Municipal Government ICT in 3.11 Crisis: Lessons from the Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami Crisis

In partnership with colleagues at Keio University, the Berkman Center is pleased to release a Working Paper on “Municipal Government ICT in 3.11 Crisis: Lessons from the Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami Crisis” by Mihoko Sakurai and Jiro Kokuryo.  

You can download the Working Paper at SSRN.

From the abstract: "A structured field survey of ICT divisions in 13 municipalities in areas devastated by the Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami on March 11, 2011 revealed 1) lack of ICT business continuity plans (BCP), 2) importance (and lack of) a comprehensive data backup policy, 3) necessity to deal with diverse situations, 4) importance of organizing a collaborative network among governments and private sectors, 5) importance of securing power and network supply, among many other observations.  Recommendations are made based on the findings on how to formulate a BCP that can deal with a diverse range of situations, and policies in creating a collaborative network of a diverse range of organizations to protect vital information infrastructure in crisis.  Strong interests were shown toward the use of cloud technologies for future backup purposes."

This Working Paper is translated, abridged and revised from the original report prepared for Local Authorities Systems Development Center.

Please be in touch with our Keio colleagues with thoughts or feedback.  Mihoko Sakurai can be emailed atsakuram@sfc.keio.ac.jp and Jiro Kokuryo can be emailed atjkokuryo@sfc.keio.ac.jp.