Exploratory case study for neighborhood participation in recovery process: A case from the great East Japan earthquake and tsunami in Kesennuma, Japan

About ten years have passed since the Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami. In the context of Japan, neighborhood voluntary civic associations (NVCA) play significant roles in communicating, sharing, and building consensus at grassroots level in Japan, though it is unclear what are the elements for the successful engagement of disaster survivors at the neighborhood level.

This study examined whether community activities with the direct participation by disaster survivors enhance DRR activities, or external stakeholders strengthen those activities. Through the field survey in Kesennuma City, asymmetric results imply that the NVCA activities diverged from sociohistorical background.