The shift of flood prevention policy strategy in

Japan

Zhang Yuhang
6858570
26/06/2020
Utrecht University
Water, Governance and Law (GEO4-6002)
Word count: 2073
Introduction

As an island country belonging to the monsoon region, Japan has a long history fighting
with flood risk and damages. According to the data from Kundzewicz and Takeuchi (1999),
the death toll in last century was high before 1950, and reached top from 1950 to 1960.
In the most serious year, the death toll was over 5000 people. Then, after 1960, the death
toll was controlled. However, the economic lost shows a different trend. The economic
8
lost was dramatically increasing after 1950s, and reached 30000*10 Yen in the same
8
decade. Then, the economical lost fluctuated around 10000*10 Yen from 1960 to 2000.
The possible reason explaining the difference between death and economical lost might
be the strategy of flood prevention (Takeuchi, 2002). Before 2000, the policy was trying
to prevent any flood in habited land. However, the Tokai flood in September 2000 caused
860 billion Yen, alarmed that the previous policy was still weak in front of large-scale
flood. Because of it, new flood management policy “Flood Management including Basin
Responses” passed in December, 2000. There was a shift in the policy strategy. It allowed
that floods can going to the habited area by secondary dikes or open dikes (Takeuchi
and Shaw, 2008).

This article will mainly focus on the change of policy based on the role of Ministry of Land
and Transport and the policy “Flood Management including Basin Responses”. The typical
features of floods in Japan will be firstly introduced, followed by the responsibilities in
flood risk prevention of Ministry of Land and Transport. Then, the key concept of the new
policy will be described by a case study in Tokyo. In the end of this article, the challenges
are faced by flood prevention in Japan will be mentioned and some suggestions about
the policy will be offered.

Floods in Japan

3/4 of land in Japan are covered by mountains and most of them are also with high relief.
Some chain mountains are even over 3000 meters above sea level and located through
the center of the country. Because of such geography situation, the river in Japan are
short with steep gradients, which contributes to a lot of floods especially after the heavy
precipitation. This type of floods is the major type of floods in Japan. However, the floods
caused by disaster should not be ignored. For example, as an island country in monsoon
area, Japan are usually suffering from the storm disaster, and those storms often bring
storm surges to Japan mainland. Meanwhile, as a country in the circum-pacific seismic
zone, volcanic activities and severe seismic may also become the reason of tsunami and
floods. Therefore, the prevention of flood tasks covers two part: the prevention of river
floods and the prevention from floods caused by other disasters (Takeuchi and Shaw,
2008).
Land use planning instrument

The land use planning in Japan is quite universe. About 92% population are living in the
city planning area, including cities, towns, and villages. These 2000 settlements are cover
2
1/4 of the land surface in Japan, which is about 100000 km (Srinivas, 2016).

The key concept for land use planning in Japan is the zoning system. The land use zoning
can be divided into 2 categories and 12 zonings based on the purpose of development.
One category is called as urban promotion area (UPA). The area belonging to this
category is designed for urbanization. Other places will be named as urban control area
(UCA). The developments in UCA are usually forbidden. The figure 1 shows the different
12 zonings in Japan. Land use zones are the basic unit in urban land use planning in
Japan. Districts are the more detailed unit, and most of disaster prevention design is
based on it. The relationship among UPA, UCA, zones and districts can be seen in figure
2.
Figure 1. The 12 zones in Japan urban. Source: Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and
Transport, 2014.

Figure 2. The relationship among UCA, UPA, zones and districts in Japan. Source: Ministry
of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, 2014.

Flood disaster prevention and land use planning

In last century, the flood prevention work is a responsibility of the River Commission of
the Ministry of Construction. However, this responsibility has already been transported to
the reorganized department, Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, which is also
the land use planning department in Japan in 2001. Therefore, there is no difference
between land use planning instruments and flood risk governance in Japan (Takeuchi,
2002). The high frequency of floods forces the Japan government to consider the flood
prevention carefully during the land use planning. Promotion district for reconstruction
of the disaster stricken urban area is one of the criteria of urban development projects
(Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, 2014).

Effective Flood Management including Basin Responses

This is the policy issued in 2000 December claiming the shift of flood prevention strategy
from river management to basin management. With this policy, the flood risk governance
became part of the land use planning instruments. There are general two reasons why
such a shift is necessary. First, the previous policy would be no longer available to prevent
the floods efficiently. For example, the flood brought by typhoon in August 26 and 31
made the flood discharge reaching 2700 m3/s, which was 5 times higher than the channel
capacity in Central Honshu Island. In Tosa Yamada Town, 1998, 8 people were killed by
flood and over 13000 houses were sinking. Therefore, the traditional measures to reduce
flood damage seems to be not enough. The second reason is the investment. As
mentioned in the beginning of this article, the economical lost because of floods kept in
a relatively high level. The poor prevention result and the low benefit-cost ratio made the
cost of maintenance unacceptable (Takeuchi, 2002).

The major idea of the policy “Effective Flood Management including Basin Responses” is
using multiple basin response measures and non-structural measures to build a “Human
adjustment to floods” living mode. The policy classifies the basin region into 4 categories,
which can be seen in figure 3. Rainfall-runoff area in mountains are the typical forested
mountains and only few people are living in this region. The suggested measures here
are mainly about the storage facilities. The ownerships of private storage facilities are also
advised to move to the public since there is some worries that the private storage facilities
may not work well privately. In addition, the release coordination with the other basin
area is also emphasized. Second region is called as narrow flood plain for riparian rural
villages. In this region, people are more likely to do agricultural activities. The suggested
measures here are open dikes, ring dikes, land elevation et al. The third region is called
as extensive flood plain for vast rural villages. This region is similar to the last one, but
there are two difference. First, the narrow flood plain for riparian rural villages is much
close to mountain area. Second, the area of extensive flood plain for vast rural villages is
much larger. The human activity here is same to that in narrow flood plain for riparian
rural villages. However, since this region is close to the urban area, the suggested
measures here is stricter. The continuous levee system is necessary here. In some regions,
open dikes and secondary dikes which are parallel to the main levees are recommended.
The non-structural measures, the establishment of land use and building regulations, are
also start to be introduced here, which includes the replacement of old buildings and the
application of historical flood data. All these three regions are belonging to the
Urbanization Control Area. The last region is the most important region, because lots
people are living here and the high value of zones. This is the only region belonging to
the Urbanization Promotion Area. The sewage discharge and drainage pumps are
emphasized as the key point in the combined management of sewage with rivers since it
will be helpful to avoid the risk in river. Flood proofing facilities are also necessary in this
region, especially for the life lines, underground facilities and metro facilities. The non-
structural measures, like hazard maps, emergency resources including sandbags and food,
awareness of risk are quite important here because of the population (Takeuchi, 2002).
Figure 3. The four type of land use planning according to Effective Management including
Basin Responses. The blue line represents for river. Information from Takeuchi, 2002,
designed by author.

In conclusion, unlike the previous policy that aim to control flood in rivers, the new policy
considers the whole basin as the prevention area, and suggests different measures
depending on the differences of value and human activities.

Case study: the super levees along the Arakawa river in Tokyo

In this section, the super levees along the Arakawa river is described. Super levee means
a series of high standard river embankment, whose broad width is 30 times as wide as its
height. Such a shape can ensure that even it is overtopped, the water will not get through
the levee because of the slow flows across its top surface (Stalenberg and Kikumori, 2008).
The super levee project is a measure from previous flood prevention strategy. The project
in Tokyo and Osaka started from 1987. 6 super levees were planned along the Arakawa
river. After the long period of construction, it was once abandoned in 2010 by the national
budget because of the new policy and the high cost. Then it was reviewed and adjusted
by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport in 2011. The creation zone of super
levees has been narrowed down to low-lying area or densely built-up areas in large cities,
instead of the whole area that the river goes through. It can be seen that although the
strategy of flood prevention has been shifted, not all previous measures are abandoned
as long as it is suitable for that region. The reason why super levees project is kept is that
the population in low-lying area is quite large (1.8 million), and with the risk of flood in
low-lying area, it is not wise to assume that all people can survive without river control
measures. Until March 2012, there were 58.2 km super levees completed. The necessity
of flood control measures is decided by the local government and in my opinion,
Katsushika city is the one did best among these sites. Apart from the super levee
construction, its governance also designed the area to evacuate from floods. These
evacuation areas are relatively higher compared with the surrounded lower altitude. The
other governance has not considered about the planning for evacuation, which can be
improved because it is part of the non-structural measures (Nakamura, et al., 2013).

In conclusion, because of the new policy strategy in Japan, the super levee is not
considered anymore in the upland. However, in the low-lying area, the necessity of it
cannot be ignored. Besides, governance should also consider other measures to reduce
the damage from flood.

Challenge in future

The environmental change should always be in attention especially for a country like
Japan which are suffering from disaster frequently. One of the evidences implying that
the floods caused by typhoon will increase is the changes of temperature of sea surface
(SSTs). when the SSTs is increasing, the heated air above the sea surface will become
lighter and climbing up quickly. Meanwhile, the cool air surrounded will move to fill the
gap left by climbing warm air, which forms the tropical cyclone, or called typhoon in Japan.
With increasing temperature, the heat exchange will become more intensive. This theory
can be date back to 1951 (Riehl, 1951). The figure 4 shows the change of surface
temperature around Japan in last century. Therefore, it is reasonable to assume that the
floods caused by typhoon will increase in the future. However, the preventions for the
storm floods are hardly to be seen in the adjustment of the policy strategy. Therefore,
the preparation for the floods from storm should be considered carefully for Japanese
governance.
Figure4. the change of sea surface temperature around Japan. Source: JMA,
https://www.data.jma.go.jp/gmd/kaiyou/english/long_term_sst_japan/sea_surface_temp
erature_around_japan.html

Conclusion

This article briefly described the shift of policy strategy about flood prevention. Reasons
and key idea are covered in this article. Meanwhile, the land use planning in Japan is also
described and the relation between land use planning and flood prevention has been
discussed. In the end of the article, the worries about the floods caused by storms are
raised.

Reference list:
JMA (2020). Sea surface temperature (around Japan). Available from:
https://www.data.jma.go.jp/gmd/kaiyou/english/long_term_sst_japan/sea_surface_temp
erature_around_japan.html
Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport (2014). Introduction of Urban Land Use
Planning System in Japan.
Nakamura, H., Kato, T., & Shiozaki, Y. (2013, September). Super levees along the Arakawa
River in Tokyo: Evaluation from the viewpoint of spatial planning in a low-lying area. In
SIT International Conference on Flood Resilience Experiences in Asia and Europe.
Riehl, H. (1951) 'Aerology of tropical storms', Compendium of meteorology: Springer, pp.
902-913.
Srinivas (2016). Land Use Control Regulation in Japan. Available from:
https://www.gdrc.org/uem/observatory/land-regulation.html
Stalenberg B. and Kikumori Y. (2008). Urban Flood Control on the Rivers of Tokyo
Metropolitan. In Graaf, R. D. and Hooimeijer, F. (editors), Urban Water in Japan, Taylor &
Francis Group, London, UK, 119-141.
Takeuchi, K. (2002). Flood management in Japan—from rivers to basins. Water
International, 27(1), 20-26.
Takeuchi, Y., & Shaw, R. (2008). Traditional flood disaster reduction measures in Japan.
Indigenous Knowledge for Disaster Risk Reduction, 23.