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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 14 March 2025
Five years after Japan's natural and nuclear disasters of March 11, 2011 (3-11), few observers can find a positive legacy among the irradiated ruins. Fukushima rightly remains an icon of the folly of building fragile large-scale power and other lifeline systems in the face of patent threats. Indeed, Japan has become a byword for failure, whether at Fukushima or in its “Abenomics” growth strategy. But in point of fact, 3-11 has made Japan a world leader in building resilience - in critical energy, water, transport and other lifeline infrastructures -against increasingly frequent disasters confronting Japan, the Asia-Pacific and the world. Though little known, even in specialist circles, Japan's deeply institutionalized and well-funded programme of “National Resilience” (kokudo kyoujinka) is far more advanced than its counterpart initiatives in North America, the EU and elsewhere. As we shall see below, Japan's resilience programme, including both public and private sector spending, totaled over JPY 24 trillion (USD 210 billion) in 2013 and is projected to grow dramatically by 2020. Moreover, Japan's disaster resilience centres on renewable energy, storage and efficiency, and has become a core element of Abenomics.
1 See the Cabinet Secretariat's National Resilience Council's website.
2 See the Association for Resilience Japan website.
3 See (in Japanese), “Concerning the size and estimates for the private-sector market in national resilience,” February 1, 2016, Cabinet Secretariat's National Resilience Council, p. 5.
4 On the public-sector spending, see Andrew DeWit, “Japan's ”National Resilience Plan“: Its Promise and Perils in the Wake of the Election”, The Asia-Pacific Journal, Vol. 12, Issue 51, No. 1, December 22, 2014.
5 See (in Japanese), Furuya Keiji, “National Resilience: the Challenges of Transitioning to a Resilient Society,” June 2014, PHP Books, pp. 157-70.
6 For a comparison the scale of the threats confronting Tokyo, see the last section of Andrew DeWit, “Japan's Resilient, Decarbonizing and Democratic Smart Communities”, The Asia-Pacific Journal, Vol. 12, Issue 50, No. 3, December 15, 2014.
7 See “Fiji and UN appeal for $38 million to relieve ‘catastrophic loss’ after Cyclone Winston,” UN News Centre, March 4, 2016.
8 See Valerie Volcovici, “Florida mayors press presidential debate moderators for climate airtime,” Reuters, March 4, 2016.
9 For example, building resilience was a key theme for subnational governments. See “Cities and Regions Launch Major Five-Year Vision to Take Action on Climate Change,” UNFCCC Newsroom press release, December 8, 2015.
10 See Oliver Cann, “What are the top global risks for 2016?” World Economic Forum, January 14, 2016.
11 See “The Triple Dividend of Resilience,” The Global Facility for Disaster Reduction and Recovery, World Bank Group, 2015.
12 See the relevant section in the World Economic Forum's 2013 “The Green Investment Report”.
13 For example, see (in Japanese) “PM Abe's Big Treat to his Region,” Sentaku, March 2013.
14 For an overview, see Andrew DeWit, “3.11 and Japan's Shift to Smart, Distributed Power,” Asia Policy 17, January 2014.
15 See, for example, Michael Puckett “Financing the Next Generation of Resilient Power,” Clean Energy Finance Forum, November 25, 2014.
16 One example was the August 20, 2014 mudslides in Hiroshima, which were part of a protracted period of very unusual rainfall. See Andrew DeWit, “Hiroshima's Disaster, Climate Crisis, and the Future of the Resilient City”, The Asia-Pacific Journal, Vol. 12, Issue 35, No. 2, September 1, 2014.
17 See “Role of Critical Infrastructure in National Prosperity: Shared Narrative,” Public Safety Canada, October 15, 2015.
18 The list of the Association for Resilience Japan's 16 working groups, their membership, and related information, is available (in Japanese) here.
19 A list of the February 2 event's panels (in Japanese).
20 Information on the event (in Japanese) is here.
21 See, for example, Andrew DeWit, “Disaster Risk Reduction and Resilience as Structural Reform in Abenomics,” The Asia-Pacific Journal, Vol. 13, Issue 1, No. 3, January 5, 2015.
22 See “Japan Revitalization Strategy,” Japan Cabinet Office, June 14, 2013.
23 One recent example is the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications (MIC) May 30, 2014 discussion (in Japanese) of its “Distributed Energy Infrastructure Project”.
24 For example, see the fiscal and other data in Andrew DeWit,
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