Chapter 8
Level of Disaster Resilience
and Migration Patterns in Japanese
and Foreign Residents
Hiroaki Matsuura
Abstract Building community resilience is one of the central priorities of the
SFDRR 2015–2030. However, no agreement exists over the exact measurement
of the progress of building disaster resilience at community level. This chapter
aims to contribute to the literature of resilience measurement in two ways. First, the
chapter develops a Japanese version of the Resilience Capacity Index (RCI), which
was ranked at the highest sub-national level resilience index in terms of maturity
according to the UNDP’s systematic review (2014). Second, it examines how high
and low community resilience measured by RCI affects inter-municipality migrations among Japanese nationals and foreign residents. There are four findings in this
chapter; first, in areas unaffected by earthquakes, Japanese people are more likely
to move-out from municipalities with low resilience, while they are less likely to
move-out from municipalities with high resilience. Second, in areas severely affected
by earthquakes, municipalities with low resilience suffer additional out-migration,
while no additional out-migration can be observed in municipalities with middle or
high resilience. Third, in-migration shows that having high resilience does not always
benefit municipalities. Municipalities with high resilience (community connectivity)
tend to form a closed set of networks within the community unconnected to larger
society. Fourth, foreigners do not respond to the level of resilience in both earthquakeaffected and non-earthquake affected municipalities. They seem to behave as if there
is a separate community for non-Japanese people. The results of this paper suggest
the need for a strategy to reduce the number of municipalities with low resilience
and encourage more inclusive and participatory communities for foreigners.
Keywords Resilience capacity index · Community level · Inter-municipality
migrations · Inclusiveness · Japanese · Foreigners
H. Matsuura (B)
Shoin University, Kanagawa, Japan
e-mail: hiroaki.matsuura@shoin-u.ac.jp
© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021
R. Djalante et al. (eds.), Integrated Research on Disaster Risks, Disaster Risk Reduction,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-55563-4_8
137
Level of Disaster Resilience
and Migration Patterns in Japanese
and Foreign Residents
Hiroaki Matsuura
Abstract Building community resilience is one of the central priorities of the
SFDRR 2015–2030. However, no agreement exists over the exact measurement
of the progress of building disaster resilience at community level. This chapter
aims to contribute to the literature of resilience measurement in two ways. First, the
chapter develops a Japanese version of the Resilience Capacity Index (RCI), which
was ranked at the highest sub-national level resilience index in terms of maturity
according to the UNDP’s systematic review (2014). Second, it examines how high
and low community resilience measured by RCI affects inter-municipality migrations among Japanese nationals and foreign residents. There are four findings in this
chapter; first, in areas unaffected by earthquakes, Japanese people are more likely
to move-out from municipalities with low resilience, while they are less likely to
move-out from municipalities with high resilience. Second, in areas severely affected
by earthquakes, municipalities with low resilience suffer additional out-migration,
while no additional out-migration can be observed in municipalities with middle or
high resilience. Third, in-migration shows that having high resilience does not always
benefit municipalities. Municipalities with high resilience (community connectivity)
tend to form a closed set of networks within the community unconnected to larger
society. Fourth, foreigners do not respond to the level of resilience in both earthquakeaffected and non-earthquake affected municipalities. They seem to behave as if there
is a separate community for non-Japanese people. The results of this paper suggest
the need for a strategy to reduce the number of municipalities with low resilience
and encourage more inclusive and participatory communities for foreigners.
Keywords Resilience capacity index · Community level · Inter-municipality
migrations · Inclusiveness · Japanese · Foreigners
H. Matsuura (B)
Shoin University, Kanagawa, Japan
e-mail: hiroaki.matsuura@shoin-u.ac.jp
© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021
R. Djalante et al. (eds.), Integrated Research on Disaster Risks, Disaster Risk Reduction,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-55563-4_8
137