A STUDY ON ORGANIZING AND EVOLVING “KAGUTEN” MOVEMENTS, INCLUDING ANTI-FURUNITURE-DOWNFALL ACTIVITIES BASED ON STUDENTS' VOLUNTEER

Abstract

The present Japanese code for resist-seismic-load requires that ordinary buildings have to behave elastically during level-1 earthquakes, and as collapse-free structures against level-2. On the other hand, there have been some reports on the events of heavy-furniture-downfalls in buildings even level-1 earthquakes. Such the furniture downfalls could cause the serious accidents resulting in injury or death. The movement called the “KAGUTENBOU-TAI” based on students' volunteer work has been launched about half and two years ago for the purpose of preventing heavy-furniture-downfalls during level-2 earthquakes. In this paper, we reported on the philosophy, history and estimation of this movement, and also discussed its challenges and foresight for the future.