14 Years On: Local Govts Struggle to Preserve March 2011 Disaster Records

Sendai, Miyagi Pref., March 12 (Jiji Press)--Local governments in northeastern Japan, hit hard by the March 2011 disasters, face ongoing challenges in preserving critical records, including those documenting emergency responses in the immediate aftermath.

Fourteen years later, these documents remain vital for passing down lessons from the earthquake, tsunami and nuclear disasters. However, securing storage space has become a growing obstacle as the volume of records continues to increase.

In response, some local governments have implemented their own measures, such as establishing criteria for preservation.

The Miyagi prefectural government considers disaster-related records to have significant historical value, making them strong candidates for permanent preservation in the prefectural archives.

In fiscal 2021, a decade after the disasters, the government began discarding less critical documents. But as of the end of March 2024, approximately 17,000 volumes of disaster-related records remained in storage.

[Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]