ABSTRACT
This chapter examines governmental response to the legal questions. It also examines why devastating loss and damage had to happen and what was wrong with the preparation for the powerful earthquake and tsunami in Japan. This examination will show the serious failures of law in the preparation for and in response to the disaster and the deep-rooted failures of politics behind the failures of law. However, in the case of the Tohoku Earthquake, the earthquake occurred very close to the coastline and was extraordinarily powerful. In the wake of the earthquake, a tsunami warning was issued immediately by the Japan Meteorological Agency. An evacuation recommendation and then an evacuation instruction was issued by the municipal governments. Upon receiving requests from the governors of Iwate, Miyagi, and Fukushima prefectures, Kan ordered the deployment of the Self Defense Forces (SDF). SDF officers arrived in the Tohoku Region in the early morning of 12 March and started rescue and assistance.
