Analysis of Consumer Behavior in the Tokyo Metropolitan Area after the Great East Japan Earthquake

Rolling blackouts and commodity shortages profoundly disturbed the lives of citizens in the Tokyo metropolitan area following the Great East Japan Earthquake. Further, negative images of produce suspected of being contaminated by radioactivity from the nuclear accident continue to plague Japan′s agricultural sector. This study attempts to assist future disaster management plans by investigating the causes of and factors behind consumer behavior that manifests itself in such problems. A survey of adult female residents of Chiba City conducted in April, 2011, one month following the earthquake, is qualitatively and quantitatively analyzed. Our findings indicate consumers who are more likely to act problematically by stocking or delaying purchases tended to be younger, full-time housewives, who were unprepared for disasters, but had experienced emergency situations (such as shortages or blackouts), and who felt a sense of concern and anxiety about radioactive contamination at large. A vicious cycle, in which excessive media coverage was focused on the stockpiling behavior of only a minority of consumers, heightened market demands and perpetuated stockpiling, is also noted.