54 Months on: Ishinomaki Still in Transition

By this September 11th four and a half years have passed since the Great East Japan Earthquake, as make us realize how quickly time flies.

Ishinomaki, though worst affected by the earthquake, is now recovering. The renovation work on schools in the city have finished, and so students have moved from awkward makeshift classrooms to their reborn schools, returning to their normal school lives. The city’s key industry, fishery, has recovered to the extent that its fish haul reached as high as 80 percent of pre-quake level. To support the industry Ishinomaki fish market was reconstructed and now reborn into a world-class market. With the construction of coast infrastructure and housing for affected people proceeding at a fast pace, many support organizations are seen to take initiative to boost local development.

【Minato elementary school underwent aseismic reinforcement work】



【Ascidian harvest at the Oshika Peninsula】



While efforts to construct 4,500 public housing units for affected people by 2017 are now underway in Ishinomaki, there are still 133 cramped temporary quarters where as of August 1, 4,988 households are suffering many inconveniences. Temporary quarters are becoming empty every day as people continue moving to the public housing units to settle in new neighborhoods. The difference between neighborhoods that are ready to brace these people and ones that are not is becoming visible, which is presenting a new challenge.

【Nakasu, Ishinomaki City】



【Recently Completed Public Housing Units for Affected People(Uploaded Image)】



It’s said that the local government has no plan to integrate temporary quarters within this year, but people fear that necessity impels it to hasten the plan

You can see Ishinomaki continue developing day by day, but people living in the disaster stricken areas feel like “we have a long way to go to return to normal.” JEN will continue supporting locals until they can live with peace of mind.



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