First, I would like to take this opportunity to extend my condolences and sympathies to the victims struck by this tragedy on March 11, 2011.

The Great East Japan Earthquake was the most powerful earthquake and tsunami ever recorded in Japan and one of the largest in scale recorded in the world. Our service area suffered damage on an unprecedented scale in many regions. The damage to our railway facilities amounted to about 1,200 sites on the Tohoku Shinkansen Line and about 4,400 sites on our conventional lines. That damage was exacerbated in the ensuing aftershocks, and we were forced to suspend operations for a prolonged period on many of those lines. The colossal tsunami formed right after the earthquake severely damaged seven segments of our railway network along the Pacific coast, including parts of the Joban Line and Senseki Line, sweeping away or burying stations, railway tracks and bridge piers. Conditions were particularly severe on the section of the Joban Line near the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station. We have been unable to access the line for repairs because of the fallout from the nuclear incident.

Restoration work for collapsed electric poles on the Tohoku Shinkansen Line

Despite the magnitude of the damage to our railway facilities, we were able to prevent viaduct columns from collapsing as they had in the Kobe area during the Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake. This was thanks to our longstanding efforts reinforcing infrastructure and taking other actions to make our operations more resistant to earthquakes. I believe that the lower level of damage from this disaster reflected the benefits of those efforts. On our Shinkansen lines, 27 trains were running when the earthquake struck, some of those trains at speeds of around 270 km/h in the Sendai area. Nevertheless, not a single train with passengers derailed and there were no passenger injuries. In our analysis, in addition to the structural reinforcements I just mentioned, seismographs installed along the coastline and elsewhere were effective when combined at slowing down the Shinkansen trains a considerable amount before the major shockwaves reached them.Furthermore, JR East employees who were operating trains on conventional lines along the coast stopped their trains immediately when the tsunami warning was issued. Our crews then assisted in evacuating passengers to locations designated by municipalities or to other safe locations. Not a single passenger on our trains when the earthquake struck was killed or injured. We perform training so that our employees know what to do in the event of a catastrophe. This includes responding to a tsunami warning or the occurrence of a tsunami. The benefits of this training were clearly evident during this disaster.

Since its inception, safety has always been JR East's highest priority. We have used a broad range of activities involving both hardware and software expertise in order to enhance safety. I believe the remarkable effectiveness our various safety enhancement initiatives exhibited in this unprecedented disaster proved that JR East's transport systems are extremely reliable, especially with regard to safety.