Author: Daniel P Aldrich

The benefits of Japan’s social infrastructure and civic ties in uncertain times

Source(s): East Asia Forum
Aerial view of people walking in Japan
ultramansk/Shutterstock

Until recently, it may have been hard for the average person to grasp how deadly and damaging disasters and shocks can be. No longer. Few anywhere in the world have emerged from the past year and a half without a strong appreciation of the impact of the global COVID-19 pandemic. Along with COVID-19 taking more than 4.5 million lives and upending health systems, business revenue and global logistics, other acute and long-term shocks and stressors have affected communities around the world, including bushfires in Australia, North America and Europe, lethal heatwaves in Oregon, and mudslides in Japan.

Policymakers often respond to disasters by falling back on standard responses involving physical infrastructure and megaprojects. Extreme weather events such as flooding and heatwaves are among the most common disasters. In Japan, central and regional government officials have pushed for the construction of massive concrete seawalls and tetrapods to protect coastal communities.

Japan is one among many nations that instinctively turn to such solutions when seeking to mitigate climate change and rising seas. Venice relies on Project MOSE with its inflatable floodgates to reduce flooding in La Serenissima. Boston considered a US$11 billion seawall to try to reduce the impact of regular flooding during king tides.

Politicians and bureaucrats rely on the standard approach of building physical infrastructure in response to disasters for several reasons. First, physical infrastructure provides a visible, tangible symbol of ‘doing something’ for those seeking re-election. Second, cost benefit analyses can more easily estimate the outcome of a physical structure than less tangible projects. Third, the construction industry has a strong and successful history of successful lobbying for new work. Fourth, alternative, non-physical infrastructure approaches such as citizen research, community budgeting, and civic engagement come with longer time horizons.

Civic infrastructure and social infrastructure play critical roles in crisis management. Civic infrastructure is made up of bonding, bridging and linking social ties. Bonding ties are connections between similar friends and family. Bridging ties are connections to people different in some way, through institutions like schools, workplaces and places of worship. Linking social ties are vertical ties to those with power and authority.

Social infrastructure comprises the libraries, parks, nature walks, community health facilities, public schools, transportation networks and pools that help people interact and build trust and civic infrastructure. There are three critical reasons why these types of connections and infrastructure are important — perhaps even more important than the physical infrastructure communities fall back on to protect themselves from disasters.

First, strong civic and social infrastructure allow societies to overcome collective action problems. That is, challenges that require people to work together even though they may have their own interests to consider. When the 1995 Kobe earthquake triggered massive fires across the city, some affected neighbourhoods were able to self-organise to fight the fires.

Everyone has experienced a collective action problem at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic when health authorities asked people to wear masks. While a relatively minor burden, mask wearing is most effective when almost everyone does it. When citizens trust the public experts and the efficacy of the advice they provide, it is easier for people to cooperate willingly.

Second, strong civic and social infrastructure better guarantee the provision of mutual aid and informal insurance during shocks when standard providers of assistance may be out of service or unable to assist. Japan’s Fukushima nuclear meltdowns showed that people with stronger ties to neighbours significantly reduced their overall levels of stress and anxiety when compared with those without such networks. Similarly, tighter knit communities along the Tohoku coast were able to help the elderly and infirm reach high ground, measurably reducing mortality.

Third, civic infrastructure serves as a critical component in disaster management is because of its ability to provide trusted information through bonding, bridging and linking social ties. While a random voice on the radio may have little influence on behaviour, people are much more likely to pay attention if a trusted friend or family member provides advice.

Before and during disasters, authorities try to push out a tremendous amount of information to motivate effective responses to crises. Before hurricanes and floods arrive, for example, officials want people in vulnerable areas to evacuate. Individuals with broader, more diverse networks are more likely to be evacuated from areas about to be hit by hurricanes than people with smaller, more insular ones. Trust between residents in Japan and authorities also helped reduce initial outbreaks of COVID-19 as people followed the health guidelines set down by the government.

In the United States, President Joe Biden’s infrastructure investment plan recognises the failing state of much of the national physical infrastructure, and observers have pointed out that Japan’s physical infrastructure also needs investment. But governments — including that in Japan, which ranks among the lowest of the advanced industrial democracies in terms of its social capital — also need to invest in social infrastructure. Japan, for example, has lower rates of volunteering than most other OECD nations. We have seen too clearly the consequences when societies lack horizontal and vertical trust.

Even in post-conflict communities such as Nicaragua and in impoverished communities in South Africa, systemic interventions can create higher levels of social capital. Through investment in bottom-up, community-driven programs such as Japan’s Ibasho program, residents and neighbourhoods can build social capital and resilience against future shocks. Through constructing and upgrading public-use facilities and through supporting non-government organisations and civil society organisations, there can be better preparation for shocks to come.

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