From a tsunami-devastated zone to an attractive fishing town: a study on Onagawa’s strategy for a prompt recovery

Abstract

This paper presents the post-disaster reconstruction of the Tohoku region in the aftermath of the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake. Although, because of its long history with natural disasters, Japan has always been prepared, this unprecedented disaster was a decisive turning point for the entire society as well as for architects and urban planners. This article explores some issues that appeared during the rebuilding process, using the example of Onagawa fishing town from an urban and architectural perspective. Through a theoretical study of the city’s reconstruction strategy, combined with a field trip, the focus of this paper is on highlighting the specific aspects that make Onagawa’s recovery unique compared to the other towns in the same area. The discussion raises critical questions about the complexities of implementing governmental reconstruction policies. Concluding remarks suggest that the following years will prove if Onagawa becomes another failed reconstruction project or proves a success.

Cite this work

No public copy is stored for this record, so only the metadata is cited.

Stored only when both papers are in the corpus — 3 citations exist upstream.

Papers that cite the same references — the relational fallback while embeddings are still backfilling.