The application of an autonomous decentralised system for crisis control - a lesson from the Great East Japan Earthquake

Yasumi Matsumoto

Global Business and Economics Review, 2014, vol. 16, issue 1, 15-25

Abstract: The lack of leadership and crisis management ability revealed whenever Japan suffers a major crisis, such as the Great East Japan Earthquake of 2011, draws serious criticism. In this paper, the reason why the Japanese lack leadership ability and crisis management does not work well is examined in terms of traditional Japanese thought. By means of the examination, we realise that the Japanese nevertheless have an excellent ability to solve concrete problems in front of them effectively and quickly. By combining these features properly, an effective social structure to recover from serious disaster can be created. Since an enormous asymmetry of information exists between central government and the local governments that have suffered from the disaster, the usual political power structure between them should be reversed so that the latter can take charge of recovery management and the former can work to support the latter. This dynamic reversal of the usual political structure works well if we introduce the concept of autonomous decentralised systems, now used worldwide in the industry. This approach may be especially effective as the first policy to be implemented when the social system has suddenly collapsed, but it has not yet received the attention it deserves.

Keywords: lack of leadership; crisis management; autonomous decentralised systems; centralised systems; Great East Japan Earthquake; Japanese earthquake; emergency management; disaster management; traditional thinking; Japanese thinking; information asymmetry; recovery management; central government; local government; political structure reversal. (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2014
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