The Great East Japan Earthquake and Related Social Media Activities of Religious Groups

This study presents an overview of activities of religious groups (or individuals) in social networking related to the Great East Japan Earthquake of March 11, 2011 and clarifies the present situation and its issues. The most popular SNS in Japan is "Mixi" (established in 2004). Many religious groups have set up their web communities on Mixi, in which users usually discuss and chat. But very few of them work effectively in supplying relief. One possible reason is that users basically prefer anonnymity on the web, which causes them to be unable to consolidate activities in relief. It is hard to say whether Facebook was effective since it is not widespread in Japan (membership in Japan was 5.04 million, 4% of the population, as of Oct. 2011). However one case of a Facebook community established by a Christan pastor shows that there is great potential for religious-based relief by religious organizations in times of disaster; in fact they provided not only material needs, but spiritual ones as well. Although in reality using a web community may not be as effective as perceived, many religious groups beleive that it is beneficial. Furthermore, we need to understand that while manpower and skills are needed in order for these groups to be able to play a supportive role in relief, it is the social networking of a web community on Facebook that enables these groups to continuously facilitate direct connection with others, which in turn strengthens their communal ties.論文/Article