The 8 year anniversary for the Great East Japan Earthquake is fast approaching and many Japanese who evacuated prior to the destruction and mayhem of the tsunami that accompanied it shortly thereafter still cannot find peace as many of their important documents pre-earthquake are still missing.
Essentially, all municipalities (which comprise of about 42 municipalities), reported that the documents have gone missing or were disposed of due to being too damaged to repair or reclaim.
This has caused many a local to become worried not to mention infuriated because they may have little to no hope of recovering any and all papers they filled up or have accomplished prior to the earthquake and tsunami attack.
Ironically, a month after the dual disaster struck, the Public Records Management Law was passed. It is a law designed to allow the recovery of such documents or the preservation of said documents.
This law was seen as a saviour to the people who suffered losses during the attack and since it was reported that majority of documents were disposed of or lost, many people are criticizing the law and the agency that put it into law.
Strangely, the agency posted a preservation period of the documents. It implies that the documents are given an age limit and once it’s reached, the documents are discarded, regardless of how well it appears to have survived the rushing tsunami waters.
However, some municipalities have declared that none of the documents will be discarded. But they are in the minority of municipalities as majority have either discarded them altogether, planning on discarding them or are preserving them until their age limit is reached.
10 municipalities in the Tohoku region that were struck say that they aren’t preserving the documents at all, implying that they will simply discard them.
Reference: Survey: Many of 42 entities tossed out records from 2011 quake
