The leader of a nonprofit organization called ''Nagaoka information exchange network on living'' is an ''information volunteer'' who played an active part in using a web log to assist victims of the Niigata Chuetsu Earthquake last October.
     Shinji Kuwabara, 47, first became the focus of attention when he started the diary-like Web site to collect and convey information on the magnitude 6.8 quake that struck the central part of Niigata Prefecture on Oct. 23, 2004.
     He also used the blog to seek relief supplies and to recruit volunteers.
     ''Information was a lifeline for the victims (of the earthquake),'' said the IT company employee and director of the NPO group based in Nagaoka city. ''We had to (take action) if the administrative side could not release sufficient information.''
     Kuwabara's network counts about 30 members, including university professors, homemakers and high school students. The group initially came together in April last year to publish an online guide on local entertainment and events.
     Kuwabara said that at the beginning the network had no idea about disaster management.
     They first became involved in an emergency response when in July last year heavy rain caused flooding in the town of Nakanoshima, Niigata Prefecture, damaging buildings and homes, and the group helped out by setting up a simple blog to substitute for the municipality's website, which had gone down in the events.
     The blog could easily be updated with information on the whereabouts and condition of citizens who had been forced to evacuate their homes.
     The Cabinet Office gave the network high marks for its work and announced it a prototype for effective information distribution.
     Based on the know-how the group had acquired from this experience, they were able to spring into action again when the Niigata Chuetsu Earthquake hit last October.
     Two days after the temblor struck they set up a number of emergency blogs for use by volunteer centers, including the emergency headquarters of Yamakoshi village, which had become isolated in the incident.
     The network's Web site enabled anyone to search for information related to the quake.
     The site marked some 20,000 accesses a day including many from people outside the prefecture who wanted to know whether their relatives or friends were safe.
     The blogs also proved effective in reporting the need for relief supplies and volunteers.
     Yutaka Igarashi, 40, took advantage of the network's e-mail system to successfully find someone to take care of Mari, his dog, and her three puppies, which he had to leave behind when he was forced to evacuate from his home in Yamakoshi village.
     The puppies were born shortly before the quake rocked the village but they survived together with the mother dog for 16 days after which Igarashi briefly returned home and appealed for help via the Web site.
     Now living with Mari at his temporary home, Igarashi has learned the convenience of the Internet. ''When I posted (on the network's blog) that I had a ''kotatsu'' heater (to give away), I was able to have it delivered (to someone).''
     He said information technology can pick up residents' needs no matter how small they may be.
     Toshinari Nagasaka of the National Research Institute for Earth Science and Disaster Prevention said information on disasters used to be relayed in ''a top-down'' manner in which the administrative side conveyed it to the affected people.
     However, the effort by the Nagaoka information network led to the establishment of a new system capable of issuing information from the victims' perspective and enabling people to help one another, said the chief researcher at the independent administrative agency in Ibaraki Prefecture.
==Kyodo