After an earthquake, vacant houses are immediately targeted. The story of looting that begins 'immediately' after a disaster

A major earthquake with a maximum seismic intensity of 7 was recorded in Kumamoto Prefecture.
I would like to express my heartfelt sympathy to those affected by the disaster.
When we watch the news about earthquakes, we naturally focus on building collapses, tsunamis, and fires.
The shaking stops, everyone moves to evacuation centers or relatives' homes, and for now, their lives are saved. Thank goodness. ...And we feel like the story is over.

But from that point on, another type of damage begins quietly.

That is burglary and theft targeting houses left unattended.
This is truly the lowest form of behavior that must never be forgiven.
Acts that break the hearts of those who have been affected by a disaster must never be tolerated.

Moreover, this is not a matter that can be dismissed by saying, 'Owners should be careful.' I believe this is a matter that concerns everyone involved in work related to vacant houses.
Real estate, construction, professional services, security, cleaning, demolition, renovation, and even local financial institutions and municipalities.
Today, I would like to think about this together.

It's not that 'the next 1-2 weeks are dangerous,' but that you are targeted immediately after the disaster

When talking about disasters and theft, I feel many people have the image that 'thieves appear when evacuation life drags on.' That we should be careful once things have settled down.

However, when you look at the actual data, that is not the case.

After the previous Kumamoto earthquake, data from the police overseeing the disaster area showed that the number of reported burglaries increased significantly before and after the earthquake.
Records show that when comparing the approximately three and a half months before the disaster to the approximately three and a half months after, there was an increase of about 80%.
Moreover, the damage was concentrated within about three months after the disaster.
In other words, it doesn't increase gradually; it hits all at once in the midst of the chaos.

People move to evacuation centers or relatives' homes, roads and lifelines are in shambles, and no one can return home. That 'time when you cannot return' is the very time you are targeted.

Therefore, honestly, it is already too late to say, 'Let's think about crime prevention after a week has passed.'
At the same time as evacuating, you need to keep crime prevention in the back of your mind.

What is scary is not 'being a vacant house' but 'not being watched by anyone'

This is the point I most want to convey today, so I will say it first.

What is targeted after a disaster is not the vacant house itself.
What is targeted is a house that no one is watching.

Those who commit crimes do not go around marking houses with special symbols. They simply choose houses that look like 'no one has come here for a while' from the outside.

The lights don't turn on at night.
Mail and newspapers are piling up.
Items in front of the entrance remain in the same position for days.
Broken windows or doors remain as they are.
A blue tarp is left peeled back and flapping in the wind.
While surrounding houses are being cleaned up, that one house remains untouched.
And information like 'I'm at an evacuation center' or 'I can't return for a while' is carelessly posted on social media.

With the accumulation of these small signs, the house ends up saying, 'I am defenseless.'

And what makes it troublesome is that the longer the evacuation lasts, the more pronounced these signs become.

In a study conducted by a research team at Nara Women's University targeting victims of the Kumamoto earthquake, it was statistically confirmed that the longer the number of days spent evacuating, the higher the risk of becoming a victim of burglary.
If the evacuation lasts for one month, the risk is about 1.6 times higher, and for two months, it is over 2.7 times higher.
While this is just one research result, the feeling that 'the longer you cannot return, the more dangerous it is' is well-supported.

These three are particularly likely to be targeted

Let's get a little more specific.
Based on my sense of the situation on the ground, the following three patterns are what I consider dangerous.

The first is a family home that was already vacant. These are houses where the owners live far away and cannot go to check on them immediately after an earthquake. Even if windows, roof tiles, or walls are broken, the owners may not even be aware of the fact. Looking from the outside, it is impossible to tell if anyone is managing them. These are the most likely to become 'unwatched houses'.

The second is houses where residents have evacuated for a long period. These are cases where people usually live, but the house has effectively become vacant due to evacuation. Moreover, they often evacuate leaving cash, cars, and tools behind. Even after the Noto Peninsula Earthquake, there were cases of cash and other items being stolen from houses while the residents were evacuated, and the police repeatedly urged people to lock their doors and take their valuables with them.

The third is disaster-stricken houses where the entrance or windows have been broken. These are houses that cannot be locked even if the owner wants to. The entrance is obvious just by looking from the outside, and during periods when cleanup crews and volunteers are coming and going, suspicious movements are harder to spot.

None of this is the 'owner's fault'.
It just so happened that the house ended up in that state after the force majeure of an earthquake. That is all. That is precisely why 'human eyes' from the outside are needed.

It is not just cash and valuables that get stolen

Some people might think, 'Well, they only steal cash, right?' As those of us who work in vacant house management, this is a point we want to emphasize persistently.

Of course, cash, bankbooks, personal seals, and precious metals are targeted. Buddhist altar fittings and antiques, too. But it is not just those things.

Metals are becoming prominent in recent disaster areas.
In the disaster area of the Noto Peninsula Earthquake, incidents were reported where people broke into temples and vacant houses to steal large quantities of metal, such as Buddhist altar fittings and faucets.
The damage involved hundreds of items, totaling tens of millions of yen.
Moreover, the crimes were not one-off events; they were repeated dozens of times while the perpetrators stayed in the disaster area for a long time. Water heaters, outdoor air conditioning units, copper wiring, agricultural machinery, and generators.
It is better to assume that anything easily converted into money will be a target.
This is something that requires caution as it is increasing rapidly even outside of disaster areas.

And the damage does not end with just 'being stolen'.
Windows and doors are broken.
The interior is ransacked.
Once an entry point is created, they will enter repeatedly.
Sometimes it even leads to illegal occupation or fire.
On top of that, once a place has been ransacked, the evidence needed to claim insurance—showing 'this is how it was damaged by the earthquake'—may be lost.

Secondary and tertiary damage piles up on top of the primary damage.

This is where businesses have a role to play

Now, up to this point, we have talked about 'what kind of trouble owners face.' From here on is the main topic for those involved in the vacant house business.

If you list the 'things owners should do' that I just mentioned, most of them are actually tasks that businesses can take on instead.

For example, after a disaster, with the premise that safety of life is the top priority, things owners can do include: documenting the exterior and damage of the building with photos and videos, taking out valuables to the extent possible, covering broken openings with boards or auxiliary locks, informing neighbors of evacuation destinations and contact information, and contacting insurance companies or management firms early.
These are some examples.

The Ishikawa Prefectural Police also provided guidance on emergency crime prevention measures, such as using auxiliary locks or applying door boards to openings if they cannot be locked.

But it is cruel to ask owners who have evacuated far away to do all of this.
Returning alone to a house at risk of collapse is out of the question, and we must absolutely avoid situations where people lose their lives returning to retrieve important household goods during aftershocks.
Risking your life for crime prevention would be putting the cart before the horse.

That is precisely why demand is created here.
While the owner cannot return, someone else watches the house from the outside, records the damage with photos, performs emergency temporary locking, and connects with the police, insurance companies, and construction contractors.
This series of actions is truly an extension of the work of vacant house management.

In normal times, vacant house management focuses on preventing building deterioration, checking mail and plants, and ventilating the property.
You could say it is work to ensure you do not cause trouble for the neighborhood.

But in times of disaster, a role as regional crime prevention infrastructure is added to that.
Checking damage status, checking for signs of illegal entry, temporary locking, photo reporting, connecting with relevant parties, and continuous patrols.

Vacant house management after a disaster is not just a job of protecting the building. It is a job of preventing the house from being in a state of 'not being watched by anyone' while the owner cannot return. That is how I perceive it.

Can we prepare for 'disaster-time vacant house patrols' within our local communities?

Individual measures alone inevitably have their limits. That is why I have been thinking about creating a
system at the community level.

Here is what I imagine it would look like.

During normal times, owners register an emergency contact.
When a disaster occurs, management companies go around to check the exterior of the properties.
With the owner's permission, they perform temporary locking.
They create and share a photo report in a standardized format.
Information about suspicious individuals is shared with the police and neighborhood associations.
If necessary, they temporarily install security cameras or sensor lights.
They prioritize checking homes of elderly people in care facilities and homes owned by people living far away.

This is not just a pipe dream.
After the Noto Peninsula Earthquake, security cameras were installed in areas where residents had evacuated and left their homes, and specialized security teams were dispatched.
Recently, hubs specializing in maintaining public safety in disaster-stricken areas have also begun operating.

However, there is one realistic hurdle here.
Even if the government, police, neighborhood associations, and management companies try to 'suddenly coordinate after a disaster happens,' it will never be in time.
Who holds the keys, who should be contacted and to what extent, and what is the scope of responsibility?
Unless these things are decided during normal times, nothing can be done.

Conversely, businesses and local governments that can establish this system during normal times will become entities that the community truly relies on when the time comes.
I believe this is not only a matter of risk, but also a significant opportunity.

Do not let crime destroy homes that were already damaged by a disaster.

To that end, I believe the time has come to stop viewing vacant house management as just a 'convenient service for normal times' and start rethinking it as 'regional infrastructure for disaster times'.
That is what I think.

▼ Thank you for reading to the end.
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▼How to start a 'Regional Happy Business' through weekend side jobs and weekday multiple jobs
'Your business might just save the region.'
When people hear 'vacant house management,' they tend to think of real estate or construction professionals.
But in reality, it is highly compatible with various industries.
In this series, we introduce 'different industry' jobs that create surprising chemical reactions with vacant house management.
You are sure to find something that sparks an idea within you in 'Different Industry x Vacant House Business'.
Why not start with 'I'm a little interested'? Your intuition might be the first step toward changing the region.

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