamental role in decision-making
even in the event of a disaster, and statistics must fulfill this mission. After the
earthquake, there were many requests for the latest statistics on the situation
in the affected areas. On the other hand, the disaster-stricken area is in a
severe situation, and it is extremely difficult to conduct a statistical survey to
grasp the actual situation. In this context, we believe that the following
perspectives need to be kept in mind in order to produce and provide statistics
to help support the disaster-stricken areas.
1) Processed statistics should be provided by linking existing statistical data
with other relevant information such as geographical information.
2) Statistical surveys in the affected areas should be carefully carried out in
consideration of the circumstances and feelings of the victims and the
situation of the areas.
3) Existing statistical surveys should be utilized to collect information about
the influences of the disaster and the conditions of the people in the area
without significantly increasing the response burden.
4) Not only survey statistics but also information such as statistics based on
administrative statistics and other information from administrative
management should be widely used.

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