"I finally evacuated and thought it was okay."



Although he evacuated from the earthquake and tsunami in the Great East Japan Earthquake, the number of "earthquake-related deaths" that died after that has risen to 3,786 in the last 11 years. ..

(As of March 10)



The background is the various stresses and illnesses faced in a prolonged evacuation life.



Why is a life that was once saved endangered again?

Bereaved family of related death "Don't let anyone experience the same thing"

"Today, I met my daughter and grandson."



Masako Kadoma (79), who was evacuating from Namie Town, Fukushima Prefecture to Tokyo due to the accident at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant, said eight years ago. Every day, I report on the events of the day toward the photo of my late husband, Hiroshi.

Hiroshi is one of the people who has been certified as an earthquake-related death.



Both of them were school teachers, and after retirement, they worked on local activities and were looking forward to going on an overseas trip.



And the 2011 nuclear accident.



I was forced to leave my hometown, where I was accustomed to living, and evacuated to Tokyo, where my daughter's family is.



However, there were no friends who could casually drink tea and talk to each other, and Mr. Hiroshi could no longer carry out the activities of the neighborhood association, which he had been focusing on before the earthquake.

"It can't be helped even if I'm alive"

"I wonder if I'll try to be a convenience store cleaner."



One day, about half a year later, Mr. Hiroshi muttered.



Masako replied, "You should relax without doing that."

Around this time, Hiroshi gradually began to withdraw to his house, and he became a habit of saying, "I can't help living."



He became ill and suffered from repeated bronchitis and pneumonia, and died three years after the earthquake.



He was identified as a disaster-related death because of the stress and illness caused by his evacuation life.

Masako said, "Why did you disagree when I said,'Let's try to be a cleaner?' I think I wanted to find something worthwhile. I want people to make use of our experience so that no one has the same experience. "

11 new certifications in the past year

"Related deaths" in which people die due to worsening of their illness due to evacuation life or illness due to stress are to be certified by the examination committee established by the local government.



According to interviews with the Reconstruction Agency and each prefecture, 11 new people have been certified in the past year, and 3786 people have been nationwide in the 11 years until the 10th of this month.

By prefecture, Fukushima prefecture has the largest number of 2331 people, Miyagi prefecture has 929 people, Iwate prefecture has 470 people, Iwate prefecture has 42 people, Chiba prefecture has 4 people, Kanagawa prefecture and Nagano prefecture have 3 people each, and Yamagata prefecture has 3 people. There are two people, one each in Saitama prefecture and Tokyo.



Looking at the 3784 people compiled by the Reconstruction Agency as of the end of September last year, by age group, 3351 people were 66 years old or older, accounting for about 89% of the total, 424 people were 21 years old or older and 65 years old or younger, and 9 people were 20 years old or younger. It has become.



Within five years of the earthquake, 3653 people died, accounting for the majority (about 97%), but even after the sixth year, 131 people have died.



Of the 131 people, 129 are in Fukushima Prefecture, and the fatigue and stress of the evacuation life that has been prolonged due to the earthquake and the nuclear accident have a serious impact on their health.

Lawyer "Verification of Cases" Triggered by a Trial

"We should verify each case of related death and reflect it in the national disaster prevention measures,"


said Fumiyasu Azuma, a lawyer who has been active in the areas affected by the Great East Japan Earthquake.



It is said that the trigger was a trial that he was in charge of seven years ago.



Nine months after the earthquake, a woman (in her 40s at the time) in Rikuzentakata City, Iwate Prefecture, who lost her 56-year-old husband to a myocardial infarction, told the local government that it was due to the shock and stress caused by the earthquake. I applied for "disaster-related death".



However, she was not certified because her husband had high blood pressure, and the woman filed a lawsuit against the municipality.



The court said that her husband lost her parents-in-law in the tsunami, her store was washed away, her income was cut off, and she had to pay for a loan and going to school for her child. I pointed out that it took.



As a result, she induced exacerbations of her illness, including elevated blood pressure, and she admitted "related death" as she died.

Mr. Azuma said, "When the living environment changed drastically due to a disaster, I felt a big lesson that it is important to support third parties such as medical institutions and volunteers for people with chronic diseases. It is important to properly verify the circumstances of each case to see how the risk increases, and then use it next. "

Earthquakes, heavy rains, heavy snow, etc ... Disaster-related deaths after the earthquake

Disaster-related deaths are occurring not only in the Great East Japan Earthquake but also in subsequent disasters.



As a result of NHK's interviews with the Fire and Disaster Management Agency of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications and interviews with local governments, it was found that at least 383 people have been certified as disaster-related deaths in 15 disasters such as earthquakes, heavy rains, and heavy snowfalls since the earthquake. rice field.



By disaster,


▽ Kumamoto earthquake (2016) was the most frequent with 221 people,


▽ West Japan heavy rain (2018) was 82 people,


▽ East Japan typhoon (Typhoon No. 19) and heavy rain disaster due to front line (2019) was 31 people,


etc. It has become.



The ratio of disaster-related deaths to the total number of deaths is


▽ 2019 Boso Peninsula Typhoon (Typhoon No. 15) 92% (12/13)


▽ Kumamoto Earthquake 80% (221/276)


▽ Kanto・ In some cases, heavy rains in Tohoku (2015) accounted for 61% (13/21 people)


, and related deaths outweighed the direct damage caused by earthquakes and floods.

The country finally announces some cases

However, until a few years ago, there was no mechanism for the country to manage the number of disaster-related deaths.



In response to a series of disaster-related deaths, the national government has established a system to require prefectures to report the number of deaths and individual cases from 2019.



Over 4,000 disaster-related deaths have been certified in the last 11 years.



Last April, the government finally published a casebook summarizing the specific circumstances leading to related deaths for about 100 of these cases.

A mechanism to clarify the role of the government and utilize the lessons learned

Even if you manage to escape from a violent natural disaster, you will lose your life in the subsequent evacuation life.



However, it has been pointed out that efforts to connect the lessons learned to the next damage prevention are not sufficient.



According to Tadashi Okamoto, a lawyer who specializes in disaster-related death law, investigations into the history of related deaths are conducted by local governments based on the law for paying "disaster-related condolence money" to bereaved families.



It is said that the national government has only the role of paying a part of the condolence money based on the approval result of the local government, and it is not a system that is independently involved for the purpose of preventing related deaths.



Mr. Okamoto has established a new law specializing in related deaths in order to respond to disasters that occur frequently throughout the country, clarifying the roles of local governments and the national government, and taking measures in cooperation with medical personnel and other specialists. I point out that it should be hit.

"While many people have died from disaster-related deaths, only some have been verified, and many cases are still asleep without being used as lessons learned. It has been 11 years since the earthquake, and it is related. I heard that there is a movement by local governments to dispose of the materials to be used, and urgent measures are required. "

In order not to lose the saved life ...

"I don't want anyone to have the same experience as me." This


is the words of Masako Kadoma, who lost her husband in a related death introduced at the beginning.



There are steadily increasing means of protecting yourself from disasters, such as hardware measures such as the maintenance of embankments, the sophistication of disaster prevention information, and the spread of disaster prevention apps.



I think it is necessary to systematize the lessons of disaster-related death and derive future support and countermeasures so that the lives that were once saved will not be lost.