The long-awaited Sendai Subway Tozai (E/W) Line finally started operation in December 2015. The IRIDeS building has become very accessible, with only a three-minute walk from Aobayama subway station. Today, Deputy Director Prof. Makoto Okumura, a specialist on transportation planning, talks about “university and subway.”

Prof. Okumura: “Mt. Aoba where the IRIDeS Building is located in the place renowned feudal warlord Masamune Date chose to build his castle. It was “impregnable,” protected from enemies by Hirose River and sheer cliffs. In our time, however, such geography could work negatively, making the place unapproachable for visitors, especially with traffic jams during tourist periods and with heavy snow in winter.”

“The Subway Tozai Line dramatically changed the situation, however. The subway line could climb the steep mountain, using linear motor technology. There are not many universities that have their main campus directly connected to a major shinkansen station in Japan, and Tohoku University is the only national university like that.”

“Sendai Subway Tozai Line has connected IRIDeS to the Shinkansen and Sendai Airport Line. Now domestic and international visitors can easily come to IRIDeS with no worries of traffic jams and bad weather. Also, they say that subway tends to be disaster resilient as underground structures are shaken monolithically and less damaged when an earthquake occur.”

“After the Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake in 1995 and Niigata Chuetsu earthquake in 2004, major memorial centers were built by local municipalities to pass down disaster memories. Such a center has not yet been built after the Great East Japan Earthquake, however, partly because it was a wide-area mega disaster.”

“In this situation, “Sendai 3.11 Memorial Community Center” (site in Japanese) opened inside Arai subway station, located on the East (seaside) end of Tozai Subway Line. Located also on the same subway line, IRIDeS would like to become an open research institute that helps publicize activities on disaster and disaster risk reduction.

For further information or questions, please contact IRIDeS PR Office:

+81-22-752-2049 or koho-office*irides.tohoku.ac.jp

(Please replace * with @)