Gender Difference on Policy Preference and Social Status: Attitude on Restoration Policy and Nuclear Problem after the Great East Japan Earthquake

The post-disaster restoration and nuclear plant reactivation are important major issues in Japan after the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake. However, the association between these policy preferences and gender or social stratification is not clear. This study uses original survey data from three areas, Fukushima city, Sendai, and Tokyo in 2014 and 2015, to examine the relationship between a person’s social status and his/her policy preferences. Total sample size was 5400 and the response rate was 65%.The main hypothesis is that age, sex, and a person’s social position are related to level of post-disaster policy preference. I consider economic resource, relational resources (having networks with influential people), informational resources (year of education), and some other variables.

On the result, the determinants of view on the pace of restoration are age, sense of social unfairness, gender role value, and political efficacy. Disaster related variables (e.g., evacuation, radiation area dummy) were also significant, as well as residence year. It means local origin people tend to say the pace is slow. There is an effect of age, sex and radiation area on nuclear policy preference. Older people and women are negative for nuclear power. It means older people have stronger memory of nuclear bombs at the World War II and they tend to think much serious about the negative side of nuclear energy. There is a possibility that women’s social network is unique, and they are much concerned for negative effect of radiation problem because they are interested in pregnancy and child care more in general. Possibly women are interested in people who have evacuated from the nuclear power plant are because they have more experience of volunteer work or they have more information about them through friend and social network. I discuss possible causal mechanisms in the results.