natural disasters and gender statisticsmdgs.un.org/unsd/gender/mexico_nov2014/session 7 japan...
TRANSCRIPT
NATURAL DISASTERS AND GENDER STATISTICSLessons from the Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami
Nahoko MITSUYAMACounsellor for Gender Equality AnalysisGender Equality BureauCabinet Office, Government of Japan
5th Global Forum for Gender Statistics
Japan: a disaster-prone country
Japan21220%
# of earthquakes with magnitude 6.0 or greater
World total1,036
Japan1087%
# of active volcanoes
World total1,548
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Source: Cabinet Office# of earthquakes: Sum of # 2000-2009# of active volcanoes: those that have erupted within the past 10,000 years
The Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami
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-14:46 March 11, 2011-Biggest ever in recorded history in Japan
-Hypocenter area: 450km x 200km
-Highest ever Tsunami -Many big earthquakes followed outside the hypocenter area
Impact of the Earthquake and Tsunami as of 11 Sep. 2014• “Multiplex” disaster: Earthquake + Tsunami + Nuclear
power plant accident• Eastern half of Japan damaged• 16K people killed, 6K injured, 2K+ still missing• 130K buildings completely damaged, 273K half-damaged,
745K partially damaged• 246K people evacuated• 4K roads &100+ bridges damaged, some railroads still out
of service• Power shortage due to the NPP accident
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The amount of damage: JPY 16.9 trillion (USD 152 billion) Source: National Police Agency, Cabinet Office
Problems related to statistics in the immediate aftermath
# of evacuees and their sex, age, necessity for support (those who need care, pregnant…) unknown
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For example,Nobody in a shelter knew how many women and babies were there when NPOs visited to offer goods for them
# of evacuees disaggregated by sex, age, etc. got to be perceived essential in capturing their needs and assisting appropriately
What done?• “Disaster Countermeasure Basic Act“ amended in June
2013• Head of municipality required to make a list of sufferers
• Published a guideline to secure conditions of living in evacuation centers in August 2013• A guideline for implementing the Basic Act• Recommends to prepare a list of refugees with details such as sex
when an evacuation center is set up, and to succeed the information to the list of sufferers
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Problems in the phase of reconstruction: preparing White Paper• No statistics by sex, except for # of the dead• Various researches conducted, but published data scarcely
disaggregated by sex;
Examples:1. A survey on the action when Tsunami hit: Gender Equality Bureau (GEB)
needed to procure raw data and tabulate themselves2. A survey on the health of refugees: GEB asked specialists to disaggregate
the data >> Surprising results even for them 3. The numbers of active job seekers published by Public Employment
Security Office: The Office started to publish numbers by sex in responding to the requests from NPOs
4. The number of employment related to immediate employment measures: Data disaggregation realized owing to the request from GEB
• No recognition on the possible value of sex-disaggregation• Some data available by prefecture by sex, but not distinguishable
between damaged and non-damaged areas: # of suicides, crimes…
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Example from White Paper1: Casualties and population by age in Iwate, Miyagi and Fukushima Pref.
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2.9
2.7
2.9
4.8
7.1
11.9
17.8
24.1
25.7
8.0
9.3
9.8
12.3
11.9
13.8
13.4
11.9
9.7
0102030(%)
Women3.2
2.8
3.9
6.3
7.5
12.7
20.8
25.0
17.9
9.0
10.5
10.7
13.5
12.7
14.7
13.8
9.8
5.3
0 10 20 30
0-9
10-19
20-29
30-39
40-49
50-59
60-69
70-79
80+
(%)
Composition of population in the three prefectures
Composition of casualties by the Earthquake
Men
60 years or more
Population 35.0%
Casualties 67.6%
60 years or more
Population 28.9%
Casualties 63.7%
Years old
The ratio of casualties disproportionally higher for the elderly regardless of sex
Source: White Paper on Gender Equality 2012
Example from White Paper2: Accompanying persons when evacuated
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13.1
29.2
82.1
64.0
1.3
3.3
3.5
3.6
0 20 40 60 80 100
Women(n=521)
Men(n=336)
(%)
Evacuated alone
Evacuated in a small group
Evacuated in a small group but became isolated during the evacuation process
Other
Source: White Paper on Gender Equality 2012
Women tend to evacuate in a small group in comparison with men
Example from White Paper3: Suspicion of insomnia in Rikuzentakata City
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32.3
52.4
23.3
19.8
44.4
27.7
0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%
Women (n=2,961)
Men (n=1,846)
Not at allTo some degreeClearly suspected
Source: White Paper on Gender Equality 2012
Women tend to suffer from insomnia in comparison with men, same as the result from the nationwide survey
Challenges• # of evacuees: further disaggregated data needed in
order to take appropriate measures, especially for those who continue to live in temporary dwellings
• Many mothers and their children said to evacuate separately from fathers with regard to the power plant accident, but no data collected
• Opinion poll in the damaged area not realized due to objections from inside the government
• # of people who died related to the Earthquake not disaggregated by sex due to objections from inside the government
• Data concerning reconstruction scarcely collected by sex for the purpose of “alleviation of respondents’ loads”
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Gracious!Thank you!
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