Changes in Population Migration Patterns in the Tohoku Region Due to the Great East Japan Earthquake Disaster

This chapter uses official statistics to investigate how the Great East Japan Earthquake Disaster changed population migration patterns in the Tohoku Region in the short and long term. Using the Report on Internal Migration in Japan, we compared changes in population migration patterns in the Tohoku Region between 2010 and 2011 by prefecture. The results showed that the out-migration rate decreased in the Aomori, Iwate, Akita, and Yamagata Prefectures and increased in the Miyagi and Fukushima Prefectures. Women in the Fukushima Prefecture migrated much farther than men. The population censuses were used to study the changes in the population migration patterns in the Tohoku Region from 2010 to 2015 by prefecture and municipality. As a result, the number of out-migrants to outside of the Tohoku region from the Fukushima Prefecture increased by more than 20,000 people.