Taking the High Ground: Impact of Public Policy on Rebuilding Neighborhoods in Coastal Japan after the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami

This chapter explores one Miyagi coastal community’s plans for rebuilding and revitalizing neighborhoods in the aftermath of the earthquake and tsunami of March 11, 2011 (3.11). Research shows an intense desire by those impacted by disasters to return to normal conditions as quickly as possible (Edgington 2011). “Normal” is generally conceived of as restoring the patterns and types of development exactly as they existed before the disruption (Edgington 2011; Spangle and Associates 1991).