Disaster Countermeasures amid Population Decline

Abstract

Japan is highly exposed to natural disasters, and we are experiencing a rapid decline in population. But we have invested heavily in rural areas to establish infrastructure for preventing and mitigating disaster risks. If we continue this investment policy in an era marked by decreasing population, our disaster countermeasure system will prove to be very inefficient. We must change our investment policy in the near future to reconstruct the dangerous zones in metropolitan areas to benefit agglomeration economies.